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Letter: Shropshire has worse mobile phone reception than Everest
Friday 5th November 2010, 6:04AM GMT.
Mount Everest - You can use your mobile phone here, which is more than you can do in some areas of Shropshire
Letter: I have just heard on the news that the Nepalese have installed a new wireless network that covers the summit of Everest. You can now use your ordinary mobile phone for 3G calls and surf the net to your heart’s content.
My experience here in Shropshire on the O2 network, having travelled south to Clun and North to Ellesmere, is somewhat different, having no signal in both locations whatsoever. This has now given our county a new accolade: Shropshire – more remote than Everest!
Kevin Morrell
Whitchurch
- How is mobile phone reception where you are? Let us know in the comment box below
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Signal is awful. So many black spots around Telford and if you do manage to get 3G it’s soo slow!
O2 had issues yesterday with Data country-wide. Hopefully they have noticed that they always have issues…
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Orange has pretty good coverage. And T-Mobile.
Now the two are sharing networks it’s even better.
O2 has poor coverage in many parts of the UK.
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I agree, its quite rare that I lose a signal on Orange and when i do T-Mobile jumps in!
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“Orange has pretty good coverage. And T-Mobile. Now the two are sharing networks it’s even better. O2 has poor coverage in many parts of the UK”
All networks have coverage holes – it’s inevitable – 100% coverage would cost a huge amount of money (which would end up on call charges)
Suggest you have a look at some independent studies of mobile operator coverage before claiming O2 is poor compared with TMob and Orange.. !
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I did exactly what Patberks suggested… and the point of Kelly is right… Orange have the highest 3G network coverage in the UK – according to mobile regulators Ofcom… so Patberks – what was your point?
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Why not on my phone then?
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I drive around the country quite a lot and use Vodafone on one phone and T-Mobile/Orange on another (hands free, by the way, before I’m accused of driving dangerously!!). It doesn’t matter which network I’m using, it’s pretty much a given that I’ll lose signal at some point whilst on the move. The thing about mobile phones is that they’re not very good if you’re actually mobile.
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I recently purchased a smartphone from the O2 shop in Telford town centre. The sales person did a good job of selling the benefits of 3G to me, even treating me an impressive demo. The only drawback is I can only get 3G coverage when I’m in the town centre, nowhere else. Pointless! I’m lucky if I get more than half the full signal strength and I live in the most populated town in Shropshire. The cynical side of me wonders if the sales person knew that. Suffuce to say I’m currently negotiating the cancellation of my contract with O2.
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I’m on 0range the signals not to bad at home o2 or vodaphone is a waste of time,
the only way to get better coverage is more masts but all the NIMBY’s don’t want them but expect mobile coverage.
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The goverment could force them to start sharing their network coverage so that the phones could roam between each companies network.
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We must remember that we live in a rural backwater where any progress is blocked by councils, protesters and the like. Is it any wonder that we don’t have full 3G coverage here?
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Spot on HSJP.
They complain if they don’t get a signal but they will complain if the mobile operators want to build a tower near them.
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When I lived in Telford I never had any trouble with reception (Orange network). The only problems I ever encountered were when I was out in the country and in a valley.
I now live in the U.S. and I can tell you the reception of mobile phones are a joke over here. I live in a fairly populated area and close to a interstate highway and suffer dropped call after dropped call and when I go 3 miles down the road no service at all.
The US can talk to peole on the moon and out in space but to talk on a mobile phone is a hit or miss affair, usually miss.
The point I’m making is from my experience of the two countries. The UK has a far superior service to other countries
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Orange is useless down along the river in and around the Ironbridge Gorge and Bridgnorth.
It’s stupid considering there actually are several mobile phone mast that are visible!
I cannot get a signal at home at all and it drives me up the wall. When I think I have a signal (1 bar) it drops out as soon as I want to make a call or half way through the call!
I have to get in my car and drive around looking for signal so I can stop in a gateway to a field or on a grass verge somewhere just to make a phone call for heaven’s sake!
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“Orange has pretty good coverage. And T-Mobile.
Now the two are sharing networks it’s even better.” Not where i go to in Telford it doesn’t.
Orange make me laugh, they are advertising “high definition sound” and yet I can’t get a signal half of the time.
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From an article in the Star last year:
“Hundreds of people were expected to turn out at a protest rally in Shrewsbury today as two campaign groups joined forces to fight controversial mobile phone mast plans.
Residents and campaigners from Copthorne and Radbrook were expected to gather outside the Vodafone shop in Pride Hill and were due to be joined by Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski and Councillor Anne Chebsey, Mayor of Shrewsbury.”
Nepal obviously has fewer NIMBYs.
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T-Mobile coverage around Queens Head is rubbish.
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I can’t get a Virgin mobile signal at the pub i drink in………..thats why i drink in that pub..
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I live in north Herefordshire close to the border of Herefordshire,Shropshire and Worcestershire. I have a contract with orange and a works phone on Vodafone. I receive hardly any signal in the area and nothing in my home from either networks, yet I still pay the same premium price as does a person with good coverage and having all the benefits. Perhaps we should have pro rata rates until we have an equal coverage?
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A pro-rata option already exists. It’s called Pay As You Go. No signal, no call, no charge.
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Hang on! The only people who have said how good the mobile phone service on Everest is the firm providing the service!
Let someone make the first call from The Everest to Shropshire’s mountain, The Wrekin. (Yes it is, not by many feet, but it IS a mountain!)
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I use Tesco mobile and I’v had no reception problems at all in shropshire I have even sent pictures via Tesco mobile from the top of the Scottish Munro’s to Shropshire without any difficultly
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I’ve been on O2 for years and have never suffered loss of signal, not even in Oakengates which has a notoriously poor reception
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Makes no differance to me I have not got one.
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Sorry typing error should be “difference”
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Mobile phone companies are NOT charities – they need to make a profit to pay their staff and shareholders.
In sparsely populated rural areas the number of calls carried by a cell site is much lower, and hence it takes much longer to get a return on the original investment. In some cases it just isn’t worth the outlay (tens or hundred of thousands per site)
If you want 100% coverage lobby the government to subsidise loss-making cell sites..
Also, as someone else mentioned, as soon as one of the operartors decide to put in a new mast to improve coverage all the local protestors are out in force. I bet some of the protestors are also the ones complaining about coverage !
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Does Shropshire have the cellphone towers that are disguised to look like trees?
I live in Phoenix, Arizona and we have towers that look like palm trees and saguaros (big cactus with arms for the uninformed). And the East Coast has huge fir trees. Pretty cool.
Anyway, quit whining about your reception. Switch off your phone, take a breath, and enjoy the view.
Peace.
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I hear from semi-reliable sources that the mast at Base Camp resembles a Yeti.
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