Poor call quality

Anonymous · ‎13-06-2010

Hi,

I wonder if someone here would able to me more helpful than customer services on a weekend!

I've been having a problem for about a week now, that when I'm in proximity of a certain mast (2G, which happens to be the one near my house) the call quality of the outgoing portion of the voice calls becomes choppy and inaudible to the other party. Initially I thought this was my phone, but I'm not the only one in my area having the problem (a friend with a different phone is experiencing the same thing), and the call quality is fine in other locations.

Is there any way to get 02 to investigate this? Is there some likely cause that I'm not thinking of? I'm currently trying to find other people in the area with this problem too, CS wouldn't tell me if there had been anyone else reporting issues.

Any help would be appreciated!

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

Hi,
I wonder if someone here would able to me more helpful than customer services on a weekend!
I've been having a problem for about a week now, that when I'm in proximity of a certain mast (2G, which happens to be the one near my house) the call quality of the outgoing portion of the voice calls becomes choppy and inaudible to the other party. Initially I thought this was my phone, but I'm not the only one in my area having the problem (a friend with a different phone is experiencing the same thing), and the call quality is fine in other locations.
Is there any way to get 02 to investigate this? Is there some likely cause that I'm not thinking of? I'm currently trying to find other people in the area with this problem too, CS wouldn't tell me if there had been anyone else reporting issues.
Any help would be appreciated!

hi there. if more than one of you is having same issue, then your handsets are fine. it simply means the mast isnt strong enough, or there is something blocking it.

fortunately, o2 CAN investigate this. an engineer will go out and see if anything is blocking the signal. if nothing is blocking signal, then they wont do anything.

so it would mean the signal is simply not strong enough for you. and if this is the case, updates to signal strength in your area could take between weeks and years.

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

Cheers for your help,

I understand your point about signal strength, but I live virtually opposite the mast and have full signal on my phone. It also seems to be only on the outgoing audio portion as I can hear people fine. Maybe there is something interfering with this band. As I understand it, on 2g, the outgoing and incoming portion of calls are on different frequencies. Correct me if I'm wrong. This problem has since been confirmed by another friend who came to visit who's on o2, and I've checked other locations around my town, and the same issue is present.

I guess I'll have to give o2 another call back today, hopefully with more success.

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

Hi,
I wonder if someone here would able to me more helpful than customer services on a weekend!
I've been having a problem for about a week now, that when I'm in proximity of a certain mast (2G, which happens to be the one near my house) the call quality of the outgoing portion of the voice calls becomes choppy and inaudible to the other party. Initially I thought this was my phone, but I'm not the only one in my area having the problem (a friend with a different phone is experiencing the same thing), and the call quality is fine in other locations.
Is there any way to get 02 to investigate this? Is there some likely cause that I'm not thinking of? I'm currently trying to find other people in the area with this problem too, CS wouldn't tell me if there had been anyone else reporting issues.
Any help would be appreciated!

hi there. if more than one of you is having same issue, then your handsets are fine. it simply means the mast isnt strong enough, or there is something blocking it.
fortunately, o2 CAN investigate this. an engineer will go out and see if anything is blocking the signal. if nothing is blocking signal, then they wont do anything.
so it would mean the signal is simply not strong enough for you. and if this is the case, updates to signal strength in your area could take between weeks and years.

I know you have designated yourself an "expert" and have filled the forums with your enthusiasm, but, you are way off with this advice. You seem to have totally missed the point.

ukak47, I once used very powerful radio comms regularly and it was often the case that being too close to the radio mast resulted in poor communications. When you say close, how close is it to you?

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

@ancientferguson

I live across a main road from the mast in line of sight, I'd say it's ~100-200m away, but the problem is apparent further from the mast (~0.5-1k are distances I've noticed the issue too).

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

@ancientferguson
I live across a main road from the mast in line of sight, I'd say it's ~100-200m away, but the problem is apparent further from the mast (~0.5-1k are distances I've noticed the issue too).

I have read this kind of thing on here before.

You say you are trying to find others with similar problems. What sort of things are you doing?

If the problem was bad enough, I would banging on doors and asking.

Has either your handset or your friend's handset have the facility to record a call? Some handsets have a voice notes facility that can record the call.

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

I have two friends who have been in proximity of this mast, with o2 contracts, one lives down the road and has experienced the problem for as long as me (has also rung o2 about it) and the other was a visitor. We've all each others respective landlines and mobiles to see if we were experiencing the problem. With landlines it's the portion of call from mobile to landline that's poor, and from mobile to mobile, both portions of the call are poor (if we're in proximity of the mast, if calling a mobile connected to a different mast, it's the same problem as landlines).

I'm not sure if I can record calls on my phone, I'm on an android phone so when O2 data is back up (apparently there's an outage at the moment) and I'm back home, I can try to get a recording, and also my friend is gathering further people with the problem, as he works close to where we both live.

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

I have two friends who have been in proximity of this mast, with o2 contracts, one lives down the road and has experienced the problem for as long as me (has also rung o2 about it) and the other was a visitor. We've all each others respective landlines and mobiles to see if we were experiencing the problem. With landlines it's the portion of call from mobile to landline that's poor, and from mobile to mobile, both portions of the call are poor (if we're in proximity of the mast, if calling a mobile connected to a different mast, it's the same problem as landlines).
I'm not sure if I can record calls on my phone, I'm on an android phone so when O2 data is back up (apparently there's an outage at the moment) and I'm back home, I can try to get a recording, and also my friend is gathering further people with the problem, as he works close to where we both live.

There is nothing like evidence when taking your complaint to O2. Keep us informed.

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

An update for anyone interested,

I rang O2, they eventually said to ring back, when within range of the mast, during office hours, from another phone, and they could do a network check. Unfortunately, I'm not home during office hours, so basically I guess this isn't going to be resolved unless I take time off to get home for them to perform the check, and spend money ringing them from another line.

Slightly ridiculous.

Anonymous · ‎14-06-2010

An update for anyone interested,
I rang O2, they eventually said to ring back, when within range of the mast, during office hours, from another phone, and they could do a network check. Unfortunately, I'm not home during office hours, so basically I guess this isn't going to be resolved unless I take time off to get home for them to perform the check, and spend money ringing them from another line.
Slightly ridiculous.

Not too ridiculous.

Rather than get too miffed, this is a good opportunity to demonstrate the issues directly into the ear of those that know about these things. Is there nobody else that can make the call e.g. a friend or other family member?