Business / Lerwick’s 4G coverage ‘partly’ improved after Vodafone complaints
VODAFONE has claimed 4G service has been restored to Lerwick after one disgruntled customer provided evidence that the area was a blackspot.
Mark Ockendon wrote to the network operator that he could not access data at town sites including Tesco, Lerwick Town Hall and Gilbert Bain Hospital on 20 December.
He told Shetland News that though Vodafone said there was “good 4G coverage indoors and outdoors in Lerwick” there was in fact “zero 4G coverage”.
Ockendon produced charts detailing the lack of coverage across Lerwick, which Shetland News passed on to Vodafone late last year.
Vodafone has now insisted that the problem was resolved, claiming it was fixed before Christmas.
“Our team can confirm service was restored to this site prior to Christmas and it is now live,” a Vodafone spokesperson said.
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience while we restored service.”
Ockendon told Shetland News this week that was “partly correct” – but that a lot of issues still remained.
“Some areas have re-gained good 4G data connection (around the Market Cross and Victoria Pier), but most coverage across Lerwick is still very poor,” he said.
“Some areas still have next-to-no connection (Tesco area, Co-op area) and one area is now significantly worse (Holmsgarth terminal).
“It’s hard to say if this is a partial resolution or just a stop-gap measure. It’s certainly not ‘good 4G indoors and out’ as the Vodafone map continues to show.”
Ockendon went out again on Thursday to test Lerwick’s 4G, providing a new chart showing what speeds he was able to achieve in town.
While there were good speeds at the Market Cross tourist office and Victoria Pier, and improvements at the Lerwick police station, a number of areas still showed extremely slow download speeds.
Despite good coverage at the police station, there were oddly slow speeds at Lerwick Town Hall – just across the road.
And around North Ness, Viking bus station, Gilbert Bain Hospital and Islesburgh, 4G was still scarce.
“Vodafone didn’t explain why there was no 4G for so long, what engineering work was done, and whether there’s a plan to restore proper signal to the rest of Lerwick,” Ockendon said.
“It doesn’t instil confidence.”
Customers have also reported issues with other mobile providers in recent days, including iD Mobile and EE.
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