EE, Orange and T-Mobile customers around the UK are reporting that their 3G service has deteriorated since the company launched its 4G network at the end of October. (See: How to get iPhone 4G LTE on your iPhone 5 with Everything Everywhere (EE) - UK guide)
Problems connecting to the internet via 3G have been reported in Manchester, Preston, East London, Hull, as well as parts of Cornwall, Scotland and the North West, leading to speculation that the company is deliberately throttling its 3G service to encourage customers to upgrade to 4G.
"Since service changed from Orange to #EE the 3G speeds have gone rubbish, what I [sic] doing about it!!" tweeted @DomSowler from Oldham.
"3G coverage on my iPhone4 has become effectively nonexistent recently. It's becoming more&more frustrating as tmobile used to be great," said @StephenJConroy from Hamilton, Scotland.
"Beyond SICK of @EE - this 3G connection makes me want to cry! It used to be fine... #conspiracytobuy4G" added @LizzieCougz from East Yorkshire.
EE told Techworld that the company is aware of a few isolated issues, but denied that those issues had anything to do with the rollout of its 4G network.
"There is a potential, when upgrading to 4G, that there is an impact on 2G. In the process of switching on the base station there may be a temporary outage of an hour or two," a spokesperson said.
"However, there should be no impact on 3G. This is not a nation-wide issue."
Orange previously suffered an outage at the beginning of November - just days after the launch of EE's 4G service. (EE's network runs over Orange and T-Mobile's combined infrastructure).
The company confirmed that "some customers could not access 2G and 3G data" for a short period of time, but that this issue was quickly rectified. Calls and texts were unaffected.
Meanwhile, the company is being investigated by Trading Standards following a complaint that its advertisements are "grossly misleading".
Earlier this month, a man from Plymouth complained to Trading Standards over a poster in his local EE store which claimed that "4G is here," even though the nearest 4G signal to Plymouth is 120 miles away in Bristol.
EE said that this was an isolated error, and the poster has since been removed. The company added that it won't be advertising 4G overtly in those stores that are not in 4G covered cities.
EE's 4G service is currently available in Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Sheffield and Southampton. The service will be available in a further five cities before Christmas, with more cities and rural locations planned for 2013.
See also
EE and Vodafone users to get free Tube WiFi
Apple may bring out iPhone 6 in the spring, report
How to get iPhone 4G LTE on your iPhone 5 with Everything Everywhere (EE) - UK guide
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Comments received
cgs101 said on Wed, 28 Nov 2012
This is very true indeed and I've been reporting it to them frequently. 3G is either non-existent or throttled (phone shows perfect signal amd 3G but no data is coming down!). Also, and this is equally annoying, phone bizarrely changes from EE to "T-Mobile" which according to them doesn't exist anymore (like Orange) and I was never a T-Mobile customer!! Finally, overall signal in central London is noticeably worse, I've gone from 4-5 bars to 1-3.
I hope they get their act together as this makes me want to change networks NOT move to 4G.
Geminem said on Fri, 30 Nov 2012
I don't even have 4g in my area. But our tmobile signal has been suffering since 4g came about.
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