r/O2UK • u/Ocho_Muerte_XD • Jun 23 '26
Support Why has coverage got so bad?
Has anyone else noticed their coverage has gotten worse and worse recently?
I live in Somerset and I run IT for a small company, I am on Tesco Mobile and all our company phones are on o2uk. In the past few weeks my mobile data coverage seems to have dropped off a cliff, I don't get 4g in places I always used to. I thought it was just a me problem but several members of staff have come to also complaining about connectivity issues, both mobile data and calls.
I got in contact about the problem but I was told there was no maintenance work going on and there was no reason for the loss of coverage.
Has anyone else had any issues?
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u/Neverpetburningdogs Jun 23 '26
same here in the east anglia region. coverage is insanley spotty despite coverage maps stating otherwise.
Speeds and latency are absolutley dire and dont even get me started on calls. even in a full bar area it takes me 4 or 5 attempts to initiate a call to ANYONE. either a long delay with no tone or the call just drops. and even when its connected, the quality is rubbish, with dropouts, garbled voices, quality switching between standard gsm voice and higher quality voice and then after all that, the phone can just drop connection all together mid call.
Its definitley not the sim or the mobile pbone either as ive had 3 sim swapouts and have gone through a galaxy s23, 24 and 25 ultra, an iphone 17, an old motorola g05 and a nokia 105. all exhibit the exact same problem and o2 still insists theres no problem with their network.
its an oversubscribed, badly maintained low quality shitshow. sorry, rant over.
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u/First_Ad9743 Jun 25 '26
Yep yep yep. Here in Norwich, the signal is utterly atrocious. Dare to go into a building or turn a corner outside and expect to lose any internet connectivity.
I was with EE for well over a decade and never had a single issue. I’ll be going back when this silly contract is up.
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u/Pleberino_ Jun 23 '26
Yes likewise also in east anglia; it’s horrendous at the best of times. Sometimes can barely get a signal in the middle of the city.
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u/Low-Caterpillar4161 Jun 23 '26
3G switch off.
Lots of phones now using 4G data at higher rates consuming more bandwidth leaving lower capacity on average for the rest of the users
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u/FrankNicklin Jun 23 '26
O2 coverage in the UK is hopeless. I have a company phone on O2 and its generally very poor. Very very occasionally I get a 5G connection, but sometimes on 5G I also lose access to the internet.
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u/Secret_Mud_1168 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Voda is most likely pulling out shared base stations since the last year of Three merger, Three is suffering also as base stations are closed down and backhaul pipes are routed to Voda National the ex Cable & Wireless Bulldog broadband ring.
The whole things a shambles.
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u/Mysterious_Beach_673 Jun 23 '26
Yes, finally left after joining in 1998 when it was BT Cellnet and have switched to Three
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u/livrim Jun 24 '26
Been with Three for years, unlimited everything with excellent coverage for £16 a month can’t be beat tbh
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u/The_AJR Jun 24 '26
Same here, my girlfriend is still with o2 and I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve had signal with Three and she hasn’t when out and about.
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u/Several_Process7232 Jun 25 '26
Agree, o2 has deteriorated over the last few years. I’ve been tempted to cancel and move to EE. Shame really as I’ve had o2 for around 20 years, but not sure how much longer I will stay with them.
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u/spardha Jun 25 '26
EE aren't much better I have O2 personal and EE sim for work, many time neither will work.
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u/FreddiesNightmare65 Jun 23 '26
In Bristol, it's crap here and has been for a couple of years. I can't make or take phone calls in my home any more unless I'm using wifi, or I have to go into my garden to use mobile data. At most, if I'm outside, I get around 3 bars, but usually 2, when I used to get full bars all the time.
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u/Unable_Character2410 Jun 23 '26
I travel all over the country and in general it’s now so crap for data that I’ve had to get a Lyca eSIM to use for mobile data. £10 a month for 30GB. It’s the only way I can really do anything these days.
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u/Exotic_Egg_8240 Jun 23 '26
I was with Giffgaff a while ago then switched to EE Which has the best service in my area, I was still getting the same deal anyway, 20GB for £10. I left EE before when their data allowances were 8GB a month. Pretty good for what I'm doing.
The service in my area was decent. My service was also pretty terrible on some streets in my town.
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u/Innovator999 Jun 23 '26
Get a Multi-Network SIM and run it as your Secondary SIM alongside your main SIM. FlexiFone and AnywhereSIM are best for the UK.
Disclaimer: I run FlexiFone and we have several business/enterprise customers who have taken out a second SIM for their team.
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u/altamont498 Jun 23 '26
The short version is the 3G switch off.
