Reduced signal around Teddington Lock

[David H]

I have been getting a full mobile signal on T Mobile and then Virgin around Teddington Lock in Ham for around 20 years, a few weeks ago it dropped to marginal and has not changed since, swinging between one bar and zero. I was hoping the local transmitter was down and it was connecting to the next closest one till it was fixed, but I don't think that would take three weeks plus. Has anyone else come across their signal falling drastically along the river there?

There are similar issues all over the country where EE, which runs T-Mobile and Orange networks, and carries Virgin Mobile service, has combined its physical networks and then started switching off towers that (in its opinion) are duplicating coverage of the same areas. As a result, new blackspots have popped up all over the place.

I can't say with any authority that this is what has happened to you but it is definitely a familiar pattern.

[David H]

That's a retrograde move, robbing Peter to pay Paul really. Don't their meters tell them where they've put large areas into a black hole and may lose customers as a result? If I lived there the whole time I'd let them know and say I was leaving unless they fixed it, and hopefully many other people already have. That's no way to serve the public.

Originally Posted by David H

That's a retrograde move, robbing Peter to pay Paul really.

That sounds like a plan to me.

[Matthew]

Get on the phone and complain, I have found EE to be helpful if you get on their case, sometimes they do not realise there is a problem or how severe it is if people don't get onto them.

[David H]

I sent them an email and got a very nice reply saying they hadn't removed any aerials round there (their map had one opposite at Teddington Lock which would do the job easily), and had had problems reported for a while and were working on it. How a single aerial can take well over two months and still not be sorted is a bit of a mystery to me but the good news is it won't be forever. The signal's still on one bar but isn't dropping out as often but clearly not right yet.

Thanks for the update. A knackered tower is definitely better than one they've decided they don't need. Even if it takes a while to fix, at least you know it's going to be fixed.

[Hom3r]

Well I like in Harlow and work in Stansted, both in Essex.

Before the merger I got a strong signal, now it's beyond a loch joke, my phone spends about 40% of the day without a signal.

Plus the fact I'm still waiting for the to release KK for the HTC One (M7) despite the fact my sister who has the same phone (but it's unlocked but on T-Mobile) has had 2 updates.

So come May 2015 I'm taking my cash and going elsewhere.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by David H

I sent them an email and got a very nice reply saying they hadn't removed any aerials round there (their map had one opposite at Teddington Lock which would do the job easily), and had had problems reported for a while and were working on it. How a single aerial can take well over two months and still not be sorted is a bit of a mystery to me but the good news is it won't be forever. The signal's still on one bar but isn't dropping out as often but clearly not right yet.

I've seen one case that took four years

[David H]

Just an update, this is Virgin and Orange as neither phones now get more than 1 bar and that's intermittent, it does appear their concern with actually providing a national and local signal is secondary to their profit motive by some way, and the four year story may be under a challenge here, so they are probably standing on the contract term recently discovered by Watchdog which doesn't guarantee reception indoors at home as it's only for mobile use. However, if you go outside of course the signal isn't any different so I'm not sure how far from home it covers before you can claim, plus as there's an intermittent signal presumably from the nearest working aerial it covers all their requirements even though a conversation beyond a minute is almost impossible, assuming they can actually hear you at all when they do connect. Sending a text is also a challenge, it often needs a few tries to resend as there's no network coverage.

[Ben B]

Do you have any phones in your household on contract with EE, T-Mobile or Orange? If so you could ring them and say you've had a large loss of signal and request for them to send you a signal box which will at least give you indoor coverage and will work with your VM Mobile too

[David H]

That's how I found out, but both are PAYG. They insisted they hadn't removed one of the two due to the merger, but there was a fault on one and it was being worked on, it's almost a year now. Virgin's up to one bar now most of the time (from 3-4) but Orange doesn't seem any different. I may switch to the new Virgin contract though but not at that address so probably won't change anything for me.