Orange signal

[taimatsu]

I have a mobile phone (PAYG) with Orange. Various things about it bother me, not least that I can get barely any signal in my bedroom in the new house. (I had trouble in the old house, but gettng close to the window helped there. Not so here.) I have had to have bothersome phone conversations in the attic or on the stairs this week, and in order to receive calls I am leaving my phone on a window ledge outside my room (indoors, I hasten to add) and hoping I will hear it ring. This is far from ideal, but I'm not sure what to do about it. Is there anything I can do? Would something like this signal booster actually help?

Of course, I might give up on Orange anyway unless they can do me a really good deal with a better plan, as I am spending way over the odds on the phone now. But how do I know any other provider would have better coverage here?

Comments

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

T-Mobile will do a check based on your road.

O2 and Vodafone have much stronger reception everywhere, however this also depends on your phone.

[doctor-frank.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that most, if not all, mobile phone reception boosters are complete rip-offs, so I would be careful about buying one.

I may be wrong, however, but I would look into it first :)

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

They do look a bit implausible, don't they. The blurb about the "science university" somehow makes things worse.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Google seems to support the rip-off theory.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Just looked at the T&Cs of that site to see if they offer any kind of guarantee, and their T&Cs are positively worrying!

A choice extract:
"If Royal mail lose the item (after the 15 working days have gone classed as lost) this is beyond our control .We cannot issue a Refund as you selected this delivery option and you should be aware that this option is not a guaranteed delivery service (As per Royal mail)"

The punctuation and capitalisation of that paragraph is actually relatively good!

[j4.livejournal.com]

If you want to try O2, there's an offer at the moment where you can can order free O2 sims online (http://freesim.o2.co.uk/messages.php) - AFAICT there's no 'catch' except that a) presumably you have to change phone number (but unless I've misunderstood how the PAYG thing works that's going to happen anyway if you change provider) and b) you end up on their spamcustomer information database.

Just a thought.

[james-r.livejournal.com]

You can order free Vodafone SIMs online, even has a couple of pounds worth of credit on it too.. usual vodafone website.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I have a very old phone (five years? six?) and have been on Orange PAYG since the phone before and never really had any problems. I haven't been to your bedroom, though. I suggest you find someone on Orange and let them try at yours. If they get better reception, it's your phone, not Orange.

[medland.livejournal.com]

T Mobile does a coverage check thing before you sign up with them - you give them your postcode and it checks to see what sort of signal you'll recieve there.

[imc.livejournal.com]

I guess the best way to know is to find friends on the other networks and invite them to take their phones up to your room. I am finding Vodafone coverage to be pretty good, though my availability to come to Reading within the next few weeks is uncertain…

[thinkstoomuch.livejournal.com]

I used one of those boosters because I got given one free. Where my parents live Vodafone signal is *sometimes* one bar. It made no appreciable difference.

Vodafone has great coverage in Reading. As someone else suggests, get a free Vodafone sim, see if it works, and if it does, transfer your number to a Voda account. Remind me to test my phone when I pop round next :)

In general, Orange seems to work while in the country, but isn't as good as the others in cities.