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Mobile Data losing signal

MattMemm
Tuning in

Has something drastically changed in the last 3-4 months?

Previously I would get a relatively strong 4G phone signal when I was at work - a large building in the middle of an industrial estate - and it never failed me. I could stream music all day, check websites and be notified about anything almost instantly. It was great and made me happy with my network even though I had no signal where I live. 

The last couple of months I still get a strong signal showing on my phone but then I’ll try to search the internet and find that nothing will load and I’ll get a not connected error. If I switch my phone to airplane mode and back then it reconnects and I get the internet back - along with all the notifications that I’ve missed because they never came through!

just a couple of days ago I sent a WhatsApp message to my father-in-law who never replied. According to my phone it left at 13:45. I saw him later that day and, after my phone connected to his wife, the message actually finally sent and was received by him 4 hours later!

if I’m at work then the only way I notice properly is if I’m streaming music all day. That way my music stops about 3-4 times and only restarts after I put into airplane mode and back again. If not then it looks like I’m connected to the internet when I’m not. 

I wouldn’t mind if my phone showed I had no internet but each time it’s there telling me I’ve got a decent 4G signal. When my WhatsApp message wouldn’t send I was apparently on 5G!

Ive had my contract for almost 2 years and until now I’ve been really happy with it. Now I’m thinking I need to switch to a network that will be reliable 

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japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@MattMemm wrote:

anywhere else I think it’s usually correct: I.e. if I have no internet it’s because I have no or poor signal 


If you have no or poor coverage, then all services using that signal will suffer - i.e. voice & data.

You can also have strong coverage but poor data speeds if there is insufficient capacity available to cope with demand.

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See where this Helpful Answer was posted

8 REPLIES 8

John_GS
Forum Team
Forum Team

Hi MattMemm,

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community.

I am sorry to hear of the signal issues - is this only at work or elsewhere?

Have you checked the coverage here - https://www.o2.co.uk/coveragechecker

Best wishes,

John_GS
Forum Team


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enlli
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Also check here. The coverage checker only tells part the story.

Virgin will have switched you to O2 and in many areas they are struggling with data speeds even when the signal is good.

https://status.o2.co.uk/

 

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Thanks for the link. According to that I should have good 4G signal both indoors and outdoors. This is where I have the signal show as being connected but I have intermittent issues with having no internet. 

anywhere else I think it’s usually correct: I.e. if I have no internet it’s because I have no or poor signal 

Hi @MattMemm thanks for your reply here.

This will depend on if you're connected to WiFi at the time you try, or you're disconnected from your WiFi.

Can you please try the SIM in a different handset and see if this still happens for you?

Many thanks

Tom_W

japitts
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@MattMemm wrote:

anywhere else I think it’s usually correct: I.e. if I have no internet it’s because I have no or poor signal 


If you have no or poor coverage, then all services using that signal will suffer - i.e. voice & data.

You can also have strong coverage but poor data speeds if there is insufficient capacity available to cope with demand.

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

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This might be it then. Because this specific issue - of my phone telling me I have mobile internet but not actually having any - only seems to happen at work and only in the last few months. 
Maybe o2 network doesn’t have enough bandwidth to be able to cope and I just get thrust into a nothing. It actually happened again today - I was expecting an email and picked up my phone as not received anything and found out that I couldn’t load any websites or anything as it was all erroring. Plane mode on/off and suddenly my phone springs into life and I receive all the notifications that should have come through in the last 2 hours but couldn’t. 

I’ll try my SIM in another handset and see if that makes any difference. I think I’ve got a spare phone lying around somewhere. If it’s the SIM/network that Virgin now use then I’ll have to jump to a different network. 

It’s quite strange though as there’s even 5G available outside and I would have thought that would mean more bandwidth to be able to cope. 

enlli
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Bandwidth is a problem. At home  the local cell shows a Bandwidth of 10MHz for O2 and 15MHz for Vodafone. That's 50% more for Vodafone with less subscribers

5G will help but O2 have a number of MNVO's that simply do not have access to 5G so still plenty on 4G

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japitts
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Very Insightful Person

@MattMemm wrote:

It’s quite strange though as there’s even 5G available outside and I would have thought that would mean more bandwidth to be able to cope. 


I've posted the same comment across a few similar threads, but there's plenty of bandwidth available on 4G as well as 5G.

It just depends on the network operator having available spectrum, and the individual site being able to take it. And some networks are in a much better place here than others.

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