3rd day of drastically dropped signal strength (+ data connection dropping to Edge if even present)

[palmyra08]

Hi,

1. in same house, few minutes from town centre, 

2. without anybody having newly built a metal cage or a skyscraper around me,

3. in wide open green neighbourhood,

4. on 2 different phones tried with same SIM card:

Over the last 3 days there was a consistently observed (thus not temporary) dramatic loss in signal strength. Normal level was 4-5 bars, now barely seeing one.

Also, data connection that was HSDPA or at worst 3G is now, if even present, dropping to Edge.

As an extra result, beyond atrocious connection, the phones are eating battery like mad as they are trying to max out radio power to some seemingly distant feeble cell. 

How is this even possible? It is a huge change and it is crippling, and tried every part of the house, where I had perfect Virgin (or whatever underlying network is providing it) coverage. 

If I ring helpline, no offence, but I get some person asking me things like did I put the SIM in correctly etc, - so it is IMPOSSIBLE to talk to them or to get beyond this level of idiotic customer support to ask anybody pertinent. 

Any tips on who to contact or what to do much appreciated. 

[enlli]

Sounds like someone has been out and it is a bigger job than first thought requiring equipment or antenna replacement which has to be obtained.

[palmyra08]

Fingers crossed, after having seen EE page promising 16 hours repair time for several days, my confidence level of them actually doing something is limited.

On the other side of things, entire weekend of VM customer service line at best inventing porkies and at worst having no clue what a confirmed cell tower outage means, is just phenomenal.