Road Angel - EE[BT] 2G London Coverage Poor

Guivre46 · Last edited by Guivre46 on Wed Oct 28, 2015 11:29 pm; edited 10 times in total

The Orange signal covering my home seems to have become much weaker recently, with some problems connecting my Vantage. When I drive a 100yards from home I get a connection. Could it be something to do with the 3 and Orange merger, has my local Orange mast been decommissioned possibly?

Edit: T-mobile not 3
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IanS100 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 1:44 pm Post subject:

I don't know how up to date it is but search your postcode here:

http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/search
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Guivre46 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 2:09 pm Post subject:

Thanks IanS100, I'd found that site and intended to see how the 3 mast and Orange mast compared. The 3 mast is twice as far away but taller. if the signal has swithched to 3, possibly the terrain and buildings now put me in a signal 'shadow'. There is a much clearer line of sight to the Orange mast.

Edit: T-mobile not 3
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Mike R [aka Wyvern46]
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IanS100 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 2:20 pm Post subject:

I may be wrong but as far as I can see, if you're on an Orange contract your phone will automatically favour Orange masts, even if they have lower signal strength to a T Mobile mast. My house has a low signal strength for Orange but OK for T Mobile and before they renamed everything EE my phone would always log on to Orange, but I could at least manually change to the stronger T Mobile, but now everything is called EE and I'm stuck with whatever my phone can find, which is often terrible.
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Guivre46 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 3:19 pm Post subject:

Well I can get a weak signal if I use the bathroom windowsill. When I first got the device it had to be commissioned by leaving it on for 24 hours with a good view of the sky. The groundfloor patio doors where I left it then, no longer gets an Orange mobile signal.

Who did Orange tie up with? I thought it was 3?

Edit: Orange shacked up with T-mobile - sorry.
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IanS100 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 6:25 pm Post subject:

They now like to be know as EE, an abbreviation of the somewhat optimistic "Everything Everywhere"
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Guivre46 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 7:15 pm Post subject:

Or in my case 'Nothing Somewhere'.
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Mike R [aka Wyvern46]
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253 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 8:27 pm Post subject:

Probably not relevant to your post, but for what it's worth anyway.
I used to be on Orange, but the cover around my home was not good either, kept going from 3 bars to nil whenever I made or received a call. Reported dozens of time to Orange and best advice I was given was to stand near a window - ha ha.
Anyway, I changed to Vodafone and no problems for 3 years now.

I have a tracking device fitted to my bike by Road Angel, and it has an Orange chip in it.
Guess what? Alarms about once a week to say that it is out of contact with the bike. Appears that nothing has improved over the last 3 years.

To be fair, it's probably the same all over the country with all the networks.

That's my story.
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Guivre46 · Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 10:14 pm Post subject:

If the signal was like this when I bought the Vantage, I'd have had problems getting it initialised. I suppose I'd have had to find a friend with a decent signal, and left it there for 24 hours!! That's if I realised it was a signal problem not a faulty device!!!
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Mike R [aka Wyvern46]
Go 530T - unsupported
Go550 Live [not renewed]
Kia In-dash Tomtom

Guivre46 · Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 11:17 pm Post subject:

I'm an idiot for not reading the huge number of complaints about poor signal reception since the formation of EE from Orange + T-mobile. I now do not have any signal from any part of my home/garden. On Tuesday I had to drive 2 miles to pick it up, but it did then keep it to High Wycombe and back. Finally lost again about half a mile from my home on return.

Don't know how much of a coverage issue for Road Angel this will be until I've done a few longer trips, but it needs considering by anyone thinking about a purchase.
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Mike R [aka Wyvern46]
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Kia In-dash Tomtom

253 · Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 10:09 am Post subject:

Didn't catch it all because I don't usually watch the programme. But Watchdog did a bit on Orange (EE) last night - Wed.

Loads of complaints countrywide, and one bloke who had a bill for tens of thousands of pounds for supposed internet connections.

Like I say, only saw the last 30 secs or so, so I don't know what it was all about. Maybe someone else saw it.
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IanS100 · Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 1:03 pm Post subject:

253 · Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 3:26 pm Post subject:

Guivre46 · Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 3:58 pm Post subject:

No the web is full of tales of either Orange or T-mobile masts being removed and often mediocre reception has become non-existent. I particularly like the story about a village where everyone now has to go up a nearby hill to get mobile reception.

The only hope seems to be that EE plans to increase mast height to improve coverage - I've just started to hold my breath.
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Mike R [aka Wyvern46]
Go 530T - unsupported
Go550 Live [not renewed]
Kia In-dash Tomtom

Tomo · Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 1:40 pm Post subject:

Quite a lot of Orange masts have been removed since the joining with Tmobile. Makes sense as it cuts down the number of sites, saves money etc. Why bother having two sites close together when there is not a need for them in most cases.

Orange and Tmobile built their networks at around the same time and often located their sites close to each other.

If, you can show that there is a lack of coverage in your house since a certain date, that would hopefully match up with the mast decommission then there is every chance that Orange/EE will let you terminate your contract or provide you with a Signal Box.

The process normally is to 'soft decomm' a site for a while and see how many complaints they get in that area. Depending on the impact of this, they can then decide on further action. IE, switch it back on, continue with the decomm, optimise other local sites, offer the signal boxes to affected customers etc.

The best thing you can do is to speak to Orange and see what they have to say. If you can get the right person, they will help. Some of their staff wont know about the signal box though, you may to push for that. Note though, that it only gives a 3G signal in your house, not 2G, so if you only need it for a gadget that uses a 2G sim it wont help.

Feel free to PM is you need any further info

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