"Three" having big "Mobile Phone" and "Wifi-Calling" problems in the UK right now.

[Skylark001]

About a week ago the reliability of "Three" for sending and receiving texts plummeted.  Instead of texts going and coming within seconds of being sent, nothing happened, but occasionally I would receive a "dump" of texts - long after their senders had sent them to me.

I have talked to people at "Three" and they have blamed my broadband provider!  But my broadband service is perfect.  My broadband provider has assured me that its broadband connection to my home is ready and willing to send and receive any texts and calls.

I signed up to "Three" because "Three" offers "Wifi-Calling", which, just like "Skype", and "Messenger", sends and receives calls and texts by way of the Internet, wherever you are connected to wifi.  This is very useful if you have no mobile reception where you are.

Look at sites like "Down Detector" and it's obvious that lots of people in the UK are getting haphazard reception from "Three" at the moment, but nobody I have chatted with at "Three" admits that "Three" has a severe problem right now.  It would help a bit if "Three" were to admit that it has problems.  At least we would then believe that they are trying to fix them.  As things are going right now, who knows if anything is being done, and when normal service at "Three" will be resumed.

Meanwhile I am stuck far out in the countryside where there is zero mobile reception and where I depend upon "Wifi-Calling" working reliably, particularly so that I can receive security codes from my bank and from many other companies.  For example, I need to buy some products necessary for health, but I can't log-in to certain websites without receiving a security code on my mobile phone.  Lots of companies won't send security codes by email, or to a landline: they insist that for security reasons their security codes have to go to one's mobile phone.  But "Three" has stopped passing on companies' security codes instantly by text.  Security codes have to be used within 10 minutes of their having been sent, but "Three" is currently sending them to me hours late, whenever they send me a "dump" of late texts.

This really is infuriating.  Very soon I will probably transfer to another carrier.

[StephR]

Hey Skylark001,

Thanks for joining us here at Three Community. I’m sorry you’ve had trouble receiving texts recently, I totally appreciate what an inconvenience that must be.

We don’t have any nationwide issues with any of our services at the moment. However, if you pop your postcode into our network status checker, you can check for issues or updates happening in your area. Have a look and let us know what you see there.

Text messages require mobile signal, but RCS and iMessage allow for your message to be sent via data (whether that’s your mobile data or a Wi-Fi signal). Are you having any trouble accessing other data services, like browsing the internet? Do your messages send if you turn mobile data off completely and connect only to your Wi-Fi signal?

Let us know and we'll do all we can to help.

StephR

[Skylark001]

@StephR, thanks for your reply of 2 weeks ago.  I didn't get an alert saying you had replied.  So I have only just now found your reply, by chance.

The problem continues.  Making and receiving calls works at all times via Wifi-Calling, but receiving texts is erratic and chaotic.  Sometimes a text is delivered to me seconds after it has been sent, but sometimes I receive a dump of dozens of texts all in one go! 

Whatever is responsible for despatching texts to my phone the moment I connect to Wifi-Calling has gone haywire.

This has been the case for a month now.  But for eleven months (prior to the last month) I received texts instantly (provided I had connected via wifi-calling so as to be open for any texts there might be for me).

I have had numerous chats with Three assistants on Chat and on the phone over the last months, and they just don't understand that there is a problem with whatever Three uses to despatch texts.  Something at Three's end needs to NOTICE when my phone has been switched into Wifi-Calling mode, and to then send me any texts waiting to be despatched to me.

My partner's carrier is EE, so we share the same broadband provider and the same router, but when my partner switches on Wifi-Calling any texts waiting to be delivered (to my partner) are instantly delivered!  This has been the case while Three has been failing to instantly pass me texts.

It's a despatch problem, somewhere in the text network. 

[thomas-three]

, thanks for your reply of 2 weeks ago.  I didn't get an alert saying you had replied.  So I have only just now found your reply, by chance.

