Terrible 4G coverage

Hi there Charlie

Well that’s currently around 4.9 Mbps more than mine. But mine does get slightly better in other areas (not seen 7 Mbps or more within 10 miles of here). Have you tried a replacement SIM yet, more so as you say yours is everywhere?

My contract estimates maximum download speeds of 22 mbps (appreciate that is a maximum) so you can see the speeds I am getting are miles off. £42 a month I’m currently paying for a service that doesn’t work properly.

I never spotted mine had an contract estimate 😮, I may need to check old emails. But iD Mobile’s estimated maximum speeds for 4G are 70 Mbps on the download and 22 Mbps on the upload (FWIW 5G is estimated at 597 Mbps d/l and 50Mbps u/l). So using their figures you’re getting 10% of their maximum.

I've tried the live chat numerous times but get sent into a bot loop where it just asks me the same sets of questions over and over (basically after me answering “no that suggestion hasn’t changed anything, it still doesn’t work”!).

Next time you endure live chat start the chat with talk to person. This bypasses their automated chat bot.

Could I please be put in touch with someone who I can speak to in person (PM is fine provided there’s some sensible, useful suggestions in there over and above what the chat bot suggests).

Staff on here may take this to PM. From there with your full postcode they will likely say its due to 3G going, and/or there’s a known fault, and/or its being upgraded and/or congestion.

Personally Three UK (iD piggyback on them) have knocked the 3G off (so they can refashion these antennae into ‘improved 4G ones’) but the knock-on effect is poor 4G service for the foreseeable. Plus with 3G going we are now overwhelming this flaky 4G.

You can put your full postcode into this as it’ll show if there’s any known issues

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

And to confirm 3G has gone put it in here too

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

(it defaults to 4G, simply toggle to 3G and if you’re phone has 5G toggle it to 5G too)

Hi Daz_S, thank you for the quick and detailed response. Seems like 7 mbps is royalty if you're getting so much less! Hope you manage to sort your network issue out.

Under my previous provider I was getting speeds well in excess of this. I’d happily accept any local network issues if there was evidence the fault was being fixed with an estimated timeline , which makes Three’s “network status checker” on the link above informing there’s an issue in my postcode and both their “coverage” checker ID’s coverage checker saying there isn’t an issue very confusing. 

thanks for the bypass tip on using the live chat - I’ll give it another go tomorrow. Just on the replacement SIM, is this something I’d need to order from ID through my account FOC (sorry if that’s a daft question)?

Feels that at least with home broadband you’re normally given a minimum download speed contractually. Unsure why mobile phone providers can’t provide an “average” speed for their plans to give customers as much info as required prior to committing to lengthy contracts. 

No problem Charlie

Seems like 7 mbps is royalty if you're getting so much less! Hope you manage to sort your network issue out.

I do (rarely) see more. Prior to September my speeds could be high 20’s (in the early hours though when everyone in my area were in bed). At one point iD was faster than my home broadband!

Under my previous provider I was getting speeds well in excess of this.

Now much of that depends on if your previous provider uses Three’s network. If they did then yours might now be due to 3G being knocked off. If it was any of the other big 3 (O2, EE or Vodafone) then it’ll likely be their gear being ‘better’ than Three’s.

I’d happily accept any local network issues if there was evidence the fault was being fixed with an estimated timeline , which makes Three’s “network status checker” on the link above informing there’s an issue in my postcode and both their “coverage” checker ID’s coverage checker saying there isn’t an issue very confusing. 

Same here - I’d be happy to have a period of time where it wasn’t right if 1) it was short term and 2) it guaranteed better 4G. Mines been degrading since April. Then from September its been all but useless.

Yep, don’t confuse network status v coverage. The status ‘should be correct’ but take their coverage results with a ‘heavy pinch of salt’. I’ve had this debate many times on these very forums. I would suggest the coverage results are heavily swayed in their favour. If they actually told the truth non of us would sign up!

You could try this one too - https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/en-gb/mobile-coverage#

Just on the replacement SIM, is this something I’d need to order from ID through my account FOC (sorry if that’s a daft question)?

It would be far quickly to pop into any Currys store and simply ask for a replacement SIM, they’re free. You would then need to activate it via the iD app or online account portal - Plan → SIM & phone management → Activate a replacement SIM → note the first 8 numbers of the SIM number (nothing to do with your phone number) are already filled out → click on Activate your SIM. Then within 30 minutes the old SIM should show no network. Switch the phone off and swap the SIMs over.

Feels that at least with home broadband you’re normally given a minimum download speed contractually. Unsure why mobile phone providers can’t provide an “average” speed for their plans to give customers as much info as required prior to committing to lengthy contracts. 

Yep, that tends to be the way. Though mine isn’t great here for that too. But things are happening here (2 different networks are finally installing FTTP). I recently asked iD to allow us a means to check this as I would certainly use it (known outages, current speeds, maximum speeds over a period of time, upgrades, full 4G and full 5G). Who knows maybe by this time in 5 years time we’ll have this info!

Anyway, hopefully one of the team (or via live chat) can raise your issue with 3UK and get something sorted. 🤞

Hi ​@CharlieJH 

Sorry to hear this, please could you let us know the full postcode(s) where you’re having these issues?

How long have you had these issues here?

If you’re having these issues everywhere, we’d suggest trying the SIM in another device (which in this case has been done with no changes) as well as trying a replacement SIM card, which can be picked up from any Currys store.

It’s worth noting that we cannot and do not guarantee any minimum download speeds.

Tom

Thanks for the reply Tom. 

Thanks for your help,

Charlie

Hey there ​@CharlieJH, thank you.

For both NE15 8RP and NE4 7DF, we're working on fixing an issue in this area at the moment. We're sorry for any disruption this may be causing. We hope to have things fixed as soon as possible and will add any updates here, which is updated every 30-minutes:

https://www.three.co.uk/support/network-and-coverage/coverage?tab=2#tabs-c2d0d12ce8-item-2988999184-tab

My best advice would be to contact our live-chat to have them raise this further to our technical team, to see if they can give you a time-frame on the on-going work, or to troubleshoot further.

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/live-chat

Thank you,

Tyler

Thank you all for your help with this (Daz_S and ID support team), much appreciated. I’ve logged an investigation with ID to find out the extent of the works required and, if there is no line of sight to a resolution date, where this leaves me contract-wise on the basis I’ll continue to get a slow service for the foreseeable future.

in the meantime I’ll try and grab a replacement SIM to check if that does the trick.

Charlie

Hi ​@CharlieJH 

Glad to hear you’re in touch with our team on this.

Tom