As a local who has been living abroad for a while – came back to London for a bit, and was in shock that with a local SIM I was pretty much on 4G at best and it was common just to get constant messages no internet available and having to wait for a page or map to load.
Service in the city is absolute dogshit
It seems like the Uk have no load bearing infrastructure at all or any mechanism to cope with a group of people anywhere.
Pay for 5G when you get 4G most the time at astonishing prices. Signal constantly cutting off and web pages not even loading. The new build I now moved into was ok for the first couple days it opened, after it reached around 30% capacity, the 5G is so patchy and barely gets a phone call out.
How’s it the news really? I thought that it’s quite widely known that the most 5g you see is a “scam” and at most is just 4g. Phones sold in the UK don’t even have ~~wide band~~ mmWave antennas in them, so even if we had it rolled out no one would be able to get the full speed.
Seriously, 5g is an amazing tech but it is essentially ruined by carriers wanting to brag about something and pretending that they have 5g when in fact they don’t.
My advice – just turn it off in your phone settings, it’s an extra battery drain source that doesn’t give you anything meaningful in return.
What I want to know is when they are going to sort out the signal at London Bridge. Lived here 15 years and it’s never been good.
I can’t actually use mobile data with O2 in the City of London or around London Bridge Station during the week. Quite incredible really.
I’m fairly certain things have got worse since the Huawei ban 5 years ago. It used to be fantastic in the city when I lived down that way. Now when I go back for work I’m lucky if I have working data service.
Moving to London that was definitely the most random, surprising thing to me, how bad the reception is.
Isn’t this because we renegaded on a deal signed with the Chinese and spent years ripping out the 5g infrastructure we actually had, because we were scared the Chinese would be spying on us texting memes on WhatsApp?
With the local Green Party consistently getting it wrong over most policies but especially fighting 5G mast-building – because it gives bees cancer – I know why Richmond and Twickenham have gone downhill. I don’t blame the carriers that much.
Not surprising considering this country is stuck in 1980s at best
Feel like I’m the only person on Reddit that doesn’t have an issue with mobile signal and speed.
I am on a MVNO network which has EE as its backend and it’s been really *really* good. Pay £10 pm for 30GB and never notice any issues at all out and about.
I wonder if people are just using phones with shit radios? My SO is on the same network but has an iPhone 15 Pro and frequently has issues, whereas my Pixel 9 has been really good with its new radio (older Pixels has pretty awful radios).
Used to be on Three previously, and can totally understand complaints if you’re on Three, they’re oversubscribed to fuck and never seem to work well anywhere in the UK.
TL:DR: Get a SIM only monthly rolling contract with a network backed by EE for cheap EE and you can say goodbye to these issues. My SO and I use [Spusu](https://www.spusu.co.uk/) because they’re good for roaming too.
Just turn it off, I can guarantee almost everyone in London genuinely doesn’t need anything 5g gives you.
Yes. I only noticed how bad this was when I went to Tokyo last year and had what felt like a faster connection on a 4G tourist SIM than I do in most of London
I wonder why haven’t we got 5G uw yet?
and it is not just the fact that it isn’t 5G , it is barely 4G, it just got a lot worse, you can’t even open a website, nothing loads even when you have bars
Yeah honestly when I travelled to London very recently, I could barely get service on 5g
I’m on Vodafone. Live at Canary Wharf. Work in Fitzrovia / Bloomsbury. Pretty much have consistent 5g. Only place I have issues is around London Bridge.
The bigger scam really is EE selling you a “5G” SIM but capping speeds at 100mbps on some plans or even *10mbps* on the lowest.
The biggest problems with mobile network deployments are NIMBYs who clutch their pearls when a new mast is mentioned and object to the planning application and the difficulty in laying new backhaul to support the mast. 5G signal is one thing, having the fibre in the ground to carry the traffic back to the operators network is another.
The hoops (Wayleaves, consents for road closures etc) they have to jump through keep many people in jobs on both sides and costs millions and millions a year.
