Forum Discussion

tsrplatelayer's avatar
tsrplatelayer
Tuning in
24 days ago

Volt, landline and 3G

I have a Volt package with landline.

02 is turning off 3G this year.

I have no 4G or 5G service and independant coverage checker https://app.streetwave.co/coverage-checker/60/map shows O2 coverage in my area is poor - I have only 1 bar in the living room at the front of my house and none at the back. This is despite living on the northern edge of Telford.

I image soon VM will change my landleine over to the router, it is currently seperately wired and it regularly dies for days at a time, but there testing software never seems to see or report a problem in my area. I currently use O2 at home as backup for my land line. In future I will need a mobile to backup my landline in the evnt of power failure.

Anyone know what VMO2 plans are to improve services ??

  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person

    You're hitting on 2 separate issues here

    1: Poor mobile coverage when a power outage knocks out the IP-based landlines. This is an industry wide issue - Ofcom are consulting on improving battery backup on mobile networks, but this will open a huge can of worms and will not be either straightforward or cheap.

    2: O2's 3G switchoff - historically both O2 & VF have a network design which has relied heavily on legacy 2G & 3G technologies, because of their frequency allocation. VF switched off 3G last year, and have had widely reported problems with users getting stuck on 2G, or even no-service, when 4G "should" be available. It would not surprise me in the slightest if O2 have similar problems, but hopefully they will learn from VF's mistakes.

  • newapollo's avatar
    newapollo
    Very Insightful Person


    Hi tsrplatelayer 

    You might find out more information regarding mobile connection/improvement plans by asking on the dedicated O2 forums  https://community.o2.co.uk/ 

    You shouldn't have any future issues with using O2 as a backup for your landline.

    According to the recent press release regarding the upcoming 3G switch off in Durham <here> 'Any customers in Durham who don’t upgrade to a 4G or 5G device before 3G is switched off will still be able to use voice calls and send text messages as they do now, but they would not be able to use mobile data.'

     

    How is your actual internet connection? Are the speeds OK? If there are issues with your cabling this might affect the phone and/or telephony.    The telephony might actually improve if connected via the hub.

    You've posted in the Volt forum, and have an O2 sim so have you made use of the volts wifi guarantee with wifi max ?  If you don’t get download speeds of at least 30Mbps in every room, if needed VM will provide up to 3 WiFi Pods (you can only order one at  a time) See the info on https://www.virginmedia.com/wifi-max 

    How is your actual internet connection? Are the speeds OK?