mobile signal coverage & O2 question

1982

Does anyone know of an accurate way of determining the signal strength to a particular area? The signal coverage maps are of no use because they say orange has a strong signal in my area and there is none at all. O2 have full signal strength but i am looking to get a better deal so need to find out which networks are available to me.

I am currently having no joy in trying to get a better deal on my contact with O2. They just keep on giving me the "you are not a high user" chat and offer me the standard deals of same contact but different phone. i am on the online 50 tarrif with 50 x-net mins and 500 texts for £20pm but i usually end up spending about £25-£27.

Orange is out of the question as i need a network i can use so can anyone suggest an alternate route?

Cheers

MrGreen

Have a look at this website http://www.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk/ it will show you mobile base stations near you if any, you can get a better idea from this which networks will have better reception.

John_M_Business

The only way to be sure is to actually get a phone that is being used on a particular network and physically visiting the place where you want the signal. Even then, some handsets are better than others for picking up signals.

For example, my wife's house is on the edge of a village in Hampshire. I checked all the mobile phone websites and they all claim decent coverage there (except 3, of course!). I even checked the Gov site (above) and it showed a mast of my existing network provider in the area (then T-mobile). But the topography means that although the closest mast is T-mobile, there is virtually no signal (the house is in a valley).

To support this, I work from a basement and my nearest mast location is O2, yet when I was on O2 the signal was intermittent at the best of times. Then I moved to T-mobile, and the signal was just as poor. Finally I saw that a mate of mine could get a signal down here (Orange) and a business contact of mine (Vodafone) - therefore these networks worked here... and I have an Orange phone that does now work down here! Third time...

smcicr

if you stay with o2 and are happy to keep your current phone or pick one up elsewhere (ebay etc) then maybe the sim only tariff online 100 (200 xnet mins / 1000 texts -> £25pm) might be an option. it has a one month minimum contract also so if you did decide to change down the line you aren't tied in.

also - speaking from experience with the (older) sim only deals from o2 - you may well find you can blag a handset upgrade off them after 6 months anyway - if not free then greatly reduced - that'll tie you in but hey.

if you want a new phone then if you move to the online 100 tariff (standard) then you'll get an extra 50 mins per month (you're already paying 25/27 so the tariff at £25 shouldn't be an issue) and you can get the k750i + bt headset for £29.

looking at it you could probably get handsets free either on the existing tariff or the standard online 100 - try it on the website - o2.co.uk

if that's the case then get a pac code, port your number to a payg sim and then port back and get the deal