Dear Vodafone....

[Rezillo]

I have just watched a Vodafone ad purporting to show a farmworker using Netflix on a 4G Vodafone connection.

I am a Vodafone customer living in the East Anglian countryside, where I am blessed with the luxury of intermittent gprs, edge and, five miles up the road, the complete loss of voice calls. I can only assume that either your farmworker is being depicted in a dream sequence or you wish to elevate the blood pressure of your rural customers.

 

[stephec]

Vodafone have probably paid him a small fortune to stick a mast in one of his fields.

 

[petergc]

Vodafone is a network made of toffee. I receive my voicemail 2/3 days after it was left.
Can't grumble to much as it's a works phone

 

[CopperCyclist]

Vodafone still exists? Wow.

 

[Cycling Dan]

I have just watched a Vodafone ad purporting to show a farmworker using Netflix on a 4G Vodafone connection.

I am a Vodafone customer living in the East Anglian countryside, where I am blessed with the luxury of intermittent gprs, edge and, five miles up the road, the complete loss of voice calls. I can only assume that either your farmworker is being depicted in a dream sequence or you wish to elevate the blood pressure of your rural customers.

Try and get good signal from most providers. Vodafone does not own any of their own masts. They piggyback off O2 and to a small extent EE. That being said 4G on any network outside of London and Manchester (some other major cities) is unlikely unless on EE.
That being said Phone signal in East Anglia countryside is likely going to be bad across all networks and if you do get signal it will be 2G which is why you get Edge, reason being no one cares (small consumer base) for the country side so very little investment goes into it.

 

[classic33]

Try and get good signal from most providers. Vodafone does not own any of their own masts. They piggyback off O2 and to a small extent EE. That being said 4G on any network outside of London and Manchester is unlikely unless on EE.

Not that likely in the center of Manchester either.

 

[Cycling Dan]

Not that likely in the center of Manchester either.

O2 and Three who is only in London to my knowledge are the only 4G providers apart from EE whom of which are only across something like 33 major cities were as EE is over 200 cities and towns covering over half of the country something like 60% (don't hold me to that percentage, note I don't not include piggyback networks)

In fairness the other providers coverage is pathetic and I don't get how some companies like 3 Who only have 4g coverage in london can say they are a 4g company. We get the adverts up north like join 3 for super fast 4G but in small text it will say london only.
Anyhow I guess that is the benefit of Orange and T-moblie merging meaning loads of spare capacity.

 

[PpPete]

Vodaphone = best of a poor bunch round here.
And we're not exactly rural.

 

[Broadside]

Try and get good signal from most providers. Vodafone does not own any of their own masts. They piggyback off O2 and to a small extent EE. That being said 4G on any network outside of London and Manchester (some other major cities) is unlikely unless on EE.
That being said Phone signal in East Anglia countryside is likely going to be bad across all networks and if you do get signal it will be 2G which is why you get Edge, reason being no one cares (small consumer base) for the country side so very little investment goes into it.

I think you over simplify by saying that Vodafone piggyback on O2. There is a sharing agreement between them but it is for sites and masts, not for the technologies that are installed there. It is incorrect to say that they piggyback, both operators share sites but also have sole use sites, as a result their coverage for 2/3/4G is quite different.

 

[Cycling Dan]

That meminds me. I have 5 discounts due to some 2014 thing anyhow I cant use them so anyone on t-moblie EE or OUK who want 40% off their phone contract.
Need to be within the first 3 months of their contract.
Just PM me

 

[Cycling Dan]

I think you over simplify by saying that Vodafone piggyback on O2. There is a sharing agreement between them but it is for sites and masts, not for the technologies that are installed there. It is incorrect to say that they piggyback, both operators share sites but also have sole use sites, as a result their coverage for 2/3/4G is quite different.

I deleted my past comment as I was incorrect, they do have their a lot of their own sites which are 900mhz which is near the same as what O2 use for their own sites. However they rely on O2 for a large proportion of their coverage while O2 from what I know does not use their masts in return. This therefore makes Vodafone a piggyback network in my eyes. However they are a partial piggback network unlike Tesco Moblie or Virgin etc.

 

[Rezillo]

I only joined Vodafone because I left O2 as they were worse. Since then 3 seem to have caught up a bit locally so I may have to move again. I've no interest in 4G - I'd be happy with 3G/HSDPA but even that is a distant dream with Vodafone, it seems. Their coverage round here is large towns and the A14/A12 corridors and doesn't seem to have improved in the last five years.

 

[Broadside]

I deleted my past comment as I was incorrect, they do have their a lot of their own sites which are 900mhz which is near the same as what O2 use for their own sites. However they rely on O2 for a large proportion of their coverage while O2 from what I know does not use their masts in return. This therefore makes Vodafone a piggyback network in my eyes. However they are a partial piggback network unlike Tesco Moblie or Virgin etc.

Fair play Dan, however Vodafone are not a piggyback network - by this term I assume you actually mean MVNO. Vodafone are a true network operator, not an MVNO and to my knowledge all of their signal is provided from their own kit, not in any instance as an MVNO carried by another network. The sharing agreement between O2/VF was always two-way and arguably Vodafone had the better sites, a significant proportion of the initial O2 laydown was based on locations they could easily get service and backhaul, i.e. BT exchange rooftops. Vodafone had a different strategy in the early days which saw them buy up strategic plots based on very advanced GIS systems (for the day) where to put masts which is why they became so successful. The industry has converged in the last 5 years and now the operators are all concentrating on in-fill and additional service coverage.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I'm browsing this on a 4G signal on 3 in north east Greater Manchester.

 

[Cycling Dan]

I'm browsing this on a 4G signal on 3 in north east Greater Manchester.

Must have upped there game. I guess they are no longer London exclusive but I doubt it's been for long.,

Edit: 30 major cities or towns as of a few months ago.