Coverage with Vodafone

Hey there ​@rogerthurston, sorry to hear that.

What’s the full postcode please?

What phone do you have?

Thanks,

Tyler

SL71SG

iPhone SE

Hope you can help 🤞

Thank you ​@rogerthurston 

I have ran a check in the area using our coverage page here and there has been no issues detected. 

4G is the best option as this offers the best coverage for your postcode. 

Are you having any issues with the service outside of this area?

Nat 

Thanks for checking for me Nat. No problems elsewhere out and about. It’s just in and around my house where it’s important to me as I’ve given up my landline. I use 4G as you recommend. 

You’re welcome ​@rogerthurston 

Have you tried a network reset via the handset settings? 

Nat 

I am shy about Network Reset Nat. I’m in my eighties and don’t understand the implications. It warns I’ll lose passwords  and things. 

Hi ​@rogerthurston 

You may lose passwords and passcodes to saved Wi-Fi networks, however this is worth trying as it may help in this case.

Tom

Heart in mouth, I performed Network Reset. All okay but no improvement in signal strength. Got just one bar of four whereas I had 3 or 4 on EE. Any other thoughts please. 

I think I can see what’s wrong with your area Roger. Basically your iPhone is bouncing between 5G and 4G.

I put your postcode into this:

https://www.three.co.uk/content/experience-fragments/threedigital/uk/en/site/mvno/coverage-checker/idmobile.html

And toggled from the default result of 4G to 3G and then 5G. You can see how sporadic 3G and 5G is.

Now I’m not an iPhone user myself, but I’ve done a bit of digging and you can persuade your phone to use 4G only. Before you try this please await others confirming the next steps and note my last paragraph.

Go to Settings.
Select Mobile Service
Select Mobile Data Options
Select Voice and Data
Untick 5G Auto
Turn off 5G On
Select 4G

The above should help or as a minimum tell you 4G with iD isn’t working that well. The only negatives are your phone wouldn’t work on/in 5G areas and it may affect calling the emergency services in a very weak 4G area (from my understanding in poor coverage areas our phones can utilise the 2G network for voice calls only and I’m unsure if an iPhone can still use 2G if you’ve ‘told’ it to only use 4G)

edit. Should you be concerned you could take a picture or screenshot of the above steps in case you want to change it back.

I’ve done that now Daz and it hasn’t helped I’m afraid.

I’ll leave it all now and put it down to exaggerated selling from ID/Three!

Roger

Thank you andewhite, I wish the provider would admit to unlikely indoors. 
I give up and will make do! 
Roger 

Oh well, it was worth a try I guess.

And as I’ve noticed with many of these providers coverage guesstimates, the signal strength does not reflect what we’re actually seeing. I’ve just used Three’s coverage checker for an address close to mine and it quotes this:

So this postcode has 3G today (19 December 2024) and yet 3G is being estimated to be turned off on 18 September 2024. Interesting how they say the 3G mast is being turned off and yet it may reduce the 3G signal, surely if it’s been turned off there would be no 3G at all.

But at the end of the day if these providers coverage checkers were actually be telling the truth then they’d have no customers! - What I’m saying is maybe the checkers are weighted in their favour….

Hi ​@rogerthurston 

We are very sorry to hear the network reset did not help to improve things. 

Unfortunately we cannot guarantee full coverage throughout the UK and we will always try to troubleshoot issues in the hope to make improvements. 

Nat 

It’s a disappointment Nat. The ID Mobile Three Network Coverage Chart showed much better. Thank goodness for Wi-Fi Calling!

And that’s where this whole problem lies Roger, the Three coverage checker is IMHO the one telling the lie. Mines the same, 4G good indoors AND outdoors, yet Ofcom’s states limited indoors. I would say this complete hash of a 3G switch-off has only compounded matters.

From my understanding, the old 3G antennae are going to be reused for 4G. Maybe the current big 4 providers should have upgraded 4G first and then cobbled the 3G antennae into 5G ones instead. But that’s common sense and I doubt any of them have any.

If providers gave a true reflection of what Ofcom’s said, and those amongst us that know to check before committing to a service would not commit. It was for this very reason (O2 left a bad taste in my mouth) that when I joined iD Mobile I did so on a 30 day contract only. Kinda glad I did now.