# Mobile phones for poor signal areas



## dickm (17 Aug 2013)

Been trying to find out if there are differences among handsets in their ability to receive weak mobile signals. The signal in our house and for 200yards all round is lousy, so bad that it's not really feasible to use the mobile. Someone, somewhere, must test phones for their sensitivity - anyone know who and where?
We only use very basic phones, nothing "smart", but from time to time it would be useful to be able to rely on one in the garden or if the landline has been ploughed up. The annoying thing is that the phone mast is only about 1/2 mile away, almost line of sight, but reception is still cr*p.


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## nev (17 Aug 2013)

Well from personal experience with nokia's I have found that the dumber the phone the better the reception, maybe they just have more room inside for an antenna?


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## johnwc812 (17 Aug 2013)

Hi 
No personal experience, but if you Google "ARIEL BOOST MOBILE PHONE". There are several commercial boosters - plus DIY solutions.
John


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## richard56 (17 Aug 2013)

johnwc812":2r2lm9k9 said:


> Hi
> No personal experience, but if you Google "ARIEL BOOST MOBILE PHONE". There are several commercial boosters - plus DIY solutions.
> John



Hopefully this may help me too.
Thanks


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## Woodchips2 (17 Aug 2013)

The guy in Tesco phone shop advised me to stick to my 2G phone (cost £5.95) because I will get better reception than 3G. I am alreadywith Tesco Mobile so believed him. 

Maybe ask the neighbours what network they use to see if that improves things.
Regards Keith


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## Lons (17 Aug 2013)

It differs even with the same model phone unfortunately Dick.
I have an O2 business contract for 2 mobiles and in the last few years my wife and I have had Iphones 3 and 4 and now samsung S4. All identical, replaced the same day each time and on the same network but on many occasions, side by side they will show very different signal strength.
I used a stick on signal gizmo from ebay on the iphone 4 which seemed to help a little but my mate who had no signal at home bought a externally mounted booster linked by cable to an indoor booster which has improved matters no end. It did cost him £250 thought!

Bob


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## Robbo3 (18 Aug 2013)

My daughter has a Samsung (IIRC) that she tells me gets a signal when no one else can. Just the luck of the draw, I guess!
Edit : Orange San Francisco not Samsung.

When I looked at putting a mobile booster in the loft I read that it would be illegal because broadcasting the signal requires a licence, which is only issued to mobile phone companies at great cost. Some have reported that they are covered legally because they have obtained permission from their mobile phone company to buy & install a booster.
Article, May 2010
- http://www.pcpro.co.uk/realworld/357955 ... -reception

According to QI signal strength meters are not to be relied upon because there is no set standard.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc3ykRyWXuM

Even the Vodaphone Sure signal booster requires a broadband router connection which defeats the object somewhat.

There are boosters available. Only a few websites give a telephone number & even fewer give a postal address. Any booster will need to work on 900, 1800 & 2100 Mhz to cover all the different providers + 3G.

HTH


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## Lons (18 Aug 2013)

Robbo3":35wdbeub said:


> According to QI signal strength meters are not to be relied upon because there is no set standard.
> - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc3ykRyWXuM HTH



:lol: :lol: Great. I love that program.

Puzzling though as it says no standardisation between manufactureres but you would expect identical phones (3 examples in my case) to show similar results.

the bars must mean something as it's very clear that when none are showing, I lose the network signal altogether. Even more apparent when connected through my car which "supposedly" boosts the signaland when the bars disappear, I immediately get a no network message :? 

Bob


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## Mike.C (18 Aug 2013)

Dick what company are you with?

Cheers

Mike


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## dickm (18 Aug 2013)

Mike
We are currently with Orange (or EE as they now call themselves) using very basic Motorola and Alcatel handsets. Our daughter is with Vodafone, which seems to be a bit better and her husband is with O2, which again seems slightly better than Orange, so it might be worth swapping to one or other of those, despite the hassle. Reception actually seems to have got worse in the last few months, or the phones have aged in some way. 
It sounds from other folks' experience that it's largely the luck of the draw  . 
Perhaps a trip to Thainstone car boot, hoovering up all the cheap handsets and trying them all is one answer!


