Poor service since three and Vodafone merger

These last few weeks my network connection has been dropping. 
The bars on my phone would go to zero and I would lose all mobile broadband.
I was used to excellent 5G coverage and very high speeds.

I thought that it might be the 5G antennae inside my phone (if there is one?) as my phone is about 4 years old. I could 'reconnect' by rebooting my phone. 

So I bought a new phone only to have the same issue. 
This led me to thinking that there might be something else happening.

So I did a search and asked if there had been any network issues since the merger, and found that a lot of issues have been reported.

Now I have a new phone that I didn't really need!
When the network disconnects me now, I have found that if I switch my phone into airplane mode for a few seconds, then back again, I reconnect. I guess that I will have to do this until hopefully, things improve.

I am in the Swansea, South Wales area and until a few weeks ago, had really great 5G coverage.