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Hi,
I have a Google Pixel 6a which is registered to Three. When I first got it data performance was ok but over the past six months or so it has got worse to the point it barely works in many areas which the coverage checker says should be ok.
I do a fair bit of travelling with work so I do not think it is a location issue. I was wondering if it was my phone that had issues until I went away to Kefalonia for a week and found that mobile data there was brilliant even a fair way outside towns.
I have updated the Pixel software without any improvement being evident. My wife is on O2 and generally gets better performance although not brilliant.
Is Three just a terrible provider? I know they are cheap so probably lots of users. Is there some setting that can be changed? I have tried changing the preferred network type from 5G to 4G but no better.
I use Free in France which means I get roaming with Three in the UK. I've just done a speed test with Free in Pau and it's 52Mbps with an old 4G Motorola. Madame's phone is 5G and somewhat faster 70 something IIRC. In comparison Three in the UK a couple of months ago was noticeably slow on my Motorola with apps such as Google Earth.
I was with Three for about 6 years. Coverage and speeds were farcical. Couldn't even get a signal in my own home in the middle of a busy town. When I left they referred me to debt collectors despite actually owing me money. Still waiting. With Tescos now. Not perfect, but in general much better.
Assuming you have a UK SIM it will always be better abroad. When outside of the UK it will use whatever network has the best signal, in the UK it will only use your own network (apart from 999 which can use any) So you will find fewer blind spots overseas than you do here (assuming similar proximity to mats etc)
Is Three just a terrible provider?
IME, yes.
Three's just merged with Vodafone so I expect sharing of masts/network should improve coverage - for Three customers at least, not sure it'll benefit Vodafone customers. I tried Three in the past and was absolutely hopeless coverage despite what maps say.
Vodafone works well for me but customer service has been farcical so I'm planning to change to Tesco (02 network) at renewal time.
My understanding is EE is generally the 'best' network for coverage but obviously there's variances depending where you live.
There is a reason three and it's MVNOs are the cheapest!
Thanks all for the feedback. International roaming using any network is interesting.
I think I will get some PAYG SIMs and test EE, O2 etc.
I used to travel regularly to Northern Sweden and Finland - even deep in the forest, miles from anywhere you could get a signal. When I live in Hampshire, there were places 10km from home and not far from the M3 where you’d get zero coverage. In Scotland across the Highlands and Islands there are agreements that let any user use a mast, you don’t need to subscribe to that service, however there are still lots of places with zero coverage.
A mate is a BA pilot and when I complained about how bad coverage is when I’m in the UK he said it’s the worst of all the countries he goes to.
Assuming you have a UK SIM it will always be better abroad. When outside of the UK it will use whatever network has the best signal, in the UK it will only use your own network (apart from 999 which can use any) So you will find fewer blind spots overseas than you do here (assuming similar proximity to mats etc)
This. I was recently in Slovenia, Croatia and Northern Italy and always has decent coverage as my phone (also a Pixel 6a) would seemlessly switch networks. I was using an Airalo European-wide ESim at the time.
MrsSalmon used to be on Three, coverage was pretty poor, even around big cities. We're both on O2 now which is pretty good, but we used to be on EE's network (with Plusnet) and I'd say that's the best I've had for coverage.
Ime they’re all between variously poor and almost tolerable depending on where you are in the UK. I’ve tried them all and couldn’t recommend one for everywhere I visit here.
I'm happy with BT/EE. Seems to cover almost everywhere I go now whereas I'd previously depended on a Spot Tracker for safety backup.
I'm on Threes network through ID and it's probably the worst I've used coverage and speed wise. Contract is up in October I think so I'll likely be trying EE but will look nearer the time
Assuming you have a UK SIM it will always be better abroad.
My experience differs as my O2 sim is poor outside of Spain. Most times I end up on a slow 4G connection and prior to that with a 4G phone I would be bumped onto 3G. It is slowly improving but 5G connections on mainland Europe can be difficult to sustain for me!
I think those of us who use the great outdoors are doomed as they turn off the 3g network. Coverage i think will shrink. 3 might be turning off faster but it all be off by the end of 2025
I used to travel regularly to Northern Sweden and Finland - even deep in the forest, miles from anywhere you could get a signalI've had the same experience, even with having a local SIM (so no hopping between networks as with normal roaming) i'm in the middle of nowhere and i get about 40 down and 10 up.
it's quite weird wild camping too, 20km from the nearest habitation and nearly that far from the nearest road and still enough to do whatsapp and so on. Don't think i'd fancy trying netflix mind... Last i was in the UK, you couldn't get *any* network in the village my dad lives in (1000 people, give or take) and the connectivity in my mums town (20000 people, in Somerset) was dire too.
