back to article Misery for Virgin Media mobe customers over mysterious 'EE data centre gaffe'

An unknown number of Virgin Media customers, who have been complaining about a shocking mobile service for at least the past fortnight, are being asked to wait for EE to resolve a technical blunder at its data centre. Gripes about new SIM cards that were recently issued by Liberty Global-owned Virgin Media have spiked in …

  1. dmck

    Crap EE

    I very seldom can get much in the way of data download from EE in Edinburgh.

    Even pings fail and have done for the last 9 months, so I would not hold out much hope for getting anything fixed.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Crap EE

      EE are hobbling and nobbling the data speeds to the customers who are still on the Orange Plan to get you to upgrade to the 4G service, if you actually live somewhere to get it that is.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Crap EE

      Agreed, data speeds have slowed on 3G no doubt an attempt to get you to upgrade to 4G sadly not available here. Also EE Broadband is so traffic managed it is almost impossible to stream during the evening without constantly being in buffering mode.

      Also the number of failed calls has significantly increased.

  2. Gordan

    You mean that isn't "normal" for EE?

    I've generally crawling 3G data on mine in most places since I joined the network years ago (2010 IIRC). For example, there is plenty of 3G signal between Waterloo and Clapham Junction but I hardly ever manage to get a single data packet in/out in that area. It improves slightly further away from central London.

    I just assumed this was normal, regular crapness of networks being shit. I was with O2 before and the data on their network was just as bad, so I didn't notice things getting any worse.

    Is this definitely a new, different issue, over and above the normal level of uselessness?

    1. AlbertH

      Re: You mean that isn't "normal" for EE?

      It's deliberate. EE have crippled their 2G and 3G facilities in an effort to FORCE their users to move to more expensive 4G plans. This is a dirty, underhanded tactic and is contrary to the terms of their licence. OFCOM claim to be "investigating" but I wouldn't trust them to find knockers on Page 3....

      EE deserve to be stripped of their licences and have their infrastructure forcibly divided up between the remaining networks.......

  3. Da Weezil

    I seem to recall reading somewhere fairly recently about some SIMs being shown to have software included that deliberately downgrades service/reception quality for some customers on cheaper or PAYG contracts, I wonder if this is a case of borked "throttling" software being on SIMs issued to "lower tier" customers by a network?

  4. PaulR79

    EE on a roll

    After their magical one fibre breaking data for the entire T-Mobile customer base this doesn't surprise me at all. Only they could run a network for the whole country with data relying on a single point of failure. EE I could sometimes get E as in Edge network in a pretty populated area and around the city centre here and a best speed test result of about 3Mbps down and 0.7Mbps up. I switched over to 3 this week and now see a normal speed of 10 - 15Mbps down and 5Mbps up.

    Virgin, why are you letting them take so long? I assume that Virgin got money back or some sort of corporate apology. Why have you not passed it on to customers?

  5. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Weekend and so...

    ...with poo impacting on the ventilation no one can be found to comment. How much do these guys get paid?

  6. MrE

    Data seems to be back up and running here in Wales

    Well after a week of no data on Virgin Mobile myself they seem to have now fixed the problem and I have a better data throughput than I had since getting my SIM back in April. Lets hope they keep on top of it from now on!

  7. PonsonbyDeVille

    Not just EE...VodaFone are equally cr@p

    Try topping up a PAYG phone via the web on VodaFone right now, their service is worse than useless. And when you try to do it via their 2345 dialin number it tells you that your top up is successful and then your credit expires inside of 2 days because they didn't apply the right package!!

    All of these phone providers need a kick up the jacksy.....

  8. swampdog

    I also get extremely poor 3G data speeds near Nottingham city centre.

    Ditto.

    Last 20 days or so. Was beginning to think I'd picked up a virus!

    1. Fogcat

      Re: I also get extremely poor 3G data speeds near Nottingham city centre.

      Same here (Nottingham). I've only been with them about 6 weeks, so thought it was normal and had started looking around for another deal.

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