The Uk 3G network....

nichorob · 30 Apr 2010 at 17:11

I don't seem to ever lose 3G on o2. But then again I am in London.

Spitfir3 · 30 Apr 2010 at 18:13

I remember in France (on holiday) we were in southern france in some valley, in the countryside in some little obscure small village and I was getting full 3g! Got it everywhere over there... pity it was £3 per mb!

Yeah it truly sucks in the UK.. even in Liverpool it's patchy. I really hope they upgrade it.. it'd be awesome streaming TV/radio in the car..

b0rn2sk8 · 30 Apr 2010 at 21:15

No-One said:
You're just down the road from me. I'm in Oakham. Similar situation though. Only time I ever get 3g is when I'm in P'boro or Leicester

That's not really a surprise, though I have found Vodaphone 3g to be patchy at best outside and nothing inside. O2 was better here coverage wise I think.

If you check the maps though, peterborough is covered, but there's a big void around the outlying villages.

Nocky24 · 1 May 2010 at 10:05

I think o2 operate a quality rather than quantity type of 3G service. I get much better penetration in buildings on my o2 than my sister does on her orange mobile. However the orange phone does seem to get better coverage if we go outside built up areas. I think it depends where you live and where you mainly use 3G that should determine which network provider you go with. I live near Birmingham so o2 does me very nicely indeed.

steveo · 1 May 2010 at 10:11

FishFluff said:
O2's 3G coverage in Leeds is pretty patchy. If anyone from Leeds has any experience with other networks I'd love to know so I can switch

was in leeds the other day and the 3g just popped up every other street it was weird, we finally got 3g in ripon on o2 at least few month back solid signal for about 5mile then it stops

Xinn · 1 May 2010 at 11:20

Nocky24 said:
I think o2 operate a quality rather than quantity type of 3G service. I get much better penetration in buildings on my o2 than my sister does on her orange mobile.

Quite the opposite for me at work. My colleague sitting next to me can only get Edge on O2 and I get full 3G on Orange.

Nocky24 · 1 May 2010 at 12:21

R34P3R said:
Quite the opposite for me at work. My colleague sitting next to me can only get Edge on O2 and I get full 3G on Orange.

Must be area specific i guess. I know i've been to certain places and i've checked her phone and what you've said is true. I definitely think o2 should up their coverage soon though. Its great around where i live, which is fine for me. However for anyone that travels a lot i can imagine it being pretty annoying. I know ofcom was putting pressure on them to up their coverage last year, but are they going to do anything about it?

bigredshark · 1 May 2010 at 16:57

Nocky24 said:
I think o2 operate a quality rather than quantity type of 3G service.

Between an o2 iphone and 3G dongle from work I've used o2 an awful lot for mobile internet and the word 'quality' should not ever be used to describe anything about the service. It's easily the worst I've used by quite a distance.

Caged · 1 May 2010 at 17:49

I have the same issues, I can see myself jumping ship to Vodafone as I come to rely on my phone more and more. O2 are fine if you're just messing about but you can't rely on them as a network IMO.

Jokester · 1 May 2010 at 17:57

I'm on O2 with my iPhone, don't think I've ever even see my phone connect to 3G, best I've seen is Edge.

1kiwi · 1 May 2010 at 20:46

darkgen said:
I feel I must also vent a little regarding o2's 3g coverage.

You would expect London to be pretty much saturated but no. Not only is 3g patchy in the suburbs but also centrally. On a train journey from east to west london, straight through the middle I count it lucky to even constantly get an edge signal.

At worse I get no service whatsoever (Putney) to only on occasion actually getting a 3g signal that lasts more than 5 minutes before dropping to a slower network.

Bah, Paul.

I find the reception to be OK, but the bandwidth, even with full bars is rubbish at peak.

Andybtsn said:
Well where I live I don't get any 3G signal with o2, once my contract ends I will be jumping ship to Orange. It's really frustrating that I can drive a few miles out of where I live and the smallest village will pick up 3G.

o2's 3G coverage in the UK is really quite pathetic.

You know Orange UK will be T-Mobile very soon...

Andybtsn · 1 May 2010 at 20:56

beh* said:
You know Orange UK will be T-Mobile very soon...

I'm not particular fussed, I just want a provider that can offer me 3G and a decent customer service. Orange did that before my move to O2. I will assess who I move to when my contract is nearing an end.

Mattus · 3 May 2010 at 00:51

O2's 3G is absolute turd in Oxford. Rare that I get more than one or two bars, even outside. Annoyingly, where I live (about half a mile from the city centre) I can just about get a very weak 3G signal. It causes my iPhone to repeatedly switch between 3G and GPRS even if it's sitting in the same place. This hammers the battery, so I've just turned 3G off.