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## Mike.C (18 Aug 2013)

dickm":dovldxrx said:


> Mike
> We are currently with Orange (or EE as they now call themselves) using very basic Motorola and Alcatel handsets. Our daughter is with Vodafone, which seems to be a bit better and her husband is with O2, which again seems slightly better than Orange, so it might be worth swapping to one or other of those, despite the hassle. Reception actually seems to have got worse in the last few months, or the phones have aged in some way.
> It sounds from other folks' experience that it's largely the luck of the draw  .
> Perhaps a trip to Thainstone car boot, hoovering up all the cheap handsets and trying them all is one answer!



I was going to recommend O2, even though we get a great reception from all the companies up this end, with the both of us on O2 payg unlimited we get all the free calls and texts we want to each other. I think 3 does something similar. 
One thing I noticed when I was with Vodafone was we used to get great reception all the way up from here to Aberdeen with no drop in signal.

Can you switch between 2 and 3G on your phone because sometimes switching to 2G can boost the signal.

Cheers

Mike


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## porker (18 Aug 2013)

Most 3G phones fall back to 2G automatically if reception is poor. The best network obviously depends on where you live (or where you need to reception) so other peoples network recommendation might work for them but not for you. I worked until recently on mobile phone development and as someone stated earlier, reception can vary even between the same handset model. In fact, when the handsets were submitted for type approval we used to regularly select "good" handsets out of a large selection to make the standard. Also interestingly, we never got great comparative results from the iphone. There may also be some truth in the more basic 2G only handsets being better generally for reception than the complicated smart phones. Today's smartphones have so many radio antennas (2G / 3G / Bluetooth / GPS / NFC / Wifi) and multi bands on the 2G and 3G it is very difficult to optimise all of them. There are compromises made to tune performance. Another big factor is where you put your hand on the handset as it may attenuate the signal. There was a big hoohah a couple of years ago with Apple about this but all handsets have the same issue to a certain extent.


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## cambournepete (19 Aug 2013)

Vodafone do a sure signal box that you plug into your PC network/router to give you a local base station (at very low power) with your Internet connection being used to talk back to their infrastructure.

Cell size will vary depending on the numb of users - if there's a lot nearer the transmitter then the signal power from it will be reduced and you'll suffer...

I'd definitely stick with a basic phone...


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## jpt (19 Aug 2013)

Some sites you might find useful which give links to maps of mobile phone coverage

http://www.mobiles.co.uk/coverage.html

http://ukmobilecoverage.co.uk/

Most companies have a map on their site which details their coverage

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/our-network-a ... /index.htm

https://explore.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker

john


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## RogerS (19 Aug 2013)

Dick, two pronged attack. You need to ascertain which networks are best where you are. Best way to do that is to buttonhole every caller you get...postman, deliveryman etc and try and build up a picture. Then also make a note of which phone they are using. Buy that phone...even secondhand.


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## dickm (19 Aug 2013)

Thanks, guys, for a lot of useful suggestions. It LOOKS as if Vodaphone/O2 may be worth investigating, although if you look on the "official" site for coverage, they all come out the same ("...all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same" - who remembers that from Pete Seeger?).
Taking a slightly different tack, is it worth contacting any of the network providers/mast suppliers to find out why the h*ll our signal is so bad, given the proximity of the mast? Which, incidentally, is on the farm now run by Evelyn Glennie's brother, and where she grew up.


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## RogerS (19 Aug 2013)

dickm":pzqwa7p5 said:


> .....
> Taking a slightly different tack, is it worth contacting any of the network providers/mast suppliers to find out why the h*ll our signal is so bad, given the proximity of the mast? ......



