Phone coverage

Its panto time at work, well it seems like that, the phones are due. We're with Orange but they arent cheap, I cant say the service has been top-notch and when you phone them they just dont want to deal. The phone of choice seems to be a motorola V3 although personally Im not fussed but we're going for V3s across the board. Question is how do you rate your network, T-mobile seem to have a good deal but Ive always thought them to be shite. How do you find O2?

 

O2 = No-2 (or Call Not), since no two can communicate due to crap signal and overloading (IMHO).

No-Range are pants because their signal strength is so variable (I'm saddled with them at the mo).

Choe-a-bone, Virmin and T-Mobile (was None-2-None, as no-one used them!), I have no data on, although both No-2 and Chode-a-bone have both proved total garbage for my employer, since here in Exeter, they assume everyone drives combine harvesters so they don't bother to invest in the infrastructure...

All IMHO of course

 

It basically comes down to where you are IMO. O2 are fine as long as you're not off the beaten track. Vodafone have the best overall coverage but IME you tend to get "network busy" in cities at peak call times.

Orange and T-Mobile (Virgin use the T-mobile network I believe) I've never bothered with as they use the 1800Mhz frequency and, as has been pointed out in another thread, have a theoretically shorter range than than O2 or Vodafone running at 900Mhz. They should be fine in cities and towns but if you get too far away from civilisation then I think there might be problems.

As for me I'm with O2 and have been since the BT Cellnet days and I'm mostly happy with them. My Vodafone experience is from about 6 years ago so my previous comments are very probably way out of date.

Swings and roundabouts really. Better the devil you know IMO

 

as a question is there any S.A.R. advantage / disadvantage when using 900 vs 1800 networks?
cheers


julian

 

Difficult to say. The 1800Mhz networks are a lot closer to microwave oven frequencies so I'd be wary of them anyway (two of my mates managed to start cooking an egg using two T-Mobile phones either side of it. It took about 20 mins for the white to start forming). I don't know if the power output on the 1800 phones is any greater, but, it seems possible given the theroretical shorter range of the 1800 handsets.