Das reiche Land mit dem schlechtesten Mobilfunkdienst

The local NIMBYs have managed to veto two 5G masts in the local area as 1: eyesore (whilst surrounded by trees), or 2: too close to a school.

Therefore we have absolutely crap 5G reception in the local area.

So don’t come complaining about it to me.

It’s going to be an interesting competition over the next few years to see which of the US or the UK wins the most ‘the rich country with the worst…’ titles.

The UK is quite an utter joke when it comes to telecom regulations.

They can’t even get the bare minimum of having the providers be accountable with regards to providing the advertised speed of their home internet service. And that’s not even touching all the anti-consumer practices: minimum contract length, prices that goes up every year, and why the fuck does every provider has to run a fibre to my home?

We haven’t started with cell service where the coverage is hilariously bad. You don’t even need to go out of London to have spotty service. It’s amazing how much it is in other countries. Some even have cell service in their metro system. They are flexing at this point.

Other countries have figured this out yet the UK can’t or just won’t. Thankfully we’re better with other types of infrastructure, right?… oh wait… forget about water, trains, electricity… Well, at least the financial system is working pretty well (not ironic).

The UK is around 26th in the world for GDP per capita. So this is about right – you expect top tier services from a country towards the bottom the the list of “rich” countries?

Profits! Profits dear friend, won’t you think of the profits? Why cut profits and provide a good service when customers will pay if they have a network or not. Your everyday profit driven corporation has no intention of caring about if you actually have a satisfactory service you have paid them for before it is financially worthwhile for them.

My mobile phone mast has been down in my area for over 2 months now and nobody seems bothered to fix it.

It’s run by O2, I have a contract with GiffGaff and they refunded me after a month and told me they couldn’t get anyone to fix it and that I should go elsewhere.

The issue is, EE has like no signal here either, so I’ve actually got zero mobile phone options in the 5th most populated city in Scotland.

Similarly, when I lived out in the sticks my options was a 4G contract with EE getting around 2 bars and crashing out constantly. Or an ADSL Connection with BT.

Horrible options all round.

Is it all mobile providers? I’m with O2 and they are rubbish.

But it will get better next April won’t it as my prices will go up and that will definitely be used to improve right? Right?!

Would be interesting if there was a comparison to mast density as well as just base on the number of stories I see in the press around mass complaints it fills the UK hass more nimbyism on that front

Don’t worry, Germany’s just as horrible, if not worse

I just get a bit sick of people knocking UK all the time. I am on the edge of a middle sized city and get FTTP for £30 and a 5G signal that runs at 200 to 400 meg download…

All of the comments about ‘x third-world country has better 4G or 5G than the UK misses the point rather. Many or most 3rd-world countries never had decent wired networks and have jumped straight to modern cellular infrastructure. We in UK are burdened with Victorian and similar legacy networks to be removed and/or upgraded – we had wired phone infrastructure decades or centuries before those countries.

(It’s a similar story with railways and maybe even hospitals… – not to mention ‘NIMBY you can’t install a 5G mast near my house where it will make me glow in the dark…)

It absolutely baffles me. Having spent lots of time travelling over the past couple of years, I found myself able to get very fast immobile internet connection in places that wouldn’t get that sort of attention here. From rural parts of Thailand (well and truly in the sticks), in the middle of the ocean in Malaysia – when I’ve been taking boat trips, and even at the top of the highest mountain in Malaysia I was able to get one or two bars of 4G… puts our country to shame!

People in Ventnor have reported roaming charges because their phone connects via France.

I could swear mobile coverage has got worse since 4G and now 5G, where I live were lucky to get 3G data (and this is a commuter town 45mins from London)

I’ve worked in the industry for 2 decades across 2 major providers at a senior level and I’m at the point where I can no longer defend the indefensible,

As an insider, I can say with confidence it’s very much about “line goes up”,

Price increases – This went from no annual increase to change with inflation, to change with the higher rate of inflation (RPI) to change with the higher rate of inflation + an arbitrary 3.9%. This is now about to change to a flat pound note increase often meaning those on lower tariffs will be hit harder.

Foreign ownership – the mass purchasing of our core communications networks by external foreign entity’s should ring alarm bells and should be seen as a huge scandal,
CK hutch, black rock, Bharti, liberty global, emirates and Telefónica all have massive ownership of how our businesses, citizens and government communicate,

Mergers – Our representatives have been awful at regulation, ck hutch (Three) swallowing o2 being stopped was a good step but this was won on appeal, although the deal had fallen through,

I have no idea how the EE deal was ever signed off and then the subsequent BT takeover, this then paved the road for virgin o2 and soon to be hutch+voda,

This has meant less consumer choice, (although an illusion of one given MVNO’s – Smarty,Voxi,giffgaff all remain major network holdings),

Networks continue to deteriorate, capacity is a real issue and you’ll find yourself unable to use devices at peak times or in population areas, good luck checking how late your train is on a platform at 5PM or downloading your concert tickets from your email at a stadium,

Mass lay offs and poor wage increases leading to brain drain – thousands of lay offs across the industry of high tenure talented individuals who genuinely care about customers. They can see the writing on the wall and jump at voluntary redundancy because they know they can secure a role elsewhere, where as the real bottom of the barrel clings on for dear life as they know they are shit,

Poor wage increases are scandalous too, hit your customers with a 17% price increase and offer your staff 2%, only increase after mass outrage by a very small amount and it drives attrition,

Expect things to get worse, I’m saddened by the state of an industry I once adored,

When I come over on the Eurostar I get signal most of the way until we hit the UK, then it’s awful.

Even the highlands have a better signal than I do at home..