No 4G

[#1]

Received my Plusnet SIM yesterday and all looks good. That is, apart from the fact that I can't seem to get a 4G signal anywhere.

I've tried the SIM in my Blackberry Passport, my work-issue iPhone 6s and the 4G-capable SIM slot in my car. I've tried it in lots of different areas in 2 different towns (Rugby and Milton Keynes) and indeed all the way down the M1 between the two towns, and I can't get 4G with any device or anywhere. I had no problem getting a 4G signal with any of these devices in most of the places I go with my previous O2 SIM.

I've tried resetting network settings on all devices to no avail. If I can't get this working then I fear I will have to back out of the agreement. Anyone got any suggestions?

[#2]

I've found the problem now.

The 4G signal seems to be extremely weak in the areas that I use it when compared with O2. If I go up to the top floor of the office building I work at in Milton Keynes I can get a flaky 1-bar 4G signal.

That's not going to be good enough for me unfortunately.

[#3]

Yes same here, O2 4G is great where I am and super fast. Only flaky 3G on PlusNet. Slow as a snail upload and download. Just not going to work out for me. Coupled with lack of visual voice mail of course.

Pity as it was a good data plan for the money.

How do I cancel?

[#4]

Cancelling was really straightforward - I did it over web chat and it was done within minutes.

As it happens, I played hard-ball with O2 and managed to get a very similar deal to the Plusnet deal in the end, so I went back. It probably helped that I was a customer of 10+ years though.

[#5]

Thanks for that, I have a PAC code from O2 but haven't used it, so I am still with O2. I wonder how I can force them to think again about the data plan they offer, I currently get 500 MB  a month for about £10.

[#6]

You shouldn't find it difficult to get better than that - I managed to negotiate 5GB 4G data, unlimited mins and texts for £12, albeit on a 12 month contract.

In my view the extra £2 was worth it for the better signal and the roaming data bundles, as I travel to Germany for work often.

[#7]

I cancelled my account using the online chat as you suggested took 15 minutes of chat including creating yet another password, with no explanation of what it was to be used for. I got the impression this was all a bit new to them. I asked for email confirmation because I was not totally confident it had all gone through properly. Refund to my card is promised. 

I will contact O2 and see what deal is available, I have been a customer since 2014 which should count for something. Thanks again.

[#8]

No luck with O2 all they can offer is 2GB for £18, which is too rich for me.  I told them about your deal 5GB for £12 and the couldn't do that, they said. I really can't understand them, they would rather lose a customer who would be hard to get back. Showed absolutely no interest in keeping me. 

You must tell tell me how to play hardball sometime.

[#9]

We live in a large North Lincolnshire town & when I do a postcode coverage check on the EE website it shows that we'll get.

xxxx xxx  IS COVERED

This area has coverage for internet and calls and texts for phones.

With Microsoft Lumia 550, you can access double speed 4GEE  for internet usage if you choose an eligible plan.

In reality we rarely get better than 2 bars on 2g.

We realise that signal strengths can vary due to location but it's very difficult to accept the difference between projected 4g & the reality of 2 bar 2g.

We don't use social media as we are not remotely interested in knowing what someone's 3rd cousin's brother-in-law did on his holiday or some Katie Price wannabe on Instagram & even if we were interested we wouldn't need to watch it halfway round a supermarket.

We wouldn't use a 5" smartphone in the house when we can use a tablet or a laptop.so in reality so long as the phone makes & receives calls & texts we can live without 4g.

[#10]

Plusnet's own coverage checker shows:

4g Good

3g Very Good

2g Very Good

In reality for 90% of the time we get a 2 bar signal on 2g.

We fully understand the vagaries of wireless technology but the difference between being given a projection of 4g & only getting a weak 2g signal seems a huge difference.

[#11]

OpenSignal seems to be far more accurate as a coverage checker as they use realtime 15 minute updates from their app on thousands of users' phones.

I checked our area & their results were spot on as they show a small individual square for the location of each user.

EE & Vodaphone both showed a poor signal with O2 showing a strong signal for our part of the road but 400 yds up the road  EE was showing the strongest signal.

The best overall coverage for the whole town is EE by a wide margin.

Apparently broadband speed & 4g signal strength are becoming bigger & bigger factors in choosing a house.

Lucky we're not selling any time soon otherwise we'd have to buy a PAYGO O2 sim to show to potential purchasers.

Lol

https://opensignal.com/

[#12]

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@caravanj wrote:

OpenSignal seems to be far more accurate as a coverage checker as they use realtime 15 minute updates from their app on thousands of users' phones.   ...   https://opensignal.com/

---

Thanks for that - a site I've not come across before. I came to the forum this morning to post about my experience - and found others are having the same sort of woes.

I checked the coverage for my home using PlusNet's checker before singing up - and found 4G Good, 3G Very Good and 2G Excellent, so I decided to go ahead. Besides using the phone away from home, I thought I could use it at home for an emergency tethered connection if my PlusNet Broadband went down for whatever reason.

However my experience is FAR from what that set of results suggested.

I have NEVER seen 4G on the display since putting the SIM in last Tuesday. That's not just at home but in various places around Gloucester, Tewkesbury (on Friday) and yesterday in North Bristol. I've checked my phone and the setting it's using is "4G (Recommended)".

I have twice seen 3G briefly (at home) when I've picked the phone up - but it soon reverted to just G (i.e. 2G). Yet I'm supposed to have a "Very Good" connection!

I almost always see G and admittedly that's providing an excellent signal level- but what's the point in paying £10 for a 4G connection when I can't use the data? That was the main thing I signed up for already having a Windows Phone on contract (with Tesco Mobile on O2) and wanting my Android phone to have a generous data allowance (currently it's on PAYG).

I'm going to do some more testing today but feel there are only two options - either ditch PlusNet Mobile completely and revert to using Three PAYG (which would give me 1GB for a similar £10) or downgrade to the £5 Mates Rates.

A connected problem is that I want to retain the Three SIM I also have in my dual-SIM phone but if I make the PlusNet SIM the primary one it downgrades the other SIM slot to a 2G only service (something I did not realise) and that effectively turns off the Three SIM entirely since that doesn't work on the 2G network.

...

Before posting I thought I'd look at the coverage checker again and find that although for my postcode 3G is coming up "Very Good" when I zoomed right in I note that the pin is right on the very edge of the "Very Good" zone and with my house being on the other side of the road it's actually two bands down in "Moderate" - however it's still showing as "Good" for 4G.

[#13]

Hi drj, I came across the site by accident while I was trying to find a signal strength app for my new Windows phone.

I couldn't figure out the huge difference between the coverage checker's good 4g & the reality of poor 2g until I read that the coverage checker is merely a computer projection.

I've done a test with an Android phone which has a signal strength app & I get average readings of between -109dBm & -113dBm.

These levels are classed as being as poor as it can get with -113dBm being regarded as virtually unusable.

I wasn't bothered about not having 4g at home until I read your post which makes a very valid point about being able to use 4g in the event of a broadband failure.

It's about time that that all the infrastructure providers are made to improve their coverage.

You wouldn't knowingly buy a car that could only be used on certain roads.

[#14]

I've done some more signal strength tests & we average -107dBm.

[#15]

I've installed the OpenSignal app on an Android phone which is also on EE.

A red square has appeared on their coverage map & which is exactly where our house is situated so their coverage data is definitely 100% accurate

It confirms that we rarely get above -107dBm 2G & that there is no 4G signal.

P.S. Which? use OpenSignal & confirm it's the only accurate coverage checker.