Mobile phone Roam@Home petition

d123

freestyleskier wrote: »

I think it is crazy that UK mobiles are limited to using only 1 of the 4 mobile networks in the UK (which are EE, O2, Three and Vodafone). When we go abroad within the EU we can use any foreign network with our credit as if we are at home, and EU phones can use any of the 4 UK networks so they get a better service than we do. My proposal is for a Roam@Home system so that when our normal network is not available then we can roam on the other 3 UK networks in the same way that other EU phones can.


Click this link to sign the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/236028/sponsors/new?token=QTHKPqH4OTOyEzJX2dzI



A related MSE article is here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/piggybacking/


Thanks,
freestyleskier

Why have you linked directly to the page to fill details in?

For all anyone knows that could be a petition to legalise heroin.

How about a link to the page showing what the petition actually says?

citizenz

I have friends who live in areas of Oxfordshire with poor network coverage. It is a real pain. At best you have to go outside to make a call, at worst drive a considerable distance. I also got caught one very dark night completely lost down a narrow lane with no google maps.
Also at one stage I was with Vodafone and the local transmitter was out of action for 4 months, That was a pain as well, I am now no longer with Vodafone as they were awful about it. I had to get another deal asap. I never returned. Took a lot of hassle :mad::mad:, to get my deal cancelled and my money back. I was not aware at the time that I could still make emergency calls, as I did not need to make any, It apparently boiled down to a dispute with the owner of the land where the transmitter was sited it was general knowledge locally but Vodafone knew nothing about it.
I agree with the sentiment of the petition, but like D123 I also would like a link to a description about what I am signing up to. I cannot find this petition by any other route, such as searching on roam or roaming, or the number or name on the Petition. Am I right this is in the pre petitions sponsor stage. If I am going to be a sponsor, I certainly want to know what I am sponsoring and what that entails,

Frozen_up_north

EE are replacing the Airwave radio system for the emergency services with a mobile phone based solution. So, lets all move to EE for improved coverage and resilience... :rotfl:



Oh, forgot to mention with the lack of competition, EE will then raise prices, just like the "good old days" when you had to suffer BT and their land line network.

buglawton

It's certainly a puzzle that rival terrestrial TV broadcasters share masts at all UK transmitter sites and do it happily and harmoniously while keeping costs and eyesore factor to a minimum. When the mobile operators say no can do and UK regulator says not bothered.

Jon_01

buglawton wrote: »

It's certainly a puzzle that rival terrestrial TV broadcasters share masts at all UK transmitter sites and do it happily and harmoniously while keeping costs and eyesore factor to a minimum. When the mobile operators say no can do and UK regulator says not bothered.

That's not really a like for like comparison. A TV mast only has to transmit and has a long range. A phone mast has to handle traffic going both ways and has a very small footprint.

redux

I might assume the networks could do this for sparsely populated areas if they wanted to, rather than it being precluded by regulation, but I don't actually know. So maybe there is no need for a petition.

I believe I found something like it in part of France, on the way up a valley in the foothills of the Pyrenees, when the network name changed to something generic sounding (I can't remember, so I can't try to check)

buglawton

Jon_01 wrote: »

That's not really a like for like comparison. A TV mast only has to transmit and has a long range. A phone mast has to handle traffic going both ways and has a very small footprint.

They not identical things but make a good comparison.
Also: A TV base station that could not receive any signals would not be able to rebroadcast them. They receive signals via microwave or cable, all expensive infrastructure which it's been proven, works well when shared.

freestyleskier

Thanks for all the replies. Apologies for links that aren't correct, and it appears that I was wrong about the situation when roaming in the EU but I always seem to get a signal without ever seeing Emergency Only despite going some remote places ski touring off-piste in the Alps. The petition is just at the initial stage with about 4 people having backed it (needs 5 to become public). I had pasted a link from the email that they had suggested that I send but it's maybe direct to the sign-up page because it's designed for sending to friends. I have actually found a couple of UK providers who do use all the networks but the cheapest seems to be £30 per month to get unlimited calls, texts and 4GB data. If it was a little cheaper (under £20pm) then I would probably go for it.
I normally have a good signal at home, but 2 days after my original post my network went down in my area and is still down with brief moments of connection when a couple of texts come through. That's now 4 days without meaningful signal. It is just a coincidence but remarkable that this happened at the same time as my post! This is making me consider the multi-network sim much more. I don't want to post the details as it could make my topic look like an advert!

unforeseen

buglawton wrote: »

They not identical things but make a good comparison.
Also: A TV base station that could not receive any signals would not be able to rebroadcast them. They receive signals via microwave or cable, all expensive infrastructure which it's been proven, works well when shared.

But they only receive a single point to point multiplexed signal not thousands from all directions

Nothing is shared as the majority as the majority of masts are owned and run by Arqiva. Sharing is so 20th century. The now receive multiple TV & radio channels via multiple multiplexed signal channels which are transmitted as is. Your freeview box splits it into seperate channels.

buglawton

unforeseen wrote: »

But they only receive a single point to point multiplexed signal not thousands from all directions

Nothing is shared as the majority as the majority of masts are owned and run by Arqiva. Sharing is so 20th century. The now receive multiple TV & radio channels via multiple multiplexed signal channels which are transmitted as is. Your freeview box splits it into seperate channels.

Multiplexing is the very essence of timesharing on a single physical system.