EE claim 5G coverage across most of London and certainly I’m getting it around Forest Hill. You need a compatible phone and suitable SIM, though their flex SIMs seem to offer 5G without having to sign up to a long contact.
Honor Oak Park is where it’s a 5g deadspot. “You’ll get weak coverage outdoors on 5G-enabled devices” is what it says here https://coverage.ee.co.uk/coverage/ee
Maybe unrelated but lately I’ve noticed my EE reception has gone down the toilet at home in HOP.
Calls constantly cutting out
On the mobile front, there are pockets of SE
London that still don’t have a decent 3 or 4G signal, let alone 5G. They’ve always responded to complaints by saying the neighbourhood topography doesn’t help propagate the signal.
I recently moved from Three to Virgin and my 4G download speeds (same device, same location,same time of day) went from 8 to 80Mbps. Still only shows 2 bars though and there’s a few spots in the Horniman Gardens where calls just don’t connect.
Virgin don’t seem to have a very comprehensive offering in SE23 for cable, sadly. Definitely not in the area close to HOP station.
I don’t understand why 5g is so poor in the area, especially along the major train tour between Croydon and London. Brockley and Forest Hill are red on this Vodafone coverage map, in stark contrast to the white of Honor Oak Park.
They might be finding it hard to put up new cell sites. This planning application recently got 77 comments, 76 objections, and was refused: 5G masts on corner of Blythe Vale & Perry Hill. It would have been 1.5km from Honor Oak Park, so within range of the mid-band spectrum typically being used for 5G here, depending on the exact contours of the land and transmit power.
With EE I get a 5G signal at Forest Hill Station, but it is very poor quality so that I often have to switch manually to 4G. That said, it isn’t appear that bad on the line to LBG… and the signal is fairly good and strong on Sunderland Road.
Would really appreciate your advice on this. I’ve been emailing openreach and trying to get FTTP. Could i ask what number you called? Our neighbour upstairs has fibre and i’m struggling to be able to work at the moment with our terrible internet!
That sounds like a similar situation to us. It was mostly arranged via email, via the address sifibreenquiriesmop@openreach.co.uk
If that doesn’t work, then tweeting them may also help!
Has anyone in HOP been using 5G regularly and has it been ok, and if so who are you with?
EE say you will get good coverage outdoors (not sure what that means for indoors though…) EE Coverage & Network Status Checker | Check your signal
Vodafone say limited coverage (below good outside and good in and out) https://www.vodafone.co.uk/network/status-checker
Virgin say the same as vodafone (map looks the same) https://www.virginmedia.com/mobile/coverage-checker
O2 say they don’t offer coverage https://www.o2.co.uk/coveragechecker
On the broadband front no FTTP via any OpenReach providers, and no Hyperoptic or Virgin etc to our house so stuck on today 14Mb download and less than 1Mb upload (it is normally slightly better than that but between 15-20 mb download).
I can report on Three, which also claims good outdoors and bad indoors.
Three (outdoors) 5g speed near Honor Oak Park station, is not reliable and when it does click on, on my dual SIM phone, the speed is less than O2 4G signal on the same phone. Three was from memory around 4Mbs compared to 100Mbs for 4G.
Given the 4G speed is faster than what you’re getting anyway, maybe you should look into that and keep fingers crossed that 5G gets here. I have checked O2 5G in Lordship Lane and got 350Mbs.
I’ve not had any issues outside with EE 5G around HOP, only issue is my house is a dead zone for any mobile signal.
We’ve got Sky fibre internet and 5G with EE. I live on Lowther Hill and whilst the signal indoors is poor, that’s probably because the house is very old with thick walls. Fine 5G signal in the garden. However, if I leave our house and go to the corner of Brockley View - 200 yards if that - I get no signal at all - not 5G, not 4G, not 3G, nothing.
Interesting - Vodafone currently showing “No Coverage” for 5G in Perry Vale but the “Planned Coverage” view says that will change and in 3 months we will be covered inside and out.
I can actually see, despite my advanced age, the mobile mast outside Honor Oak Park station from the bottom of my garden. Despite this, Three’s 5G signal which is allegedly ‘good outdoors’ is actually nothing at all. Literally NADA. No 5G. It not only has ceased to be but it is an ex-signal.
It’s a shame, because their 5G broadband offering for the houses that get it indoors well, is pretty good.
I live on Perry Vale and get 5G with Vodafone inside my flat, which is generally faster than my WiFi (even though I pay for 500Mb with Virgin - which is a router limitation rather than a fault with their service).
Surely Honor Oak Park station isn’t where the local Three 5G transmitter is located, though? I had a quick look on their website and I’d guess it’s somewhere further up the hill towards Forest Hill Road.
Thanks for this - I’d assumed (based on Vodafone’s own coverage map…) that they didn’t have any 5G locally. Having seen that you’ve had it working locally, I called 191 and spoken to someone they’re now fixing an account provisioning issue which was blocking any 5G access for me.
That’s great, glad you’re able to get it sorted. I’ve been surprised how good it is, and my husband has moved over to them now as well. I used to get so frustrated in the Brockley area with Three, as there was always a data blackspot between Forest Hill and London Bridge when I used to get the train to work.
I should add that I’m actually with VOXI (owned by Vodafone) and pay £10 a month for 15GB of 5G data (social media does not use data), unlimited minutes/texts and EU Roaming (which is no longer a given). They have bigger plans if you want more or unlimited data - worth comparing to Vodafone plans directly.
I don’t know whether this has any bearing on what you checked earlier but I’m with Vodafone and received a text from them about an hour ago advising there’s a problem with their mobile network in SE23 2QA, and they’re working to get things back up and running as quickly as they can! That post code covers part of Sunderland Rd so quite close to Perry Vale but I can’t verify what the problem is as I’m out of London at the moment but it might explain why they weren’t showing 5g coverage for your area earlier.