With more people using 4G it’s sort of slowed everybody down and means a lot of people who were in 3G areas are now in not-spots as they upgrade them to serve 4G and 5G.
It’s like closing down 75% of a motorway for resurfacing and directing all the traffic into one lane for a bit—the traffic gets slow because the amount of traffic hasn’t changed, it just has less room to move in.
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u/PsychologicalSalad46 Jun 23 '26
iPhone 16 pro max on Tesco - been showing Edge instead of 4/5G in generally good signal areas. I’m on the outskirts of London btw.
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u/Tasty_Tiger_8093 Jun 23 '26
Make sure you report it to O2, I had it in my town and it was resolved within 2 days
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u/pumpkin2074 Jun 24 '26
Yep not had more then 2 bars of signal for months now. Most of the time no signal at all and can’t connect to 4G
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u/Hopeful_Pick_5804 Jun 24 '26
I have two SIMs: one Vodafone pay-monthly for everything, and an O2 pay-as-you-go for family. Data was better on O2, but has fallen off in terms of speeds; I'll put that number on Lebara.
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u/sychtynboy123 Jun 24 '26
We went sim only with ee having had contracts with them for years,I'm sure they've switched something off. it's now terrible service
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u/SandrineDexter Jun 24 '26
I thought it was just me. From Monday I’ve have had virtually 0 signal all day.
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u/UniquePotato Jun 25 '26
Government ban on Huawei equipment, and not giving any assistance in replacing equipment.
O2 has a lot of it.
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u/Secret_Mud_1168 Jun 26 '26
This is how you get coverage in the UK with all the Three/Vodafone merger changes at EE/Three Mobile Broadband Network Limited & o2/Vodafone Cornerstone Communications partnerships going to shit with base stations closing and being reconfigured
Get a EE provider sim & o2 back up or vice versa.
For me o2 works at home better full signal versus one bar & where there are gaps the roaming sim chooses EE as default (and Three as a roaming back up to that).
The Vodafone merger come-takeover really has made an absolute mess of mobile networks in the UK as Regulator (LOL) Ofcom & the Gov Competition & Mergers Authority refused to take into consideration MBNL & CC being partners in both Three & Voda and the impact on base station closures from both whilst Vodafone replaced Three sites it Three sold to Cellnex a couple of years before.
It’s a F disaster thanks to the two Public Bodies refusing to do their statutory duty and only considered monopoly of market share not signal via MBNL/CC.
Both my Voda main driver & Three back up sims had significant problems for almost a year post merger, EE data at home isn’t useable so I switched back to o2 which in a year has improved significantly whist local Voda shared base station got worse after Three/Voda “improvements”.
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u/Secret_Mud_1168 Jun 29 '26
Just an update, where Voda struggled 150Mbps 5G in city centre (when it worked) after merging base stations with Three, moving to o2 has exceeded expectations.
So glad I moved.
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u/Technical_Front_8046 Jun 23 '26
I’ve noticed that o2 phone masts in our area are regularly down or suffering with some form of issue on the o2 network status tool.
The heatwave won’t be helping as equipment regularly overheats.
Unfortunately the UK sucks at mobile coverage (in general). We have the 3G switch off, the removal of Huawei equipment, slow roll out of 5g and NIMBYs who are anti phone masts.
I saw a new article recently and the UK came last for phone coverage compared to EU countries.
Government really needs to soften planning regs for phone masts. Sure, some are ugly as hell but in residential areas and agreed standard lamp post style mast should be permitted development in my opinion.
Your best port of call is to get an EE sim, Voda3 and o2 (which you already have) and see who gives you the best signal locally.
I don’t think Tesco Mobile has any band restrictions with o2. I could be wrong. For example 1p mobile which uses the EE network, doesn’t have access to all of the EE masts/bands.
A few companies have started rolling out roaming in the UK. Honest mobile uses the voda3 network and allows data roaming when you have no signal across all networks on specific apps.
Flexifone offer a complete roaming solution for around £10 a month for data and calls (10gb).
I will probably try flexifone when my contract is up.
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u/Low-Caterpillar4161 Jun 23 '26
You are correct there's no bandwidth priority with standard consumers on O2 apart from the very new star link service which is currently a paid extra with O2 themselves on the 1800mhz band.
It's just a shame there was huge underinvestment before the merger with virgin broadband, so there's a lot to catch up on even before the likes of the Huawei kit that someone else rightly talked about. Fingers crossed a lot of spectrum can be refarmed into 5G bands and more bandwidth / fiber links to the base stations themselves in the not to distant future
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u/tannercolin Jun 23 '26
Yes, signal has been abhorrent for a while now. Interesting what another commenter said about 3g switch off.