Mobile coverage in rural areas

slugger09

I find it totally shocking, Forget 3.5 HSPA, you'll be lucky to get 2G, even EDGE is a rare luxury. I've never seen my iPhone say 3G

I live 3 mile from a major town O2 is the best of a bad bunch, T-Mobile, Orange,3,Vodafone are pretty much useless, at work I get zero reception from any network. T-Mobile seem to be the worst, all there masts must be in city and town centres cause venture outside the town and your beat.

Have you had these issues? To make a phone call I have to go outside into my back garden where I will get 2 bars on a cloudy day, I suppose the cloud cover must help keep mobile signal in

Inner_Zone

Vodafone offer their version of a Femtocell, the Sure Signal for just these type of issues assuming you have a fast enough BB and a 3G phone.

thatsean

3G signals are susceptible to degradation in poor weather, although 2G service will be impacted also - this just comes down to the population density and the commercial benefits to the networks to invest in infrastructure. If there is a low population in an area, then the construction and maintenance of a cell tower is harder to justify.

Orange do a system called UMA on some handsets where you can connect your handset to home wifi, but clearly this wont help when you are out and about.

Which major town is it that you live near, what's the area like - hilly etc?