Prime Minister quit Cornwall holidays over poor phone signals

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

PM quit Cornwall holidays over poor phone signals


Polzeath is a regular holiday spot for the Camerons

David Cameron has revealed he cut short his Cornwall holidays due to poor mobile phone reception in the county.

He returned home in early 2011 and 2013, as poor coverage hampered his updates on the fall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the Syrian conflict.

Mobile phone operators could be made to share their networks in rural areas of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) where signals are weak under plans being considered by ministers. Some areas have just one or two of the main mobile phone networks. Others have none at all, leaving people without any signal.

The prime minister told the Western Morning News on Sunday: "This is a really big issue for people all over the country - the 'not-spots'. For rural communities, not being connected to super-fast broadband is a bit like not being connected to the road network. It's that bad."

Mr Cameron, who holidays regularly in the Polzeath area of Cornwall, said: "As I go down a hill into Polzeath, I know exactly which bit of the road I lose my signal. So it is a problem. I know where to go to get a signal, but it can be very frustrating."

[brompton rail]

What, no fixed line connections to Cornwall? Have the cables under the Tamar been cut?
Obviously the nations finances are in such a poor state the HM Government can't afford a satellite phone if needed either.

Good that the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) goes out if it's way to "support" Cornwall's tourist trade too.

[patch38]

If the No. 10 account is with Vodafone, he'd better avoid the third-world coverage on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) between Reading and Didcot too.
  

[LiskeardRich]

02 based networks seem to have the best coverage down here. My Tesco mobile seems to work everywhere, which is unheard of in Cornwall!

[bobm]

I'd second that.  I quite often have meetings near St Ives and the people there swear by O2 - I just swear at Vodafone.  However we have installed one of their Sure Signal boxes at the venue which at least means I have service while in the building.

[LiskeardRich]

I'd second that.  I quite often have meetings near St Ives and the people there swear by O2 - I just swear at Vodafone.  However we have installed one of their Sure Signal boxes at the venue which at least means I have service while in the building.

I also have an EE network, don't get me started on that coverage. Although yo is much improved. It now works at home!

[JayMac]

Seems like things have improved little since the days of Harold Macmillan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSGHBCx88E

[ellendune]

What, no fixed line connections to Cornwall? Have the cables under the Tamar been cut?
Obviously the nations finances are in such a poor state the HM Government can't afford a satellite phone if needed either.

Good that the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) goes out if it's way to "support" Cornwall's tourist trade too.

Cornwall has always had good fixed connections.  The international cables landed at Porthcurno in West Penwith and Goonhilly down for Satillite links to the BT network!

[lordgoata]

I'd second that.  I quite often have meetings near St Ives and the people there swear by O2 - I just swear at Vodafone.  However we have installed one of their Sure Signal boxes at the venue which at least means I have service while in the building.

Until your landline goes down, like mine has this week, taking the SureSignal with it. Now have no phone at all! Grrr!

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

What annoys me (and my family) is that the operators always deny that we have a poor to non-available service around here. The provided maps on their internet sites are always optimistic as to the quality of service but they do take into account that many of the 200 or so homes on our estate are in a slight depression suffinet to cut off or reduce coverage . My daughter needs to have mobile service at home for her work duties and when she was with Vodafone the Sure Signal device worked fine. She is now with "3" whose service at home is just not available (worse than Vodafone) but its tarrifs for low users are great. She persuaded "3" to give her the "3" equivalent to the Vodafone Sure Signal box as an incentive for her to change. I I would recommend any one who needs to use their mobile at home investigate this possibility.

[lordgoata]

Yeah the SureSignal has been an absolute God send - 100% signal all around the house and some of the garden. Without it, I get 1 bar (in good weather), on the window sill at the front (but only downstairs) - which is OK until someone calls and I pick it up, as it then drops out completely!

I didn't realize 3 also does a box, that's good to know. I am currently using my 3 3G dongle for internet access which works really well from here too, just a shame it costs so much on PAYG^▸ (Pay as you go) for the odd emergency.

