Can't use my mobile in a dead signal area

brightondave

A friend of mine is in a Brain Injury rehab hospital out in the sticks near Ashford.
His family have tried eveything  but the place is in such a bad signal area that he can't make or receive calls even on Whatsapp its so isolating for him.
He even has been trying to use a booster but to no avail.  Do any of the techies amongst you know of anything that might help him?  
Your advice is appreciated. Thankyou

JSmithy45AD

Do they not have free WiFi there? If so then Whatapp or Zoom etc will all work just fine.

littleboo

Failing the above, have you tried sims from all the network providers?

elsien

I’d also query hospital Wi-Fi although that is also pretty dire in my local hospital. What are the ward saying, because it must be a situation they have come across before so they may know what has worked for other people.

brightondave

littleboo said:

Failing the above, have you tried sims from all the network providers?

Hi littleboo could you elaborate how that might work?

victor2

elsien said:

I’d also query hospital Wi-Fi although that is also pretty dire in my local hospital. What are the ward saying, because it must be a situation they have come across before so they may know what has worked for other people.

^^This^^

Medical staff are pretty well attached to their smartphones these days. Stays in Brain Injury units are often quite lengthy and mental well-being is as important as medical, plus staff and patients tend to get to know each other fairly well. Staff may be able to offer the best advice, perhaps one network is stronger than any others, or there's a staff WiFi they would be prepared to connect him to.

littleboo

There are 4 mobile networks, one may have better coverage in a particular location than the others. They are EE, O2, 3 and Vodafone. Anyone else is just using one of these 4 networks, so Giffgaff is O2, Lebara is Vodafone etc. You can Google which is which.So you can get a sim from the different networks and try to see if any has a usable service

savergrant

littleboo said:

There are 4 mobile networks, one may have better coverage in a particular location than the others. They are EE, O2, 3 and Vodafone. Anyone else is just using one of these 4 networks, so Giffgaff is O2, Lebara is Vodafone etc. You can Google which is which.So you can get a sim from the different networks and try to see if any has a usable service

Has anyone tried to see if THEIR mobile network has a decent signal there? You could ask the hospital staff which signal is strongest or you could check ofcom info for the postcode. As WhatsApp runs on either mobile data or WiFi you have two possible connections, worth checking whether it is trying to connect to the correct WiFi network (you may need to ask for the password)