Vodafone worried?

[RFR937]

I had one of the more comic salesman calls ever earlier today, normally I'm the one that would hang up on random cold calls from service providers but today was a new experience. Vodafone called to talk about renewing my soon to expire contract, I'd just started to explain to the salesman that as Vodafone couldn't even offer me a 3G connection as yet and that with EE promising 4G in the very near future I was minded to not renew my long standing association with Vodafone, I'd hardly uttered the words EE when he hung up on me , now that's gotta be a first? Just wondering how many times he'd heard that from a Shetland resident in the last few days, pure comedy! On a more serious note ,maybe it will make them stop taking us pain in the butt peripheral customers a bit more seriously?

Edited March 9, 2016 by RFR937

[tooney1]

On a similar note, what is the EE signal like now for early adopters? I'm currently on O2.

[Symbister]

The best coverage maps seem to be on the Ofcom site at:

 

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-coverage

 

Vodafone's and O2's 2G coverage is better than EE's, particularly in Unst, Yell and Fetlar.  Three has coverage in the central mainland. 

 

However, in most other parts of Shetland, EE offers 3G as standard.  EE will shortly offer 4G throughout Shetland, because they've won the Home Office emergency services contract, which requires a solid signal pretty much everywhere. The first 4G cell will be on Bressay, this summer.

 

I stuck with Vodafone until this week, mainly because of their SureSignal box, which gave me a good 3G signal at home.  But there seems to be no immediate prospect of 3G on Vodafone, unless you're in range of one of their femtocells, for example in Walls.  In fact, Vodafone has virtually no 3G north and west of Inverness. 

 

EE offers a wifi phone connection on all recent iPhones - and on other phones if they're sold by EE, which replaces the SureSignal box.  I've switched to EE and got what feels like a pretty good deal on a new iPhone 5s - around £13 a month with 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 500mb data.  That's only about £3 more than I was paying Vodafone for sim-only.  I'll fire up an old Vodafone PAYG Nokia if I'm heading for the north isles, until EE get their new cells up and running.

[hjasga]

The best coverage maps seem to be on the Ofcom site at:

 

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-coverage

 

Vodafone's and O2's 2G coverage is better than EE's, particularly in Unst, Yell and Fetlar.  

 The maps definitely aren't accurate if that's what they say. My O2 phone almost never has signal in the North Isles (a couple of spots in Yell and occasionally on higher points in Unst, but otherwise useless), so I bought a cheap EE PAYG that works just about everywhere. I haven't used a Vodafone phone in either but from what I hear they're not as good as EE.

[Romeo]

I was always with Vodafone and then moved over to GiffGaff (O2) which gave me 3G in the town and decent enough coverage elsewhere.  I've now moved over to EE and the difference is huge, far far better signal than any other network.  3G in places I'd not expected, Brae for example.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Romeo

[Spinner72]

HI all. Is anyone else perplexed by the news that Vodafone has apparently turned on 4G in Lerwick?

 

I saw no difference in town yesterday afternoon, and I have yet to get a 3G signal on Vodafone anywhere in Shetland other than Walls! 

 

Is this just me?

[MuckleJoannie]

The 4g upgrade is a joint venture between O2 and Vodafone. They have upgraded two masts, Lerwick and Weisdale. I managed to get 4g on my Vodafone phone yesterday coming out of Lerwick coming down the side of Dale which I presume came from Weisdale. I suspect in Lerwick it is the O2 mast that has been upgraded.

 

I saw someone say on Facebook that they'd contacted Vodafone and been told Lerwick will be upgraded in 3 months.

[Frances144]

Is this it?  Is this how they (whoever they are) define mobile coverage of Shetland?  Do "they" think that Shetland now has a mobile signal everywhere?

 

(same with broadband - ditto the argument - I have seen snails move faster)

[MuckleJoannie]

If you search for communications on the SIC planning website there are several applications for masts all over Shetland to do with EE's installation of 4g. All the operators are saying they would complete their upgrades in 2017,

[MuckleJoannie]

Vodafone's "misunderstanding" over 4g announcement.

 

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/13505-4g-or-not-4g-vodafone-s-misunderstanding

[tooney1]

As an EE early adopter, initially excited by the shetnews article of imminent mast upgrades to start this summer, which never did, I'm pretty disappointed with them.

 

The postcode signal checker on their website produces fictious results. I get no signal at the house, but they did send a free signal box (don’t buy one off ebay - that was another saga). Lerwick is also poor, with generally a 1-2 bar signal.

 

The other thing they promote is wifi calling (when no signal it can automatically use wifi instead), but this is only achievable if you buy the phone from them with their own firmware, unless you have an iphone (which cant have custom firmware so they have to give it away there).

 

Wouldnt recommend.