I don't know if it matters or not but I would like to know how to set up my phone to get good reception here in VA. I just switched from Verizon and I have the TyTN II (which I love), but my reception is CRAP!!!
Is there anything I can do about it. I can get 5 bars around town and drop off at my house but the reception is somewhat bad everywhere. Help
Well, i'm with T-Mobile and i've finally finished my contract. I've hated t-mobile ever since i started it. Terrible signal, terrible internet speeds, terrible customer service and terrible prices for upgrades. To upgrade to a Xperia X10 from my G1 (not upgrading though, as i have a Nexus) it would extend my contract, cost me an extra £10 a month (so up to £30!) AND the phone would cost me £290! I mean, i can get hold of the phone on its own for £230!
Basically, i cannot stand t-mobile any longer and i was wondering what operators you are all with and how happy you are with them.
My girlfriend's on Orange so i'm leaning towards them at the moment.
Cheers guys
I am also in the same boat but I think I have to choose Vodafone or 02, I believe they have the best mobile internet in the UK, been happy with t-mobile most the time but signal is non existent in my work place, think it's because they have the **** spectrum. So I can't see any improvement until the gov auctions off the better part but that won't be till 2011.
I left T-Mobile for O2 a few years ago and have not looked back. Orange are also good though - if I ever ran into an issue that prompted me to leave O2, I'd go to Orange.
O2 PAYG,quite good
get lots of free texts and minutes,plus 3g allowance for a month worth 7 quid
Just rang up and cancelled, meaning to do this for a while August last bill, might order a few free sims to test how the networks are.
I've been with T-Mobile for 15 years (since they were Mercury One2One). I haven't had too many problems, although I'm probably only still with them because I was getting a loyalty bonus.
One thing to bear in mind is that they are merging with Orange so we will be able to use their network, so it might be worth seeing what they will offer you in the way of reducing your bill if you stay with them, especially as you don't need a new handset.
I think also the data allowance is better on T-Mobile as well (I get 3GB), I think you generally get less with the other UK networks. Also roaming data is quite good (£10 for 50MB in EU).
Good point. I might ring up and threaten to cancel to see if i can get a good deal out of them
Thanks for your help everyone!
You'll find lots of people saying every network has the worst coverage and the worst customer server and the worst deals. The truth is...
Network Coverage:
All networks have pretty good coverage, except Three. They will roam you onto Orange as their 2g backup, and if you use 2g alot they will hassle you and posibly cut you off.
In my experience Orange have the worst overall coverage out of the 4 other networks.
Three and T-Mobile have a RAN sharing agreement which means they share 3g radio towers, so they curently have very good 3g coverage. Three are on a push to upgrade their 3g network so this can only help.
You're best bet is to find a friend with the network you're thinking of going to and check reception in the main places you will use it. Probably home and work. If you can't find a friend then go pick up a pay as you go sim for 1 pound and use that to check. You can actually get free sims from every network from their website too.
Every network has blackspots - some really bad, and this usually leads to some forum rant about how that particular network is total ****e, with another one 3 posts down about how that network's reception is amazing! It ultimatly depends where you live.
Worst customer service
Although some networks have been known to have totally terible customer services in the past (three), most have shaped up and are reasonably good. Like everything the experience goes up and down over the months, and todays amazing network is tommorows dog. If you had a reall bad experience with t-mobile then move (see next section), if only for your own sanity! Otherwise you'll probably have a short fuse every time you call them from now on.
Again ask friends etc about how they're finding customer service. Usually one or tworeally bad experience end up in rants on forums, and the worst stories always stick in the mind.
worst deals
Staying with the same network will never get you a great deal. Most networks have a ratio that the retentions team look at. It shows how much you use your phone and how much it has actually cost them. For example if you have 900 mins and make mostly t-mobile only calls you'll have a better ratio than others. They also look at how long you've been with them, how many months out of contract (before u took a new phone etc).
All these things means that _sometimes_ people get amazing deals, because the specific person you speak to decides you ar worth keeping no matter what. Typically tho you will end up calling customer services yourself and talk to a minion who spouts the standard deals and has only a marginal discount to offer.
Remember if you move network you will ALWAYS get a better deal. Look at all the new contract deals out there, even at places like phones4u. Dont every expect your network to match those, they wont. There may be the odd story about someone getting some amazing deal, but its rare.
Just get you PAC code and use it with a third party seller to get the best deal you can. And dont look back.
Interesting comments.
I've been with T-Mobile ever since I moved to the UK two years ago. My contract ran out a month or so ago and I was looking around if there are better operators. Everyone had something bad to say about all of them: O2, Vodafone, Orange, 3 - but no one said anything bad about T-Mobile. My experience was also quite good with them, so I stayed
I guess I should try other carriers just to see what kind of coverage and speeds they provide, but T-Mobile meets my needs fully, so I don't see any point to leave.
So like the subject says, can I solve my recent poor reception problem by updating the radio version on my N1? Reception has gone down the tubes lately and I'm really not sure if it's the update to Android v2.2 that did it or if AT&T is randomly starting to suck in my area.
It could be both, though I'm not sure. AT&T has tendencies to stink it up reception wise, but in CT, and at least in Hartford county, minus sporadic areas of poor reception, it's all good here. As for the Android version, I really can't honestly remember having reception issues this badly with v2.1.
So any thoughts?
(And if this is in the wrong forum, I apologize, but it's more of a question and I just want an answer from similar users like myself, so I posted here).
I've never noticed any change in reception when I switched between radios on my ATT nexus. But some people claim they do. Best is to try it and see.
Hey everyone, I'm using vodafone in the uk and keep having strange signal fluctuations with wcdma, especially when using data.
My signal strength is generally really bad but frequently I will be on 0/1 bars then shoot up to full bars and then back down again in the space of a few seconds, this is with it locked to wcdma.
Gsm is fine...
The phone is in a case also
Can I blame vodafone for my crappy signal or does anyone else experience this?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I get the same thing, I thought it was vodafone so tried my wifes o2 sim but did the same thing. My old Nokia (N85) was fine on vodafone I just assumed the antenna wasn't as good in the galaxy? just sitting at my computer my galaxy has jumped between 85 and 111 dBm and once 0 dBM 0 ASU. Unless I get really good coverage the reception is all over the place?
The reception does seem really bad... Although I have a friend with a galaxy s using orange saying the reception is fine
The signal strength doesn't bother me, I can still make calls and do what I need to do, it's just strange because when using data, the signal jumps up to max, I get a big speed increase then it goes back down again.
Its like a bug...
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Same problem here (on Vodafone UK). Always been in a strong signal area so never noticed a call dropping issue as such but the signal does fluctuate a lot when it should definitely be strong and solid.
Spending the next two weeks in a weaker signal area so it'll be put to the test I guess.
I have gotten pretty bad reception on my new HD7 over the past week or so since buying my HD7. Is this a known problem with the HD7?
It seems like each phone I get from HTC has worse reception than the last one. AT&T Tilt (Kaiser) had amazing reception, Touch Pro 2 had good reception, HD2 had just okay reception, HD7 has awful reception. Is this a radio problem? Is there a way to fix it?
On my HD2 I had to put it in 3G only just to keep my 3G speeds because it kept going back to Edge throughout the entire day. Setting the HD7 up for 3G only loses reception all the time and keeping it on Automatic of 2G only is not that much better. Someone please help if you can.