EE at Glastonbury 2022

[Sku]

Both EE and O2 routinely put up temporary masts at most major UK festivals to help deal with capacity. And most other networks piggy back on this additional infrastructure.

Three do not put up any temporary masts for festivals, so you are stuck with whichever permanent mast usually serves the local area, which is woefully inadequate. They do not piggyback on other providers, which is why it is by far the worst network for using at any major festival.

One things that confuses me, is I'm not sure if the EE partnership blocks O2 out from erecting their own masts at Glastonbury, as they so at the other major festivals. I can't find any information suggesting O2 put up temporary masts at Glastonbury, but I know they do at Boomtown, Reading, Leeds, Download, etc....

[Alvoram]

2 minutes ago, Sku said:

Both EE and O2 routinely put up temporary masts at most major UK festivals to help deal with capacity. And most other networks piggy back on this additional infrastructure.

Three do not put up any temporary masts for festivals, so you are stuck with whichever permanent mast usually serves the local area, which is woefully inadequate. They do not piggyback on other providers, which is why it is by far the worst network for using at any major festival.

One things that confuses me, is I'm not sure if the EE partnership blocks O2 out from erecting their own masts at Glastonbury, as they so at the other major festivals. I can't find any information suggesting O2 put up temporary masts at Glastonbury, but I know they do at Boomtown, Reading, Leeds, Download, etc....

Never struggled with Three at other mass gatherings. At the England semi final at Wembley last year I had no issues getting online where others did. I've always put it down to a comparatively lower userbase for their network. They only have a 10% UK market share. And the 3 MVNO's that use their network collectively account for around 1-2%, whereas the MVNOs that use the likes of EE and especially O2, have a decent market slice themselves. 

[Sku]

6 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Never struggled with Three at other mass gatherings. At the England semi final at Wembley last year I had no issues getting online where others did. I've always put it down to a comparatively lower userbase for their network. They only have a 10% UK market share. And the 3 MVNO's that use their network collectively account for around 1-2%, whereas the MVNOs that use the likes of EE and especially O2, have a decent market slice themselves. 

You see, I had the exact opposite experience to you, and finally left Three after about 10 years with them in 2019, owing to the poor performance at events.

I noticed my friends were able to use their phone data at festivals, and mine was always completely hopeless. When I found out about the fact they don't bother putting any temporary masts up, that was the final nail for me!

Of course, some of this is always subjective, and it sounds like you had a different experience to me! Of course, Wembley might be a different kettle of fish, because it's in a built up area that regularly holds large events, so permanent infrastructure is already in place.

[Alvoram]

2 minutes ago, Sku said:

Of course, some of this is always subjective, and it sounds like you had a different experience to me! Of course, Wembley might be a different kettle of fish, because it's in a built up area that regularly holds large events, so permanent infrastructure is already in place.

It's also worth remembering that most of the sites of 'mass gatherings' I'm referring to are year round venues. Football grounds, concert venues, theme parks...

Three will have presumably given more thought to permanent infrastructure for these venues. Wembley for example has a capacity of 90k most weeks. At the time of the semi final the capacity was 'supposed' to be 60k. 10% of 60k is only 6k, if they have given any thought whatsoever to their permanent infrastructure in that area, it should have been a breeze to be fair.

This is my first Glastonbury, and may well be a different kettle of fish, hence I've opted for an EE e-SIM as a second sim backup option. 🙂 

(As a side note, Three is the only decent internet I can get in my village, the supposed 'fibre' we can get only goes as far as the next village, leaving us with 12 mbps on fibre prices, and other networks haven't installed 5g out here. But my Three 5g router consistently gives us 500-1000mbps solid connection, so we now use it as our main home broadband. I think they've been doing this in a lot of rural areas, to bridge the gaps that OpenReach and Virgin cannot fill.)

[Metal Monkey]

Has anyone seen any offers on for an EE SIM on a 1 month contract? Cheapest I've seen is £21 for 1 gig. 

[Alvoram]

4 minutes ago, Metal Monkey said:

Has anyone seen any offers on for an EE SIM on a 1 month contract? Cheapest I've seen is £21 for 1 gig. 

The one I just got was £20 for 160GB!!!

I ordered this on the 13th May... Surely it hasn't got that much worse so soon?

Edit: Ohhh Just realised you said 1 month 🙈

Edited May 25, 2022 by Alvoram
Correction

[DeanoL]

I've never found Three to be problematically bad. I mean, yeah maybe it took a while to update my Facebook feed, but my text messages and WhatsApp stuff came through fine - I wasn't missing missing messages from friends on site about meeting up or whatever. It was just a bit slow.

[Metal Monkey]

2 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

The one I just got was £20 for 160GB!!!

I ordered this on the 13th May... Surely it hasn't got that much worse so soon?

Edit: Ohhh Just realised you said 1 month 🙈

Yeah I don't want a new contract, just a temp one for the festival. It's amazing how little you get on a month contract. 

[jimmillen]

7 minutes ago, Metal Monkey said:

Has anyone seen any offers on for an EE SIM on a 1 month contract? Cheapest I've seen is £21 for 1 gig. 