20 comments
As a local who has been living abroad for a while – came back to London for a bit, and was in shock that with a local SIM I was pretty much on 4G at best and it was common just to get constant messages no internet available and having to wait for a page or map to load.
Service in the city is absolute dogshit
It seems like the Uk have no load bearing infrastructure at all or any mechanism to cope with a group of people anywhere.
Pay for 5G when you get 4G most the time at astonishing prices. Signal constantly cutting off and web pages not even loading. The new build I now moved into was ok for the first couple days it opened, after it reached around 30% capacity, the 5G is so patchy and barely gets a phone call out.
How’s it the news really? I thought that it’s quite widely known that the most 5g you see is a “scam” and at most is just 4g. Phones sold in the UK don’t even have ~~wide band~~ mmWave antennas in them, so even if we had it rolled out no one would be able to get the full speed.
Seriously, 5g is an amazing tech but it is essentially ruined by carriers wanting to brag about something and pretending that they have 5g when in fact they don’t.
My advice – just turn it off in your phone settings, it’s an extra battery drain source that doesn’t give you anything meaningful in return.
What I want to know is when they are going to sort out the signal at London Bridge. Lived here 15 years and it’s never been good.
I can’t actually use mobile data with O2 in the City of London or around London Bridge Station during the week. Quite incredible really.
I’m fairly certain things have got worse since the Huawei ban 5 years ago. It used to be fantastic in the city when I lived down that way. Now when I go back for work I’m lucky if I have working data service.
Moving to London that was definitely the most random, surprising thing to me, how bad the reception is.
Isn’t this because we renegaded on a deal signed with the Chinese and spent years ripping out the 5g infrastructure we actually had, because we were scared the Chinese would be spying on us texting memes on WhatsApp?
With the local Green Party consistently getting it wrong over most policies but especially fighting 5G mast-building – because it gives bees cancer – I know why Richmond and Twickenham have gone downhill. I don’t blame the carriers that much.
Not surprising considering this country is stuck in 1980s at best
Feel like I’m the only person on Reddit that doesn’t have an issue with mobile signal and speed.
I am on a MVNO network which has EE as its backend and it’s been really *really* good. Pay £10 pm for 30GB and never notice any issues at all out and about.
I wonder if people are just using phones with shit radios? My SO is on the same network but has an iPhone 15 Pro and frequently has issues, whereas my Pixel 9 has been really good with its new radio (older Pixels has pretty awful radios).
Used to be on Three previously, and can totally understand complaints if you’re on Three, they’re oversubscribed to fuck and never seem to work well anywhere in the UK.
TL:DR: Get a SIM only monthly rolling contract with a network backed by EE for cheap EE and you can say goodbye to these issues. My SO and I use [Spusu](https://www.spusu.co.uk/) because they’re good for roaming too.
Just turn it off, I can guarantee almost everyone in London genuinely doesn’t need anything 5g gives you.
Yes. I only noticed how bad this was when I went to Tokyo last year and had what felt like a faster connection on a 4G tourist SIM than I do in most of London
I wonder why haven’t we got 5G uw yet?
and it is not just the fact that it isn’t 5G , it is barely 4G, it just got a lot worse, you can’t even open a website, nothing loads even when you have bars
Yeah honestly when I travelled to London very recently, I could barely get service on 5g
I’m on Vodafone. Live at Canary Wharf. Work in Fitzrovia / Bloomsbury. Pretty much have consistent 5g. Only place I have issues is around London Bridge.
The bigger scam really is EE selling you a “5G” SIM but capping speeds at 100mbps on some plans or even *10mbps* on the lowest.
The biggest problems with mobile network deployments are NIMBYs who clutch their pearls when a new mast is mentioned and object to the planning application and the difficulty in laying new backhaul to support the mast. 5G signal is one thing, having the fibre in the ground to carry the traffic back to the operators network is another.
The hoops (Wayleaves, consents for road closures etc) they have to jump through keep many people in jobs on both sides and costs millions and millions a year.
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