Prime Minister quit Cornwall holidays over poor phone signals

[whole diary]

[lordgoata]

To be fair, some aspects are out of their control. They wanted to upgrade the masts here but the villagers complained. Same happened down the road where you can barely get 2MB broadband, let alone a phone signal.

With all the mergers, acquisitions and network deals the other networks have, their coverage increased as they were able to use the previous rivals masts. Planning for masts is hard to come by in the areas they need it, so if EE/O2/Orange have a monopoly in an area, it can be hard for Vodafone, Three to get a look in - that's one reason for the comments about making it a requirement for telecom companies to share masts in areas with bad coverage (great idea if you ask me) - but of course coverage is also a key selling point for each network.

Vodafone have 80+billion burning a hole in their pocket from the sale of Verizon, they are desperate to invest it somewhere (talks of various TV related purchases with the push on mobile TV now), and I believe they are planning to invest quite heavily in their network as well. Its shame, I've been with Vodafone for 22 years this year and its only since I moved out of town that I realized how spotty their network coverage is, especially whenever I go camping it would seem!

As for EE, I ordered a free SIM from them, which they decided to send via a bloody courier. It took almost 2 weeks before I received it as I was at work everytime they tried, they refused to leave it without a signature, they refused to leave it with my neighbor when he offered. They insisted it was a mobile phone everytime I spoke to them. In the end it was returned to EE and they sent another one out to my work address. Never even used the darn thing, it must have cost them a fortune with all the courier hassle!

[broadgage]

I do wonder if some f those who complain about poor cellphone service are also those who oppose the construction of the masts or antenae that are required to improve matters.

I am aware of a case in London where the erection of a mast on a school building was strongly opposed, despite children and parents complaining about frequent lack of service in the area.

[thetrout]

A fellow forum member however has probably the best customer service fail I have ever seen to date. Threatening debt collection over a CREDIT balance...

I don't recall ever telling that story on here.....or has someone else had the same experience?

You are correct on both counts...! Another member (perhaps even more) had this issue!

I also have an ongoing issue of similar nature where Orange (EE et al) have sold an account to Lowell Group which is in my name. Having never had an Orange account that did make me smirk. I of course checked my credit files and it wasn't on there. But the date they sold the account was most interesting... 29/04/2041

Typo yes... But I wonder if I could use the "They do not own the account" as a defence

I am aware of a case in London where the erection of a mast on a school building was strongly opposed, despite children and parents complaining about frequent lack of service in the area.

Now this I find most interesting. Because some cite health risks from use of a mobile phone. Yet on the flipside of that coin, the signal is around whether you are using a cellphone or not.

Similar to the use of Mobile Phones in Petrol Stations. Whilst Forecourt Attendants are told to say that it poses a significant health and safety risk. To date, no serious incidents have been attributed to the use of a mobile phone. Regardless of where a device is used or not. The signal remains.

If you ask me, wearing Nylon Clothing whilst using a filling pump is infinitely more dangerous...

All that aside. Senior Ladyfriend Trouts lease some roof space to T-Mobile in Essex on 2 of their buildings. A small consultation was done with local residents by them and measurements of microwaves were well within the guidelines before and after the installation of the Mast.

Using the same Microwave Measurement thing. It was placed near a DECT Phone (Cordless BT Phone Line type device) and that registered more microwave energy output than the bloody Cell Mast when measured from a 20 metre distance!

Those things placed on your bedside table at night in-case the phone rings? That is by far more "radioactive" than a Cell Mast it seems!

[sorch]

I'm not sure I can agree with O2 being overall the best for Cornwall. O2/VF will be great if all you care about is voice and SMS, but if you want data you'll be left on EDGE, or more likely GPRS^▸ (General Packet Radio Service). Vodafone has finally brought 3G to my village (years after Orange/3/T-Mobile did); unfortunately the performance is so poor that they clearly haven't upgraded the backhaul to the site.

For data, 3 or EE are undoubtably the way to go (EE has the added advantage of seamless 2G backup, whereas 3's is not). Even in the more rural bits. To steer things towards trains a bit, it's the same there too. On the main line in Cornwall or Devon you'll probably be struggling with GPRS if you use VF or O2, whereas you get HSPA (or even 4G/LTE) on EE or 3. Always impresses me how people soldier on with woeful performance from the "older" networks (email is a challenge) while I am able to stream Netflix with ease while trundling around south Devon or across Bodmin Moor.

I wonder where our Dave was in Cornwall to have to cut a holiday short over it? Or what network he was on? You'd think he could have just got the chauffeur to drive him into town to get a signal rather than having to go all the way back to London..

[stuving]

I'm sure there's a lot less to this than meets the eye of a journalist with space to fill. What is the content of the story? PM breaks holiday to return to London to deal with international "events". No doubt lots of factors came into that decision, one being that he could not be kept in close touch if he went off doing what was planned for the family. Staying at his holiday home on his own is neither a holiday nor a very effective way of working - so, having a high opinion of his indispensability he goes back to London instead. The specific Cornish phones angle might only have contributed 10% to that decision.

It's not that long ago that, when a PM went on holiday, he was out of contact - except for an urgent telegram maybe. I'm not convinced we had fewer "events" then, either. Or worse government.