Only get one bar - what should I do?

hotlatte

I have recently purchased iphone4 on a contract with Tescos for 12 months.

At first i got on with it but now its getting unmanageable with only one bar on the phone. If i am lucky i may get 2 bars but just for few seconds. This doesn't just happen at my house i.e. its not location specific.

I am also using the iphone 4 bumper case.

Should i report this to tescos? Is it worth raising it with them i belive paying £35 a month for one bar is too much. I heard in past that one may be able to come out of the contract due to service issues.

Not sure. please share your thoughts / advise.

Jon_01

If it's dropped recently there maybe a mast problem and they could be working on it? CS should be able to tell you.

MissKeith

Could your phone be faulty? Try the sim in another phone, if the signal improves, you've found your answer. You could have weak 3g signal in your area, try turning the 3g off on your phone.

hotlatte

not dropped recently it was like the since i signed up a month ago and as i said it not location specific either. Like just now its come up with a message "network lost you selected network...." I have not even moved an inch.

Phone could be faulty but it uses a micro sim and i am not able to use that sim in another phone. Point to note is that my brother is also on Tesco mobile using 3GS iphone he usually has okish coverage.

Jon_01

Then contact Tesco and tell them asap it sounds like the phone got a fault.

You can take them back and cancel the contract for poor signal in the first few days, but after a month you might have a problem (unless you've called them with the problem in that time ?).

lozzaman

Does your brothers 3GS get OK coverage in places where you get poor or zero coverage? If so I'd say it's a phone fault.
Were you on tesco's or o2 before the iPhone4?

Are you able to find a nearby o2 mast on sitefinder?

hotlatte

lozzman- i get the results as follow.

Base stations displayed in this square:-

Single operator GSM technology 0
Single operator UMTS technology 0
Single operator TETRA technology 0
Shared base stations with more than one operator or more than one technology 1

As per my brothers phone his coverage seems ok

lozzaman

I can only echo Jon's response here to get it investigated as a phone fault. Is there an Apple store near you as they might just swap it out?
The sitefinder site UI isn't the best, if you PM me your postcode I'll see where the nearest o2 mast is, although if your brothers 3GS is working OK then it sounds like coverage is acceptable where you are.

It may be that o2 is on the shared base station.

hotlatte

lozzaman wrote: »

I can only echo Jon's response here to get it investigated as a phone fault. Is there an Apple store near you as they might just swap it out?
The sitefinder site UI isn't the best, if you PM me your postcode I'll see where the nearest o2 mast is, although if your brothers 3GS is working OK then it sounds like coverage is acceptable where you are.

It may be that o2 is on the shared base station.

I have just rang up Tescos apparently i have 28 day swap out option meaning they will swap for a new handset provided the store has got one to swap it with and i have only till the end of day today.

Have also done the software reset but of no avail still sitting with a single bar though it improves once i get out and about but has a ind of its own.