Very Poor Signal - non-existant sometimes.

Reading previous posts I understand that Lebara may be getting a raw deal? from Vodaphone or that's the contract with Vodaphone. I live in a very poor reception area and it would bw very helpful if Lebara could do something about this. I have been with Lebara for sometime but it is getting irritating trying to do online services.

What does Vodafone coverage checker show for your areas.

Signal outside, but only if you find the right spot. I am about 2 miles from the A1 but over a couple of low hills and in a small valley. Searches show three masts all about the same distance away and over other low hills.

What does Vodafone checker show for your area for 2g/4g/5g coverage

2g and 4g good outdoors only, (in the right spot). 5g no coverage yet. 5g Ultra No coverage yet

As Lebara is based on Vodafone network have to wait for Vodafone build out to happen. Though with merger between 3 + Vodafone big investments are coming in core network

Reading previous posts I understand that Lebara may be getting a raw deal? from Vodaphone or that's the contract with Vodaphone. I live in a very poor reception area and it would bw very helpful if Lebara could do something about this. I have been with Lebara for sometime but it is getting irritating trying to do online services.

OK as someone who used to work for Vodafone before retirement three years ago and ran a team of 20 Field Engineers responsible for maintaining the Vodafone network (both mobile & fixed line) I think I can offer some helpful insight to this question.

Also, prior to going to the dark side of management I was a field engineer for 21 years with a military P2P microwave radio background prior to that.

I see a lot of conjecture appearing on this community based on very little facts IMHO.

Firstly, the RF signal that you get i.e. "reception" does not differentiate between the MNO & the MVNO i.e. Vodafone & Lebara respectively. i.e. It is the same signal between the handset and the cell sites antenna/RF equipment.

The strength and quality of the RF signal can only be improved by the deployment of further cell sites in the area concerned. Although I have no direct experience of dealing with MVNO’s I doubt very much that Lebara have enough commercial clout to influence Vodafone’s network planning decisions. It was next to impossible for the Field Engineering team to influence their decision plans and we worked for them!

But of course the strength and quality of the RF signal will affect the bandwidth that can be transmitted between the handset and the cell site. i.e. poor signal from interference, weather/fault attenuation, RF reflection from wet trees/structures = poor data rates due to dropped packets, resend requests etc. But no data throttling is carried out at a cell site level as they simply do not have the technology deployed to carry out the ethernet packet data inspection required to determine the data packets origine i.e. MNO or MVNO traffic.

But some MVNO’s data can be throttled within the MNO’s core network if that is what the MNO has agreed to do commercially with the MVNO it is carrying. And this could also be a factor in why certain MVNO’s can offer cheaper deals than the MNO carrying its virtual network i.e. their data has a lower priority flag imbedded in the ethernet packet header and can be dropped if required. So that is reflected in the contract with the MNO as it is a sub-standard service.

As you can imagine these agreements will be of a highly commercially sensitive nature so it would be very unusual for this information to be published and made available the general public. In fact, from my own personal experience outside of the Commercial sales teams I suspect nobody within the MNOs/MVNOs would be aware of this information.

However this independently published white paper may give you some insight into the performance of the MNO networks vs the MVNO’s.

https://www.policytracker.com/wp-content/uploads/PolicyTracker-MNOs-vs-MVNOS-white-paper.pdf

It is about as close to the truth you with get in my honest opinion.

As its signal related don't think much Lebara can do.

Veryoldun You have answered your own question, its a signal coverage issue, so you need to change provider to an operator or virtual operator that has good in building signal coverage where you live.

Have a look at the Cell mapper web site if you can and see what it shows you if you want real world data and not the operators marketing hype you see on their online Network Coverage maps

https://www.cellmapper.net

Thanks to you all., I realise it is a signal coverage issue. Been trying to find any sort of future installation program for new towers. Perhpas we will finish up in the 1% with no coverage. Pretty happy with the Internet., Openreach put in fttp three years back. PS my phone doesn't do Wifi connect.

If you look on Vodafone site there is toggle in coverage checker for like future. Show 3 month plan its called.

Superuser25 Checked out the 3 months plan as suggested and it shows a difference. 4g goes from outdoors only to limited and from 2 bars to 1 bar so I guess we can't look forward to anything better for at least 3 months.

When I was a Vodafone customer I had no trouble with phone calls indoors but since I joined Lebara I need to use WiFi with call assist otherwise the call breaks up which isn't ideal.