If you don't mind wasting your time! It could be that they have skewed the polarity pattern to be biased towards a different direction to you. Thems that shout loudest.....


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## Lons (19 Aug 2013)

dickm":25prryua said:


> although if you look on the "official" site for coverage, they all come out the same.



That's one of the problems.
I've had several arguments with the guys in the phone shops who look at their computers and insist that there is decent coverage in my area when there very definately is not. For years I had to carry a second phone from a different network because of regular work in a nearby area - very annoying.

RogerS is right. The best method is to ask everyone you come across.

Bob


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## Robbo3 (20 Aug 2013)

I've edited my first post to say that the phone is an Orange San Francisco not a Samsung.

You might find your local mast locations of some help
- http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/search

Talking of Evelyn Glennie you should be able to get a good ringtone Hi-De-Hi style. Patrick Moore probably created his own.

As for ticky-tacky phones, no pink one for me please.


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## cambournepete (20 Aug 2013)

If you're very close to the mast, or on lower ground its possible the signal goes straight over you...


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## RogerS (20 Aug 2013)

DickM was relieved to find a phone that actually worked.....


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## dickm (20 Aug 2013)

RogerS":pv9lfsim said:


> DickM was relieved to find a phone that actually worked.....



That pic was me when that phone first came out


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## dickm (20 Aug 2013)

Robbo3":4951e092 said:


> You might find your local mast locations of some help
> - http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/search



Thanks - tried that and at least it shows the mast in approximately the right place! Apparently, it uses "Single Operator GSM technology", whatever that means. Operated by Orange, which makes the fact that Vodaphone seems to give slightly better reception even more puzzling.


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## RogerS (20 Aug 2013)

Googling that term led me to this site http://sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ which might help


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## richard56 (20 Aug 2013)

This will not help, but shows how the signal can change.
I was on holiday near Kidwelly in Wales. I could not find where we were staying, so tried to phone, no signal. I was on the Community centre car park (I think it is). I asked a lady from the centre if she could help? Meaning could she give me directions.
'Which network are you with'? She asked.
O2, I replied a bit puzzled.
'Stand between the door and the end parking bay' Was her advice.
You guessed it, perfect signal.
Rich


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## pav23 (16 Mar 2014)

I'd go for a Nokia for reception and i don't even use one but even then at our location 3g isn't an option in the city of Nottingham

In the middle of three masts here all on the same network (o2) and yet can't get a 3g signal at all, we have to switch to wi-fi and even then one of the phones in the house has a reputation for not receiving calls,namely a Sony Xperia S, the worst phone that has ever graced our home. Even while out and about cohorts on the same network the Nokia has had signal where the Sony and a Samsung (galaxy ace 2) hasn't. At this moment in time i'm looking to get a new mobile myself and i don't feel there is any point in even getting a smartphone as i know at home i'll hardly be able to use it. I'm finding myself looking at old Motorola as in the past at least they were getting calls in the house. #-o


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## RogerS (16 Mar 2014)

I don't think that anyone can say for certainty that phone X and provider Y will/will not work in a particular location based on other people's experiences. For starters, the mobile providers can slew the transmission pattern which might miss you completely. Also the coverage maps are a joke. EE recently got their knuckles rapped by Ofcom about this. 

Is there not a way to cancel the contract within seven days if the phone does not work?


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## JustBen (16 Mar 2014)

If your phone can take all networks, it might be worth investing in a 99p payg SIM card for each network.

Stick each one in your phones and go for a wander to see what signal you get.

It might give you a better picture.


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## RogerS (16 Mar 2014)

JustBen":71tj1ujq said:


> If your phone can take all networks, it might be worth investing in a 99p payg SIM card for each network.
> 
> Stick each one in your phones and go for a wander to see what signal you get.
> 
> It might give you a better picture.




That is a cracking idea. Mind you, it doesn't address how sensitive a particular make and model of phone will be.....sigh..


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