My previous post was more to three employee than to you. Three still have the same problems with network which they had two weeks ago.

The problem continues.  Making and receiving calls works at all times via Wifi-Calling, but receiving texts is erratic and chaotic.  Sometimes a text is delivered to me seconds after it has been sent, but sometimes I receive a dump of dozens of texts all in one go! 

It is depends what you mean when you are talking about “..receiving texts…”.
Do you mean?
1/ “Ordinary” SMS (Short Message Service) – green background on iPhone,
2/ “text messages” using Internet traffic – blue background on iPhone,
3/ any other text communicator which using Internet traffic.

I asking because case from point 1/ is different than cases from points 2/ and 3/.
For SMS in cellular networks is separate protocol. For “text messaging” which using Internet traffic are “normal” UDP or TCP protocols.

BTW, Wifi-Calling is based on UDP and this kind of traffic should be definitely prioritized. But, three network still have problem with more than 50% lost packages ;-).

In my opinion answer is simply. Three network is overloaded. Overloaded on all levels (“last mile” – I mean connection between three’s device/SIM and telecommunication tower; internal three’s network; three’s connection with Internet).
Solutions?
1/ If about 50% of three customers will leave them, situation should be better.
2/ If three will make a few investments in “their” network should be better too.
Personally, I do not sleep with three’s owners, so I have not idea what is them business plan. I can predict when I see current situation – maybe one honest three’s employee will give us an answer about it.
So, will give me answer about what you mean when you saying about “texting”. Maybe I will be able to will give you some advice on technical level.

Regards

Thomas

[Skylark001]

Hello @thomas-three, thanks for your information.

I have an Android phone, on which texts appear on a blue background.

Three is not delivering my texts to me promptly via Wifi-Calling (I can't receive them via mobile signal because there is no mobile signal where I live).  So I suppose it's the "internet traffic" method which I depend upon?

When you refer to "lost packages", do you mean lost texts?  I have not only been receiving texts days late but sometimes they don't ever appear.  Is that because of "lost packages"?

[thomas-three]

For "ordinary" SMS messages SS7 is used. You can read a bit about it in link bellow:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_System_No._7

But you saying that you have not three network coverage in your area, so probably your device not using this set of protocols to sending SMS.

You mentioned in previous post that you are using EE router, so yes - in this case any traffic from your phone going through Internet. 

If three have problems with traffic to/from "own" clients, so probably is similar situation if we are talking about traffic between operators (Three, EE/BT, o2, etc.) too.  

Maybe cost is too big for three, maybe old infrastructure, maybe any other "problem". I watching them for a months and last to weeks (after this BIG problem), looks for me like them trying balancing network, but " you can't get blood from a turnip" or "you can't get honey from a rock".

[StephR]

Hey Skylark001, 

Sorry you missed my reply! Have you verified the email address you use for Three Community? If you've not received the email inviting you to do that, please have a check of your spam or junk folders. Once your email is verified, you should receive a notification email for certain actions (you can then manage these options in your Three Community settings).

With regards to your texting issues, it does sound like it needs to be escalated to our technical team to investigate. I can see you're using one of our newer Pay As You Go SIMs, which means your account would be handled by our dedicated Pay As You Go team. When you last spoke with them, did they mention passing this on to our technical team at all? Have they given you a call?

[Skylark001]

Hello StephR.

I've been begging the support staff (in India?) for four weeks to remedy the situation.  Two different people there have rung me, the most recent call having been yesterday afternoon.  It seems that all they do is check that Wifi-Calling is enabled for my account.  They don't appear to try to work out why for the last four weeks texts have not been promptly forwarded to me via Wifi-Calling.  They don't appear to have any knowledge about the complications of the network and processes involved in gathering texts and then ensuring all of those texts are transmitted when a customer switches on Wifi-Calling. 

