Intermittent Mobile Data in Local Park

[mwvent]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to bring attention to an issue with the mobile data service in our local park and many other parts of St. Albans. While the signal bar shows as strong, mobile data only works intermittently, with slow ping times and high packet loss rates. Users on both the Virgin Media and O2 networks are being affected.

This issue is causing significant problems, such as not being able to use GPS-based apps, make VoIP calls, or access online resources. It's frustrating because it's affecting daily activities like walking my dog (no dog safety tracker!), taking VOIP calls on-the-go, and staying connected with family and friends.

I'm not sure how to report the issue to the respective customer services, but I wanted to post here to see if anyone else has had similar problems in the area. If so, please share your experience and let's bring more attention to this issue. Hopefully, the mobile network providers will investigate and resolve the problem soon.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from you all.

[John_GS · Accepted solution]

Hi @mwvent 

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community. I am sorry to hear of the issues with the signal in the park. Is it just the one area or several affected?

Pop some details here 👉 https://www.o2.co.uk/coveragechecker - you'll be able to see if there's any coverage issues listed.

Keep me posted how you get on.

Best wishes.

[Koda]

Check status.o2.co.uk to see if it is a known issue. If it's not you'll have to raise it with customer services. 

Usually this happens with network congestion. But it tends to only be the 4G and 5G Networks that are congested these days. Dropping down to 3G should hopefully give you a more stable connection for the services you are wishing to use in that area. 

[mwvent]

[mwvent]

Thank you for your suggestions. I have tried dropping to 3G before but still have the same issues. I will give the coverage checker a go though thank you!

[mwvent]

Thank you for suggesting I visit the O2 coverage checker. At least I can see a known issue exists.

I wasted a lot of time trying to find similar information from the virgin media website, it is such a shame they did not (to my knowledge) provide this information.

[cje85]

Unfortunately O2 is a heavily congested network. Poor data speeds, packet loss and speed test failures are common and they almost always finish in last place  when tested against other networks such as https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2023/04/opensignal-reveal-uk-best-4g-and-5g-mobile-networks-fo...

[mwvent]

I thought Virgin was EE's network but looks like its O2 here 😕

[cje85]

Virgin used to use EE, then switched to Vodafone, but that did not last long. Now Virgin Media has merged with O2 and switched to that network.