Some of it is to do with the frequency they have allocated to them. The earlier networks bagged the best frequencies and kept them.
Don't forget when you're abroad you aren't necessarily limited to a single network so it might jump around between networks if coverage is bad. Sometimes I find I have to force my phone to connect to a better option that it has held on to.
But yes I have noticed that half way up a mountain in the Alps or in the middle of nowhere I often still have decent 5G speeds.
I'm on ID which uses Three and day to day it works well enough and because it's so cheap & includes roaming I've stuck with it. I do keep considering changing because it is very patchy whenever we go away but haven't bothered yet.
I was with Three for years (or other providers that use their network). But I now pay more to be on EE as I've found its a case of you get what you pay for basically. My issue with Three was that I would get great 4G/5G reception, but bugger all/no data speed - so connection to mast was good, but the network itself was so over-congested that it was unusable.
On the 'when roaming you get to use any network', there is a service that takes advantage of that - Honest's Smart SIM. It is a 'foreign number' and therefore will happily skip around networks to its hearts content. It's designed to be used as a secondary SIM, not data cap at all, only a fiver a month - but caveat is that it only works with certain apps (non data chugging ones), but the list is very big and growing.
https://join.honestmobile.com/smart-sim
Presume it's true elsewhere in the UK but when it came time to put 5G masts around our area all the old NIMBYs (and they were all old) were up in arms and spouting all sorts of Bad Science/Conspiracy Theory nonsense.
Probably not helping the 5G rollout...
Always found Europe to have good mobile coverage using a UK Sim.
When I was in Western Canada last summer using a Nomad ESim, there is basically no coverage for anyone on any network outside of built up areas and in small regional towns it was pretty poor too (e.g. Clinton, B.C.) This proved to be somewhat problematic when trying to find a place to sleep for the night when we were evacuated due to wildfires however Tim Horton's in Clearwater, B.C. has great Wi-Fi.
Is Three just a terrible provider?
Yes, people have always complained about it. I'm on EE and I'm hardly ever without signal even in remote areas, and even then it's only for a mile or two. The EE coverage checker is pretty good https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile-coverage-checker You can put in any postcode then pan the resulting map to the whole UK. Also note that it does 5G, 4G separately and you have to select on the right.
Also remember that having signal is not the same as having actual internet. I have Vodafone for work and often I have signal but the internet is throttled so much I can't really use it. It's because of the deal my company has with Vodafone. Lots of cheap providers e.g. Tesco rent bandwidth from other people and it's cheap because you don't get much.
But yes I have noticed that half way up a mountain in the Alps or in the middle of nowhere I often still have decent 5G speeds.
Often on mountainsides you get good signal because you're high up, of course, and in that huge vista you can see there is probably a line of sight to a cell tower somewhere. In valleys is a lot more difficult.
There always seems to be good coverage in the mountains of Eryri, I have even come across cell towers on mountainsides.
I can't say I've ever really had an issue with 3, although I only really surf the net to read stuff, rather than stream video or audio.
Just spent a week in the UK. Even roaming i had terrible connectivity and upload/download speeds.
Quite disconcerting actually. 20 minutes for an email to arrive, whatsapp taking 10 minutes to send/receive...
Interesting thread. I'm on Three & rarely struggle with poor signal.
It's normally in old stone pubs/modern steel buildings or when out in the middle of nowhere. But, from other people's experiences maybe I could be getting better network connection if I switched. I have been with Three for perhaps 13 years or so and just assumed that the network for most of the big providers was very similar.
I suppose the merger with Vodafone will improve the situation, so probably not the best time to consider switching.
I get much better signal and faster connection in Kenya (Safaricom) than I ever do in the UK. In my house in Leeds I get max two bars of 5G, not much better outside.
Our company moved globally from Vodafone to three (and their subsidiaries)
It is universally across the entire of my working group the most useless of all the providers we use.
Historically with vodafone. When I was in the field I've had good signal to work via 4g hotspot crossing the karakum in a the back of an old lucida or make phonecalls from the sadly now at the bottom of the ocean tavrida drilling rig out in the black sea.
With three I can't even make a call in my office in Aberdeen or receive emails at my house. -theres a mast on the hill behind my house...... Every other provider manages fine.
My personal O2 phone manages .
As does the Giffgaff SIM I transferred my company number to on account of the complete uselessness of three - put into the same phone
I would (and have) ditch three but not sure who to ..... I'm sure Vodafone will improve things in some instances.