On 2/20/2014 2:38 PM, Another John wrote:
In article ,
sacha wrote:

When I became an Orange customer 15 years ago or so, it was claimed
that it had the best coverage in this area.

I'm with EE/Orange too. They proudly open their helpline dialogues with
"Welcome to EE: the biggest mobile coverage in the UK" or words to that
effect. As far as I can tell, coverage quality has dropped since EE
took over Orange: they may be the biggest, but it seems it's spread more
thinly!

Now that T-Mobile and Orange are EE, we finally have 3G coverage, so
I'll be staying with them for a while.

On 20/02/2014 19:38, Another John wrote:
In article ,
sacha wrote:

When I became an Orange customer 15 years ago or so, it was claimed
that it had the best coverage in this area.

I'm with EE/Orange too. They proudly open their helpline dialogues with
"Welcome to EE: the biggest mobile coverage in the UK" or words to that
effect. As far as I can tell, coverage quality has dropped since EE
took over Orange: they may be the biggest, but it seems it's spread more
thinly!

J.

When EE merged/took over Orange, they stated shutting down towers and
modifying others to use 4G. Some months ago there was a lot of publicity
about it. People with expensive smart phones were getting brilliant
internet connections but couldn't make phone calls!

--
Pete C
adventure before dementure
http://www.scar-crockenhill.org/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Secon...57749060989952

On Thu, 20 Feb 2014 19:04:25 +0000, sacha wrote:

snip
Thanks. I do want to keep my phone number, though, so if I can do that
and use my iPhone, I'll be happy to change. I've just managed to send a
text message which has taken 24 hours to 'go'! To me, this is one of
those things that either works or doesn't - bit like my very elderly
car. If it doesn't, it's not worth having.

On Android smart phones you can get free utilities which can tell you
which phone mast you are using and show you where it is on a Google map.

I would expect that there would be the same or similar utility for an
iPhone.

So you could have a try at locating the mast(s) as you move around a bit -
this will give you some idea of coverage.

I think it helps if the phone masts are (more or less) in line of sight,
but I could be wrong.

Cheers

Dave R

On 2/20/2014 5:03 PM, David.WE.Roberts wrote:

On Android smart phones you can get free utilities which can tell you
which phone mast you are using and show you where it is on a Google map.
\
Interesting.
Could you recommend one?

On Thu, 20 Feb 2014 11:49:50 +0000, sacha wrote:

Can I get opinions from those in the west country about which company
offers the best coverage? We're both with Orange (now EE, I believe)
and keep getting 'no service' messages or two bars at the most for a
brief moment. Our closest town is Ashburton. The service has always
been patchy but now it's awful!

I also back Vodafone which has never let me down. Worked well in
Switzerland and NZ when my friend had trouble with Orange.

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 20 Feb 2014 11:49:50 +0000, sacha wrote:

Can I get opinions from those in the west country about which company
offers the best coverage? We're both with Orange (now EE, I believe)
and keep getting 'no service' messages or two bars at the most for a
brief moment. Our closest town is Ashburton. The service has always
been patchy but now it's awful!

I also back Vodafone which has never let me down. Worked well in
Switzerland and NZ when my friend had trouble with Orange.

Pam in Bristol
===============================================

Very poor in our part of the Isle of Wight. When my children come to stay
they have great difficulty at times an have to go into the garden and stand
in the open. O2 no problem.


Mike


---------------------------------------------------------------
www.friendsofshanklintheatre.co.uk
www.hmscollingwoodassociation.com
www.rneba.org.uk
www.nsrafa.org

On 2014-02-21 08:49:40 +0000, Pam Moore said:

On Thu, 20 Feb 2014 11:49:50 +0000, sacha wrote:

Can I get opinions from those in the west country about which company
offers the best coverage? We're both with Orange (now EE, I believe)
and keep getting 'no service' messages or two bars at the most for a
brief moment. Our closest town is Ashburton. The service has always
been patchy but now it's awful!

I also back Vodafone which has never let me down. Worked well in
Switzerland and NZ when my friend had trouble with Orange.

Pam in Bristol

Thanks, Pam. I'll get hold of Orange today (ha ha!) do my complaining
and then do a mini-survey here, too.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On Thu, 20 Feb 2014 17:10:48 -0500, S Viemeister wrote:

On 2/20/2014 5:03 PM, David.WE.Roberts wrote:

On Android smart phones you can get free utilities which can tell you
which phone mast you are using and show you where it is on a Google
map.
\
Interesting.
Could you recommend one?

Just having a look - I have three installed.

They have changed a bit since I last looked.

OpenSignal looks good - gives direction and strength of signal and rates
both voice and data.

Antennas seems to rely on a (possibly old) list of antennas rather than
direct detection.

RealSignal seems to be more of a signal strength and quality meter - good
for establishing if you have a poor signal and checking variation over
time. No mapping obvious - oh,hang on, found it.

Results - Antennas and RealSignal both show the same map and the same
location of masts (if I am reading the display correctly).

OpenSignal give me direction of signal and a location of the antenna on a
Google map which dies in with the direction pointer and is the local fire
station. So credible.

Of the three, I would try OpenSignal first.

Cheers

Dave R

On 2/21/2014 10:43 AM, David.WE.Roberts wrote:
OpenSignal looks good - gives direction and strength of signal and rates
both voice and data.

Antennas seems to rely on a (possibly old) list of antennas rather than
direct detection.

RealSignal seems to be more of a signal strength and quality meter - good
for establishing if you have a poor signal and checking variation over
time. No mapping obvious - oh,hang on, found it.

Results - Antennas and RealSignal both show the same map and the same
location of masts (if I am reading the display correctly).

OpenSignal give me direction of signal and a location of the antenna on a
Google map which dies in with the direction pointer and is the local fire
station. So credible.

Of the three, I would try OpenSignal first.

Thanks - I'll check that out.