5 replies to this topic

[tsutton]

O2 to boost mobile broadband coverage

After being warned by OFCOM a while back about them not meeting the target for fulfilling the coverage requirements of its 3G licence, O2 has been slowly expanding their 3G coverage and now they have announced they're to build/upgrade up to 1,500 base station to boost their 3G coverage. Currently they only have 84% coverage, well below average to their competitors, i.e. Orange and Three.

ZDNet UK said:

O2 is to build or upgrade 1,500 base-station sites across the UK by the end of next year in order to boost its 3G coverage, the mobile operator said on Wednesday.

According to a statement from O2, the investment is intended to "build significant headroom for mobile data". The company will spend hundreds of millions of pounds on the rollout, it said.

An O2 spokeswoman told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that not all the sites would be entirely new — some will be existing 2G sites that are being upgraded to 3G. She could not, however, detail what proportion of the 1,500 sites involved in Wednesday's announcements would be entirely new mast sites for O2.

This is going to be an interesting times for O2 because with all of the fuss about the mobile mast being built next to houses or school, they may not be able to do the whole 1,500. They might get away with existing base station, i.e. swapping 2G to 3G, but they might have hard time with building a new one, unless it's in the middle of nowhere.

How are your O2's 3G coverage in your area? Are you getting good speed? Or nothing at all?

[Via: ZDNet UK]

[kiryustas]

tsutton, on Nov 21 2009, 07:52, said:

O2 to boost mobile broadband coverage

How are your O2's 3G coverage in your area? Are you getting good speed? Or nothing at all?

[Via: ZDNet UK]

Not good at all. It's Kensington, but I often get simple GPRS instead of 3G and at some places it turns out to be absolutely impossible to connect at all (like the area around Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall, or South bank) no matter how hard you want, try or restart your device. 

[tsutton]

To be honest, I'm actually surprised that, being London as the capital city, you're getting poor speed/lack of 3G connection in Kensington.

You would thought that with London being big & busy city, it would have better connection speed...!

Still, I hope the upgrade will give Kensington and other areas the boost they need.

[kiryustas]

Their coverage it very patchy if you may say so. Surely, Kensington is not the worst area in terms of 3G coverage, but as you said earlier O2 has it well below average to their competitors. Well, ok, OFCOM said to be more precise. 

The 3G connection is good in open areas but just get hidden in small mews behind the bustling streets - and you will have to say goodbye to it while Vodafone and T-Mobile usually have full or nearly full bar at exactly the same spots - have been checking it out on purpose.

Thank for the encouragement, I do hope to get a better signal at home. 

[tsutton]

It might be worth contacting O2 and tell them your feedback - who knows, they might listen and add/improve resouces for that area?

[T@R1Q]

I've been using O2 for last 3 years. Network at my place is terrible. Quite often there is no network. Dont understand how come they claim to be the best network! Mostly I get GPRS/EDGE. Even when I get HSDPA outside my house, it's does not make any speed difference at all. Really pissed off O2 but my contract gets me locked to them