Mobile signal strength?

[38Cto15E]

I spend quite a bit of time in the next village where mobile phone signal strength is very poor, Orange being very good though.

A couple of months ago I switched from Orange to Virgin mobile for a better plan for me.
I thought that I would still have a good signal as T-Mobile and Orange share signals and Virgin piggyback off T-mobile.
However this is not the case and my Virgin signal is almost non existent, can any BMs add any worthwhile info?
TIA

 

[bushytailedfox]

Hi

I can't offer any technical advice, but it might be worth putting your sim card into another phone to see if that helps.

I had a similar thing with Vodafone and borrowed someone else's phone, the signal was massively improved and at least meant I knew a new phone would fix it before I bought one.

 

[38Cto15E]

Will try that Bushy.
I have since heard that following the Orange/T-Mobile mast share, T-mobile have stopped using some masts, maybe that could be my problem.

It's amazing really, I can't use my phone in two adjacent villages yet when on my Holidays I can obtain a perfectly good signal in the Thailand countryside, and they are supposed to be the Third World country.

 

[richw]

t mobile and orange DO NOT use the same masts.

What they do is if you have no signal of your own network, they allow you to roam on to the other network, for no extra charge. This is similar to when you go abroad and use a foreign network, but without paying the ridiculous abroad charges!

Virgin only allow use of the T mobile masts, and NOT the Orange masts

 

[mbonwick]

You might want to get a handset with fewer features - older 2G phones perform better than 3G Smartphones in low signal conditions, due to the larger aerials.

 

[table38]

in a similar vein, I had to disable WCDMA on my HTC. It seems to behave a lot better just limited to GSM only.

 

[Blue Pool Halt]

Remember that you can check signal availability from other providers by going in to 'settings' and manually searching for operators.

It won't help you now , but should you change provider later (or buy a broadband dongle) , you can see signal coverage for location you at before you commit to a contract.

 

[Flamingo]

Didn't Carphone Warehouse (other shops are available) have a scheme that if you found that your signal was bad at home, they would allow you to change your contract to another company?