Network issues with Three

[Pepi]

I have experienced quite bad coverage recently both indoors and outdoors when travelling which is quite annoying.I usually used to  receive an email from Three about any planned network disturbances in the area but not in the last  few months.I was wondering if this is an issue nationwide or is just in East of England?

[sc1999]

I am in rural Herefordshire and I returned to 3 after a bad experience with EE and 3's coverage is not as good as it used to be. It's better than EE was when I left but not as good as EE when I joined them. I used to get emails almost daily saying that EE were having problems. When I spoke to their customer service they denied that there were problems. 

I think networks are struggling in certain areas with lack of bandwidth due to the increase in mobile data usage. I used to work in the mobile radio industry and we were often installing new base stations to give customers more bandwidth. 

[Pepi]

It could be really related to the lack of bandwidth as the customers are getting more and more these days.For example in a store I don’t have any coverage at all and if I need a phone I definitely need to use store’s own network which I avoid doing whenever possible.

[Smanf]

I have intermittent problems with my 3 coverage in Yorkshire too. Often I can only get 3G and not 4G and sometimes I struggle to get a signal at all. It's definitely worse than it used to be 😞

[Pepi]

I absolutely agree.Years ago the coverage was much better.Now it constantly changes between 3G and 4G while in some places the connection drops completely (all the supermarkets,most other stores,most friends houses,outside as well.Really annoying!

[Smanf]

Yes, supermarkets are a nightmare for me too!

[sc1999]

Bandwidth is not what causes lack of signal in buildings. A supermarket has more space, walls and lots of metal and metal blocks signals. The best solution for large buildings require repeaters, antennae and lots of cabling. My last employer retrofitted terminals 3 and 5 at Heathrow which took several months and bucket loads of cables, equipment and paperwork. Individual shops won't splash the cash as they don't expect customers to be in store long enough for it to matter.