Getting anything done on a Vodafone connection is proving rather difficult nowadays

How are you getting on with Vodafone? It’s subjective, I know, but I’m having real trouble with the company’s network capabilities. Whether I’m in the centre of London or in the middle of rural Hampshire, the performance appears to be universally abysmal.

It wasn’t always this way. I used to get pretty decent throughput more or less anywhere in the UK.

Now, it feels like I’m getting a degraded service. If I had to characterise it, I’d say that it’s now like using a ‘good’ GRPS connection.

I haven’t bothered looking at actual network speeds with the various speed ratings apps. I care far more about how quickly things download, how quickly my phone responds to basic things like loading a webpage or updating an app.

Increasingly I have turned to depending on my EE connection principally through the MiFi unit I’ve been using on long term test from the company. The 4G connectivity is far, far superior to anything Vodafone currently offer me. My iPad Mini runs my own personal EE connection and as a consequence I often don’t use my iPhone or BlackBerry (both on Vodafone) because I consciously choose the iPad with the LTE label top left (i.e. 4G). I’m never disappointed.

The one exception to this experience is my 3 handset. I still find their connectivity pretty good across the board. I just haven’t plucked up the courage to swap away from Vodafone yet.

It’s coming though.

What is your experience of the networks at the moment? How are you getting on with your contract(s)?