[old original]

Up here in the "Alps" we have the two extremes. No 3G mobile signal but you can get 330Mb on fibre!! (at a cost)

[thetrout]

DO NOT get me started on this subject...! DEFINITELY DO NOT get my started on vodamoan!

Cornwall has some excellent Internet Connectivity. The village where I used to live now has ADSL2+ and FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) before Frome did! Infact. Dobwalls Village had ADSL2+ before Taunton got it!!

So you can imagine my frustration that North Bradley near Trowbridge has FTTC for a few domestic dwellings, yet the nearby White Horse Business Park which is closer to the Exchange does not BT don't like going to Business Parks it seems. Another one in Exeter has a similar problem!

My parents live in the middle of nowhere, yet I have pulled down 12MB/s over 3G. That's faster than their ADSL 20cn connection (Which hits the full 8MB limit and is probably one of the only households in the village to do so). This means a long range WiFi connection provides a faster internet connection to a nearby farm just visible to the naked eye at speeds faster than their ADSL connection. Because the BT Cables run all around the village before reaching this Farm. Yet as the crow flies to the BT Exchange this distance is almost the same!

Coveragewise in Frome and the surrounding area. Three Mobile or EE/Orange/T-Mobile are the best bets. Three struggles in some of the older buildings as their network runs mostly on the 2100MHz Band and only uses 3G (I am discounting 4G for the moment as it's not available here). I've found where I do not receive a 3G Signal on Three Mobile. I have received full coverage on EE using 2G.

Vodafone have to be the worst around here. It took 58 minutes to download 1 MP3 from iTunes on an hours bus journey from Frome - Bath on the F267. Only did it complete a second MP3 in speeds I expect when the journey ended in Bath.

I repeated the journey a few weeks later and found I was getting Speedtests at no more than 0.02MB/s (Or 20KB/s - which is terrible for a good 90% of the journey!) On the return journey I swapped the SIM for a Three Mobile SIM and received speeds of between 2MB and 10MB/s for nearly all of the journey. The 2 places where the signal fails completely it also did on Vodafone, Three, EE & O2. These are Beckington and Midford Hill. Midford Hill on EE has improved slightly now the Odd Down area has 4G Masts. Think they must have upgraded the 2G ones too.

When I queried then Data Speed with Vodafone I received the reply that Somerset was predominantly GPRS^▸ (General Packet Radio Service) (2G) and that "Vodamoan invests alot of money in it's network!" and that I had no recourse for complaint as I was receiving a Data Service. The Data Service was so slow, it was physically unusable. Yet other networks worked fine.

I'm sorry, but if Three and EE et al can provide me with 3G on the same bus route, Vodamoan aren't spending enough money, are buying the wrong kit or investing in their urban areas!

I'm with EE and they are awful. I have had various problems with them since contract started last year and when I phone them up and the operators answer the call: "Thanks for calling EE, the UKs^▸ (United Kingdom) Best Network" It immediately makes me even more angry. Considering the service I have received from EE in the past, if they are the UKs Best Network then God help us. 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...

Am I the only one who would be even more angry if someone answered the phone and said "The UKs Best Network" when I have a complaint?

Oh and when I challenged EE on why they had not called me back despite assurances from around 12 different agents when I finally wrote to them... I received the following answer:

"With regards to your comments regarding customer call-backs not being made; I can see from your account that this has happened on more than one occasion"

Those last 4 words are the most important...! Make of it what you will

DO NOT get me started on this subject...!

Told you not to do it...

[thetrout]

I'll resist the urge to go off an a technical analysis of this article.
...
Hypocrite!

I'm rather glad to see that you took the bait, hook line and sinker, young trout: I posted that item with you specifically in mind! 

I've fallen for it again, haven't I??

[LiskeardRich]

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?

EE more recently charged me ^3.50 per month for having a credit balance greater than my bill. I took a complaint to them and they compensated me with ^70 odd quid credit, then charged me ^3.50 a month for not paying by DD whilst the credit covered the bill!