There have even been some support staff at Three who have demonstrated to me that they don't even know that Wifi-Calling works when there is no mobile reception in a geographic area.  And a couple of other support staff have dealt with the situation by saying everything is working perfectly at Three and that the problem is in my mobile phone or with my broadband provider.  (They tell me this while chatting with me on my mobile phone which is located in an area of zero mobile reception!)

Thank you for the information about verifying email address.

[thomas-three]

I do not like lies.

In my area - Grimsby - problem is since Monday. I reported it on Tuesday. Network status checker of course saying "Our systems haven’t reported any network problems. Use coverage checker to see the usual signal strength in this area.We’ll check that this information is up to date every 30 minutes. (last updated 08:15 pm 13 October 2022).", exactly the same since Monday (except time and date). BTW, when I had a litte more technical conversation with your consultant, after his check he diagnosed "unexpected problems which will be fixed till Thursday.

I have phone from three also and I checked area of telecommunication tower in my area and in the centre of town.
Results te same. 5G transmitters are off. Why? Maybe becouse you have problem with internal network?

Some tests results.

From Three HUB (4 bars coverage, but mobile CELL_ID changed by three a few times since monday).

mtr -c 50 -r 212.77.100.101
Start: 2022-10-13T20:35:38+0100
HOST: bacy Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- hirouter.net 0.0% 50 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.9 0.1
2.|-- ??? 100.0 50 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
3.|-- 172.25.147.65 0.0% 50 52.9 63.0 35.8 100.8 15.8
4.|-- ??? 100.0 50 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
5.|-- 172.25.154.74 40.0% 50 64.7 65.6 41.5 95.5 12.2
6.|-- 172.25.153.81 0.0% 50 110.9 121.8 93.4 158.4 14.3
7.|-- ??? 100.0 50 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
8.|-- 172.25.131.154 40.0% 50 66.6 54.1 31.9 83.6 12.5
9.|-- 195.66.226.209 86.0% 50 49.5 66.4 49.5 90.7 13.2
10.|-- 195.66.227.103 2.0% 50 99.4 100.0 72.7 135.5 12.9
11.|-- z-poznan-gw2-amsix.TASK.r 0.0% 50 133.6 112.0 95.0 148.3 13.1
12.|-- ??? 100.0 50 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
13.|-- rtr-int-1.rtr1.adm.wp-sa. 0.0% 50 148.4 100.6 74.1 158.7 20.2
14.|-- www.wp.pl 0.0% 50 178.5 121.4 81.4 222.4 29.4

So, as you see two hosts into your internal network (private IP scope 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255) loosing about 40% packages each. I mean 172.25.154.74 and 172.25.131.154. Worster situation you have "on the point where trafic goes out and in from/to three internal network" if I can use your language. This time I mean 195.66.226.209 with 86% lost packages, what ussuali means retransmition.

Traceroute from phone
traceroute to 212.77.100.101 (212.77.100.101)...
1 - * * *
2 172.25.147.33 765.9ms 673.54ms
2 - *
3 - * * *
4 - * * *
5 172.25.152.93 141.68ms 1,196.26ms
5 - *
6 - * * *
7 172.25.131.154 1,804.38ms 1,064.68ms 565.95ms
8 - * * *
9 195.66.227.103 458.88ms 2,243.8ms
9 - *
10 212.191.237.242 1,014.79ms 487.97ms 784.75ms
11 - * * *
12 212.77.96.42 2,697.05ms 699.78ms 305.81ms
13 212.77.100.101 843.98ms 827.95ms 89.18ms

Hmm, more than 1800 miliseconds ping on the end of three network. "Great" result.

Please reply here which kind of statistics you need on time when I will read your reply.

Regards

Thomas

BTW, When I was able to switch my phone as a second testing device BEFORE Monday it looks not too bad - now I am not able to do it on phone (ONE bar of coverage 4G or 3G) - simmilar situation in centre of town.

[Kevbur123]

Wow please can you contribute more information like this. Makes for very interesting read, I am currently rowing about volte not working unless device is from three. They say it should no one knows for sure ?