Terrible 4G performance in Manchester

[Anonymous]

Just switched from EE and I'm shocked at how bad the 4G performance is on O2. It's simply not 4G and the big data package I was offered is a complete con as it's totally unusable. I'm aware that there are advantages and disadvantages with different networks but honestly EE is 5 times faster when using 4G. We regulary use our mobiles to connect and upload files from laptops, we've been doing it for two years with EE, and can't get the O2 4G to upload anything and an acceptable speed. O2 is more like early 3G speeds from 5 years ago. If anyone is being enticed to switch through data packages then don't do it - EE 4G is far better. O2 will know this and unfortunately I'm a couple of days outside of my 14 day but will definately be buying an EE mobile broadband package.

[MI5]

O2 is limited by the bandwidth they have available to them I'm afraid.
Some basic research and testing would have highlighted this before you switched.

[Anonymous]

Interesting..

when I went into the shop to get my payg phone they said yeah we have excellent 4g in this area & the 3 other areas I gave, but how can you test it out.. when you don’t know how many people are going to be using it at any given time?

so any details of how to research & test would be greatly appreciated!

[jonsie]

The only real way is to get free sims online and check each network for the best coverage at different times of the day. Of course you need an unlocked phone which is easy enough to do via My O2. 

[MI5]

Research the technicalities by using a search engine such as Google.
If you go to www.google.co.uk you can type in all sorts of questions and find answers to them.
Test with a PAYG sim before committing to a contract. Who cares how many people are connected?
All you need to know is if the service is acceptable to you at the times you are awake and in the places you go to.

[Anonymous]

Who cares how many people are online..

Surely if no one but me is connected to a tower then I get full whack.. is that not how it works?

[MI5]

Yes, that's exactly how it works, but the statement was clarified by the next sentence of my post.

[Anonymous]

But as the times we use phones never stay the same.. weekends and weekdays.. it must be hard to get a good reading on exact speeds etc.

how long do you suggest testing for, a few days? A week? And at what times.. morning & afternoon rush hour, weekday evenings & say a Saturday night?

When you get home broadband you get a minimum and maximum speed and if it drops below you can complain / receive compensation / contract review. Is there anything like that with mobiles?

I have to admit, when I’ve gone to a network before, I’ve never thought about testing.. just took the shop / website at their word..

[MI5]

No guarantees at all on mobile networks for anything, but "they" have that all covered in their T&C's.
You need to test the network out for a good month at least on PAYG covering all your normal usage times and patterns. It could save a very costly contract mistake for the sake of a £20 topup.

[packages]

o2 simply don't have the spectrum to cope with major urban city areas like Manchester.

They have the least amount of spectrum per customer out of all the networks. (2nd highest customer base and I think lowest amount of 4G capacity)