Villa Park Mobile Coverage

[Sdwbvf]

EE works in 5G in A8

[edgysatsuma89]

This is a general view and not just about VP but EE is the most expensive and it's for good reason as they piss on the rest. 3 is the worst of all the networks I have been on by a country mile. I'm currently with o2 and I'd say it is slightly below Vodafone. Basically, if you have 3, from my experience, they're a load of shite, but the jump from the rest to EE is a big one.

[Pat McMahon]

This is a general view and not just about VP but EE is the most expensive and it's for good reason as they piss on the rest. 3 is the worst of all the networks I have been on by a country mile. I'm currently with o2 and I'd say it is slightly below Vodafone. Basically, if you have 3, from my experience, they're a load of shite, but the jump from the rest to EE is a big one.

I agree on 3 I was with them for the past two years and they are terrible, the worst I’ve had. I live in zone 2 in London and frequently had no signal between home and work.

I’m told that EE have their own infrastructure and thus are the best by a mile, which is why they can charge more. They were very good when I had them a few years ago. I’m currently with Vodafone who are somewhere in between the above two.

[Percy McCarthy]

Vodafone works okay for me. I can have a quick look at the match thread on here at half-time, and occasionally have looked at replays if the game I’m at is on Sky or discovery as I am a subscriber. That’s on my mobile data. I’m not a fan of free wi-fi. We have it at work and it doesn’t work - people say it’s because too many people are using it, but there’s only 50/60 blokes on each shift. It’s also crap on the bus and when walking around Asda. In all these locations I have to use my mobile data. So I’m not exactly confident wi-fi would work at VP with 40,000 in it.

[pauliewalnuts]

65k at Cheltenham races and they have improved it massively. No HT to cope with mind.

Spread over an immensely bigger area, though.

[pauliewalnuts]

This is a general view and not just about VP but EE is the most expensive and it's for good reason as they piss on the rest. 3 is the worst of all the networks I have been on by a country mile. I'm currently with o2 and I'd say it is slightly below Vodafone. Basically, if you have 3, from my experience, they're a load of shite, but the jump from the rest to EE is a big one.

I have just exited a 2 year contract with 3, thank fuck, they're absolutely shit.

[rjp]

I am on 3 and get just enough signal to check scores in K7.

3 are about to merge with Vodafone.

It is illegal under Net Neutrality laws for any ISP (including phone companies) to slow down or block access to individual websites.  The betting sites are probably just storing more data on your device and highly optimising the last bit of data you need to get to a front page.  They will understand the size of the potential market and will have invested a lot in finding ways to keep it working in low bandwidth situations.  Most websites don't need to bother with that.

I'm not a WiFi Engineer but I've seen enough about it to know that even doing indoors at VP is a massive engineering challenge.  To do the main stadium, whilst not impossible, would take someone with a lot of skill and cost a lot of money.

[edgysatsuma89]

This is a general view and not just about VP but EE is the most expensive and it's for good reason as they piss on the rest. 3 is the worst of all the networks I have been on by a country mile. I'm currently with o2 and I'd say it is slightly below Vodafone. Basically, if you have 3, from my experience, they're a load of shite, but the jump from the rest to EE is a big one.

I have just exited a 2 year contract with 3, thank fuck, they're absolutely shit.

I tried them twice 6 years apart... on both occasions I exited my contract within 14 days. I thought 6 years was long enough for them to have improved but clearly not. Make that 8 years including your 2.

[claret+blue ed]

I'm with O2 and for years have not been able to get any kind of signal within half a mile of VP, even when I have had my work phone which is EE, I still don't get a signal

This is from all different areas of VP, it used to wind me up big style seeing people around me checking scores, on social media, betting, sending messages etc, just like normal and couldn't even check if the wife had got her arse out of bed!!

I got all excited earlier this year when I tried and it showed up 'AVFC free' as a network, but it wouldn't connect!

The signal does seem a little better this year, I have been able to send an receive messages now and again, but still not to any decent standard

[ozzjim]

I'm with 3 and generally fine during the match, but useless at half time. Vodafone was just as bad. Generally though in Birmingham I have found 3 to be much better on 5g than Vodafone was and better than my O2 work phone is. I guess it's where you go etc. VP needs a half decent WiFi set up. Pathetic that it hasn't sorted it yet.

[Clampy]

I'm on Vodafone. Trying to get on before the game for a last minute bet can be tricky but I'm often asked to 'check the scores' during the game and I can normally get on fine.

[Somniloquism]

I'm with 3 and generally fine during the match, but useless at half time. Vodafone was just as bad. Generally though in Birmingham I have found 3 to be much better on 5g than Vodafone was and better than my O2 work phone is. I guess it's where you go etc. VP needs a half decent WiFi set up. Pathetic that it hasn't sorted it yet.

Not really. As rjp intimated, it isn't the easiest thing to give WIFI to 10k devices* in one location with enough speed to actually do anything with. For example each of the wifi boxes you see dotted around places are rated to 250 devices, however really are only good between 50-100 max. Tottenham are one of the few with supposedly decent wifi**, but then it was the newest stadium and designed in at the build stage to some extent. 

*Based on 1 in 4 connecting.

** Although not confirmed if what they state they offer is actually what the fans experience.

[LeeB]

This is a general view and not just about VP but EE is the most expensive and it's for good reason as they piss on the rest. 3 is the worst of all the networks I have been on by a country mile. I'm currently with o2 and I'd say it is slightly below Vodafone. Basically, if you have 3, from my experience, they're a load of shite, but the jump from the rest to EE is a big one.

I have just exited a 2 year contract with 3, thank fuck, they're absolutely shit.

Dont sign up to contracts folks, loads of sim only deals around. If the network is shit for you, you can just switch.

[ozzjim]

I'm with 3 and generally fine during the match, but useless at half time. Vodafone was just as bad. Generally though in Birmingham I have found 3 to be much better on 5g than Vodafone was and better than my O2 work phone is. I guess it's where you go etc. VP needs a half decent WiFi set up. Pathetic that it hasn't sorted it yet.

Not really. As rjp intimated, it isn't the easiest thing to give WIFI to 10k devices* in one location with enough speed to actually do anything with. For example each of the wifi boxes you see dotted around places are rated to 250 devices, however really are only good between 50-100 max. Tottenham are one of the few with supposedly decent wifi**, but then it was the newest stadium and designed in at the build stage to some extent. 

*Based on 1 in 4 connecting.

** Although not confirmed if what they state they offer is actually what the fans experience.

It's solvable you just need to design it properly and commit to working with the right partner to implement it well. And would sit outside any spending restrictions as it's infrastructure cost.

[pauliewalnuts]

It is illegal under Net Neutrality laws for any ISP (including phone companies) to slow down or block access to individual websites.  The betting sites are probably just storing more data on your device and highly optimising the last bit of data you need to get to a front page.  They will understand the size of the potential market and will have invested a lot in finding ways to keep it working in low bandwidth situations.  Most websites don't need to bother with that.

I spent 5 years plus writing live betting systems for bookmakers, and that is exactly what it is.

It is not so pronounced now, because the tech of how it is done has changed, but back in my day, live odds and markets require a lot of data to be hosed down, and absolutely it becomes about making that data as compressed and minimal as possible to ensure the sites are responsive.

There used to be other factors, too, which probably aren't so much the case any more, but when we used to do work for Irish bookies, Paddy Power, Boylesports etc, they were always extremely big on the low-bandwidth thing, as they had a lot of customers in rural Ireland who were still on awful connections.