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Is O2 the answer to the Virgin/Vodafone data speed issues?

archercj
Fibre optic

There have been many posts on here stating that since the switch from Virgin/EE to Virgin/Vodafone customers have seen a significant decrease in data speeds.

I am the same - my rural location could achieve speeds of 60mbs with EE but that went to around 6mbs with Vodafone. As such I decided to bite the bullet and switch from Ooomph to Volt which means a change from Vodafone to O2,

I use an Archer router to install my SIM in which is connected to a directional 4G aerial. All the above speeds were achieved with the above configuration. Yes I know technically I may be in breach of the t&c's regarding fair use policy but I would argue whats the difference between streaming Netflix via this configuration and tethering to a mobile phone. And the mobile signal is poor anyway. I am no where near the data limit of the 'unlimited' package either..

Anyway over the weekend I switched to the O2 SIM. Result - speeds on kbs rather than mbs!. Oh dear, bring back Vodafone all is forgiven.

Anyway after moving the aerial 90 degrees and also locking it on a specific band (Band 1 for some strange reason) I now have much better data speeds of around 18mbs. No where near Virgin/EE of course but an improvement on Virgin/Vodafone.

But not sure this would be the answer for everyone having similar Virgin/Vodafone speed issues as I do use an router/aerial to gain better signal but I thought I would share my results with people.

My longer term plan (July) is to terminate my current 3 contract I have with my mobile, switch to EE and then use the Virgin/O2 SIM in that.

1 REPLY 1

Serena_C
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi @archercj

Welcome back to our Community Help Forum 🙂

Thank you for posting your insights regarding mobile speeds, I'm glad to hear that moving the aerial 90 degrees and locking it on Band 1 have improved your speeds. Thanks very much for letting us know! 

Kind regards,

Serena