Have a look at PAYG SIM packages, not 30-day contract pay monthly - massive difference in cost 😉

Alternatively as I previously shared, PlusNet Mobile use EE network and have cheaper SIM only plans.

[Alvoram]

Just now, Metal Monkey said:

Yeah I don't want a new contract, just a temp one for the festival. It's amazing how little you get on a month contract. 

Get the 24 Month the week before the fest... Then cancel it on the Monday... (14 day legal cooling off period) 

You'll have to pay for the month... but who cares?

Naughty I know, but naughty is sometimes nice... 😈

[rmartin1803]

14 minutes ago, Metal Monkey said:

Has anyone seen any offers on for an EE SIM on a 1 month contract? Cheapest I've seen is £21 for 1 gig. 

Go with Plusnet Mobile £10 for 30GB monthly they use the EE network 

[Alvoram]

4 minutes ago, rmartin1803 said:

Go with Plusnet Mobile £10 for 30GB monthly they use the EE network 

That is a really good deal!!! Does that include 5g? 

EDIT: Never mind, just checked it out, 4g only 😞 Still great for what you'd use it for at a festival I should imagine, but you almost had me cancelling this EE sim for a second there (Which I intend to use after the festival, and would appreciate 5g) 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Alvoram

[Tony Zografos please]

2 hours ago, eddie_corrigan said:

Looks like they’re not doing the power bars then…

that's really shit if they have stopped doing that. it was so handy last time

[JJrock69]

Do these EE charging areas allow us to charge powerbanks too? 

[clarkete]

59 minutes ago, Tony Zografos please said:

that's really shit if they have stopped doing that. it was so handy last time

Plenty of cost effective options for different capacities, weights and budgets...
Spend 10-20 quid, bring in bag, use for days, take home and use for other holidays, journeys and festivals in the future.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/top-portable-chargers

[clarkete]

Their link doesn't contain that many answers as yet, maybe tweet them your questions:-
https://newsroom.ee.co.uk/ee-predicts-data-usage-will-double-at-glastonbury-2022/

 

[stuie]

35 minutes ago, clarkete said:

Plenty of cost effective options for different capacities, weights and budgets...
Spend 10-20 quid, bring in bag, use for days, take home and use for other holidays, journeys and festivals in the future.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/top-portable-chargers

I use mine more than I use chargers plugged in the wall!  It's handy to sit on the sofa or lay in bed connected to a charge pack! Also keeps them in good condition rather than just using them once or twice a year I think.

[stuie]

@dotdash79has spotted the first EE tower has gone up on the farm, over in the Glastocam thread. 

 

5 minutes ago, dotdash79 said:

First temporary communications tower has gone up

 

[Metal Monkey]

2 hours ago, Alvoram said:

Get the 24 Month the week before the fest... Then cancel it on the Monday... (14 day legal cooling off period) 

You'll have to pay for the month... but who cares?

Naughty I know, but naughty is sometimes nice... 😈

That's tempting but I'm not expecting to be in any state to sort out cancelling the contract on Monday or at any point the week after, so may be a bad idea!

[Metal Monkey]

1 hour ago, rmartin1803 said:

Go with Plusnet Mobile £10 for 30GB monthly they use the EE network 

That sounds good. Would EE have priority over Plusnet if it's congested I wonder?

[clarkete]

44 minutes ago, stuie said:

I use mine more than I use chargers plugged in the wall!  It's handy to sit on the sofa or lay in bed connected to a charge pack! Also keeps them in good condition rather than just using them once or twice a year I think.

Yes, I have one next to the sofa as there isn't a socket there, so it can be convenient.  I just checked and that 15000 one I bought in 2014 and it's been to 5 Glastonbury's, Europe, USA, Mexico, Africa.  In several of those places I expected to be able to use a mains or car adapter but didn't have the right cable or it didn't work, so was invaluable to have a fallback - especially if you're relying on it to book accommodation, find grub or do sat nav 🙂 

Also - who's signing up to a new network for Glastonbury?

I've never found the coverage that bad across any network, well not in the last few years.

Edited May 25, 2022 by clarkete

[croiz]

6 minutes ago, clarkete said:

Also - who's signing up to a new network for Glastonbury?

I've never found the coverage that bad across any network, well not in the last few years.

I've gone the way of Plusnet, specifically for Glastonbury.... £8 for 15Gb on monthly rolling contract.

[WestCountryGirl]

Bit miffed as an iD mobile user - I've always found them to be great, and reverted back to them for an excellent contract deal earlier this year. When I had been with them in the past they piggy-backed on the EE network, so I thought I was in the clear.. but no, they've switched contracts and now use Three 🤦‍♀️

[MJP]

20 minutes ago, clarkete said:

Also - who's signing up to a new network for Glastonbury?

I did a 1-month SIM last Glastonbury for the improved signal and it persuaded me to change my whole network to EE tbh.

[Spindles]

22 hours ago, kingbadger said:

30 mins of Glastonbury wasted just to charge a phone though

For the price of a main meal at Glastonbury you could buy an off-brand 10,000mah charger that would keep you going the whole festival.