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| Q: Who is TopNetUk?
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| A: The 4 Mobile Network Operators taking part in this initiative; namely O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone formed a co-regulatory group known as TopNetUK. TopNetUK is here to provide consumers and businesses with Comparable Performance Indicators on their voice services to help you make an informed decision on the choice of your mobile network operator. This website will give you the ability to compare two participating mobile network operators' performance side by side, giving you something, other than price, to help you base your decision on.
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| Q: What Networks services are being reported?
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| A: The ability to make and receive calls on your mobile whilst travelling around the country on specific routes and also the audio or voice quality of those calls in those areas where test calls are made
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| Q: Why is there no price comparison information on this site?
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| A: The Co-Regulatory agreement between O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone only requires the quality of service on voice to be tested. Should you wish to find this information, please contact your Service Provider or visit the homepage of each Mobile Network Operator by following the link about us from the homepage.
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| Q: Why are you only testing voice services?
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| A: Because independent consumer research highlights voice as the most important service to customers and is the most used service.
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| Q: How often are the routes tested?
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| A: All of the roads, motorways and urban areas will be tested once every 6 months.
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| Q: Who decides where to test?
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| A: The full test criteria have been agreed by a working party led by Ofcom with the participating mobile network operators.
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| Q: My home location has no information?
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| A: A full list of which routes have been tested and which routes are going to be tested can be found under the Planned and Completed Routes link. It may be that your home location has not yet been tested or indeed it may not be part of the selected list of routes that are going to be tested. The choice of which routes to test was determined using the criteria set out below.
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| Q: How were the routes selected?
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| A: Based on the following criteria:
-- All motorways of the United Kingdom .
-- All major A roads with an average traffic level of 15,000 vehicles or more per day .
-- All major urban areas in England with a population greater than 120,000 .
-- All major urban areas of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with a population greater than 50,000
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| Q: What is a Successful Call?
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| A: When you try to make a call on your mobile and the call connects and continues until it is ended by one of the people on the call, then that call is classified as successful. On the website, this is indicated by a large green circle.
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| Q: What is Failed Call?
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| A: When you try to make a call on your mobile and the that call does not connect successfully, maybe because of poor coverage or network congestion, or after establishing a connection, that call cuts off before the end of the call, then that is classified as unsuccessful. On the website, this is indicated by a large red circle.
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| Q: Why is 3 (Hutchison 3G) not represented?
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| A: 3 participates in the mobile quality of service co-regulatory forum but has chosen not to participate n the voice only surveys. 3 has made a proposal for 3G survey and all five operators will consider how to develop a suitable test methodology in line with market developments.
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| Q: What about other MVNOs?
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| A: An MVNO or Mobile Virtual Network Operator who provides mobile services by reselling capacity from mobile network operator such as O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. The MVNO offers own branded mobile subscriptions and value-added services. Examples of these providers include, Virgin Mobile, Tesco Mobile and BT Mobile.
For the sake of simplicity we have not included testing of any of the current UK MVNOs
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| Q: Where to leave feedback?
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| A: We welcome your feedback and have provided an end user feedback facility (link Contact Us) so you can let us know how useful you find this site and whether you would welcome other types of information to be made available to consumers, for example: customer service related measures.
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| Q: Why are the tests being undertaken on major roads and motorways? What about pedestrians?
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| A: To enable a wider geography of the United Kingdom to be covered, the only practical and cost effective means of doing this is to install the test equipment in vehicles and drive these routes. This allows all of the roads, motorways and urban areas to be tested once every 6 months.
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| Q: My service provider is not listed. How do I find out about their quality of service?
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| A: By visiting their respective websites, calling them from your mobile and asking where this information can be found or visiting one of their respective high street stores.
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| Q: Is the test equipment a true reflection of an ordinary mobile use?
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| A: Yes it is. The tests have been designed to reflect the true customer experience of using a mobile telephone around the selected areas across the United Kingdom. The tests have been designed by looking at true customer call information from each mobile network operator and then reproducing this information, so that the test equipment makes and receives calls in the same way as a customer normally would.
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| Q: The maps show I should have good coverage but I have poor signal. Why is this?
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| A: There are several reasons why you may be experiencing a poor signal or problems with calls, from temporary network faults or a faulty mobile phone. Coverage may also be reduced inside some buildings or on trains. Any specific problems can be queried with your mobile network operator.
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| Q: What does the testing cover?
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| A: The 2G voice service is tested every 6 months on the routes described here .
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| Q: Why is 3G not included in the testing?
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| A: The number of customers with 3G phones is a small percentage of the overall customer base. Following the successful launch of this co-regulatory initiative, Ofcom and the mobile network operators will now start looking at other Comparable Performance Indicators on other key services for presentation on the Website.
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| Q: How can the coverage information be viewed for red-green colour blindness?
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| A: The red/green circles viewed on the maps can be changed to blue/yellow. Please refer to the Help page for guidance to select this option.
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