Very poor signal - kent and London

[SimonGr_2152070]

I've noticed a marked degradation int he quality of service i've received over the last few months or so.
While in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, London, I had absolutely no signal whatsoever for most of the time I was there - relying instead on their wifi. I had no bars on either 4g or 5g and 3g was non existent. And this was on two visits a couple of weeks apart.

Furthermore, lthe other day we visited Scotney Castle in Kent - and for the entire journey there and back we had little to no signal - in fact, we had a complete  blackout of any signal on any of our phones (all on Smarty) for most of the journey. 4g had 1 bar but no data was available, and at the site of the castle there was no signal whatsoever.

THis seems to be the trend and I am seeing other examples here and there with signal dropping or very weak signal with no internet.

I realise 3g is being turned off, and I am wondering if this is affecting overall reception, with more gongestion on 4g as a result?

Has anyone else noticed a notable degredation in performance and signal?

We are on a variety of iPhones ranging from 11 to 14 Pro max, and a Oneplus 8.

[JodieC]

Hi @SimonGr_2152070 

Thank you for reaching out to our SMARTY community Forum!

As with all telecommunications networks, we are unable to ensure continuous service availability in specific locations at all times. This policy is outlined in detail in sections 4.7 and 4.8 of our Terms and Conditions (T&Cs), please see here - https://shorturl.at/kqvQ1

If you haven’t already done so, you could try the following to regain a connection potentially;

• Restarting your device and/or resetting your Network Settings (this does not affect your device storage, apps, pictures, etc.). This will refresh your connection to the serving site, prompting a stronger signal.
• Toggling Airplane Mode/Mobile Data off and on. This essentially resets the IP connection, establishing a fresh new connection once linked to the network – this will prompt your device and SIM to connect to a stronger signal.
• You can remove any saved APN credentials, restart your handset and then re-add the required APN if your device doesn’t seem to automatically connect to a strong network signal – please find guidance on the correct APN set-up via the following link: https://help.smarty.co.uk/en/articles/1155220-using-the-internet-after-you-ve-joined-smarty.

These steps are a guide and does not guarantee your service will run without intermittent issues. 

You can also refer to our network status checker to keep up to date with any outages in your area: 

Network status checker | SMARTY

I hope this helps!

- Jodie

[SimonGr_2152070]

Thanks for your reply.
This really does not help though, and I am well aware that network signals can fluctuate as conditions change and congestion occurs at busy locations - however, compared to my experience with Smarty this time last year and leading up to the recent months, I have noticed a severe degradation. For example, in marginal signal areas I would always get data (responsive websites searches etc, Whatsapp messages downloading images correctly etc), but now I am lucky if I get a response at all, with  searches timing out and whatsapp messages not downloading their images.  It only seems to work when I have all bars filled on the signal indicator. 

Furthermore, changing APN settings, resetting, changing to airplane mode makes no difference.  Today, in my town I either had 1 bar of 4g or 1 bar of 5g - and nothing was working except voice.
In months gone by I had full 4g at the very least.

This matches the experience I have got out and about, with large swathes of areas with either absolutely no coverage or despite getting 1 or 2 bars, unresponsive internet.

This is not just my phone - as I said, all 4 of my family experience the same with 4 different models and types of phones, so it is not a device specific issue.

I am seriously looking at whether I need to take my business elsewhere as this is consistently causing issues. I will not pay for poor/no service, even if it appears to be good value.