Boss of mobile firm Three hits out at UK’s ‘abysmal’ signal coverage and speeds

https://news.sky.com/story/boss-of-mobile-firm-three-hits-out-at-uks-abysmal-signal-coverage-and-speeds-13197390

Posted by topotaul

28 Comments

  1. SoiledGrundies on

    It’s true. Travelling down to Gatwick from London I struggled for a while to send an iMessage on EE. Yet road tripping in Myanmar or Iraqi Kurdistan Im streaming music 20 miles from a town.

    That’s said this persons motivation isn’t to make the network wider or faster.

  2. Okay so I actually read the article.

    His argument is that the UK ranks 22/25th for 5g speed and availability in Europe, and while Three don’t have the capital or cashflow to solve that, Vodafone, the company they are hoping to merge with, does, and their combined efforts will improve mobile networks for everyone.

    It doesn’t logically follow that Vodafone, apparently sat on £11bn of investments ready to go, when taking on a company who lost £30m pre-tax in the first half of 2024, would suddenly actually use that money to improve infrastructure.

    In reality, all he wants is the merger to go through, and I’m sure a nice payout.

    We only have 4 networks, I hope it doesn’t become 3 and the CMA block this.

  3. We dont really have 5G in the UK. It’s just an enhanced 4G

    But its true. When roaming abroad i rarely have issues with speeds. In the UK i get less than 1mbps in some cities

  4. I wonder a lot how our networks are so bad, I can lose complete signal in built up areas, on the motorway, it’s infuriating lol.

    how do bigger less populated countries cope?! We should have head to toe coverage in the uk surely 🙈

  5. Dry_Construction4939 on

    I’ve heard and had my own complaints about mobile signal more than once but I’m yet to see an explanation as to why it’s so bad. Heck O2 have somehow managed to get worse in the past year and a half rather then better.

  6. I don’t understand how merging with Vodafone suddenly unlocks investment. Especially after there is less competition in the market, so the motivation to invest is reduced.

    This guy just wants a massive payout whilst thousands of his current employees lose their jobs in order to align “synergies”.

    I hope this one doesn’t get greenlit.

  7. BT have told people here for years that higher speeds arn’t viable. Now Virgin is laying it’s own cables everywhere so i guess BT just couldn’t be arsed to shoulder the cost.

  8. I thought having three Covid jabs meant that I would have exceptional reception but all I got was mild Covid symptoms

  9. We could have the phone networks work together to improve phone sevice like sharing mast space more often or even just expanding their networks

  10. Bertie-Marigold on

    That is rich coming from the worst network I ever wish I didn’t spend money on. I bought one of their portable MiFi box + contracts to use in my campervan and it was beyond shit. I complained until they released me from the contract but they tried to argue that the signal in my area was good… it was a portable MiFi box, not home internet! It took ages to explain to them what their own product was supposed to do. Went to a different provider and using the same hardware never had trouble again.

    Signal might not be perfect for other networks everywhere but Three are the absolute worst and need to sort their own problems out.

  11. Not too fused with the speeds, I just want coverage.

    Almost in the middle of a city of 300k people and no matter what provider I only get one bar here, two if I am outside.

  12. BatVisual5631 on

    If the operators paid landowners properly and didn’t treat them like an inconvenience, the operators would have less trouble putting new kit up and upgrading it. Instead they offer £100 a year to put kit up and threaten to go to court to do so if you say no. So of course everyone tells them to sod off and they struggle to get apparatus up.

  13. WelshBluebird1 on

    It’s almost like he runs a mobile network who could do with vastly improving their coverage and speeds!

  14. Wild, because I have been fuming about this recently. How do we not have good phone signal everywhere? Inb4 any loser gets all “not economically effective” on me, I don’t give a fuck why the fuck can’t this country do anything.

  15. AtillaThePundit on

    Huge sections of the M6 have no phone signal so I use what’s app and get significantly better call quality on mobile data . it’s a joke and makes no sense whatsoever . Same in the local town centres

  16. virindimaster on

    I’m sure it’s something to do with the government telling the phone providers they had to remove all huwaiwai tech from the masts. Or at least that’s what I read. I’m no tech whizz so I have no idea if it’s true or not.

  17. Affectionate_Pay1487 on

    Just like the Waterboys. I take my multi million bonus but the service just isn’t up to scratch in unfortunately unrelated news. You saw the whole of the cost.

  18. kahnindustries on

    In my town center we get 4g “full bars” but on O2 you get 0 data, vodafone works great, so we all have to tether off a vodafone phone while in the town centre

  19. Man I’ve notice a terrible difference over the last month, even at home with fast fibre not sure if it helps signal strength but it’s rubbish- O2

  20. Because this year we implemented the Huawei 5g ban and reduced how much traffic goes through by about half if I remember right.

    Alternative 5g hardware sucks since Huawei has very fundamental patents atm so we just shot ourselves in the foot because of usa security concerns, with no concerns to our own economic security.

  21. Brits really have lost out in mobile infrastructure. Terrible signal and coverage at home, and can’t use the better provisions abroad without paying through the nose for it.

  22. Away-Activity-469 on

    We’ve had wifi since victorian times, when the rest of the world was still using pigeons, which is why the UK struggles now because we were once so awesome. Nothing to do with taking the population for mugs and prioritising profits in absolutely everything.
    Take the eurostar, as soon as you’re away from dogshit island, suddenly you get data. Go to any other major city, and those tall buildings don’t interfere with the signal, oddly enough. Get a train, drive in a tunnel (nice roads, nice trains) – that’s right you don’t lose signal.
    The mobile signal is as much of an embarrassment as everything else in UK.

  23. ihaveadarkedge on

    Now hang on a minute Mr Three, you told me you have the best coverage in the UK…LITERALLY. Go in-store. Look to buy a phone and this very company will yell you *quite* the opposite.

  24. 3 has always had shit coverage. I have an old O2 SIM for the last 15 years that is grandfather into 3p a minute and gets coverage everywhere