UKC

Looking at upgrading my mobile phone and possibly changing providers from Vodafone. Before I do, any thoughts or consensus on which providers have the best coverage on Scottish hills & the Lakes...?

In reply to hpil:

Never had any issues with voda in the lakes when I lived there. Switched to O2 and it all went a bit patchy

In reply to hpil:

up here in scotland the talk seems to be that vodafone had the contract to deploy antennas for the emergency services and so they were able to put masts where there wouldn't normally be a commercial "need" for one.

that said, i've heard suggestion that their data coverage in city centres is often not as good as say "three"

i'm on giffgaff (so O2) previously on orange and they are both much of a muchness. good signal in some places none in others.

In reply to hpil:
In Scotland, I've found it all depends where you are I'm afraid. I've been Vodafone, O2 and Orange and my experience is it is hit and miss sometimes with all of them. When with friends on different networks, sometimes they have reception, sometimes me in the same place.

Currently on O2 for other reasons and carry an Orange sim for backup.

My gut reaction from past years was Vodafone and Orange were slightly better with O2 not far behind. That said one friend two years ago could not wait to change back to Vodafone from Orange so some have difference experiences. I believe Skye MRT were for many years on Orange as that was best for the Cuillin (old knowledge so may well have changed by now).

Unless you are going to a particular area of Scotland regularly enough and know first hand that Vodafone is not great there (or have other reasons to change from Vodafone), it is were me I would stick with what you have.

In reply to hpil:

I have Vodafone on my mobile, and O2 on my iPad. In the (mainly north) Lakes, there's not a whole lot to choose. Sometimes one will have a better signal than the other, sometimes neither will have a signal at all. High on the fells reception is generally good (although you might end up roaming onto the Isle of Man network.....), lower down it's predictably more patchy.

Neither gets a data connection in Keswick, whereas Mike123 did, rather to his surprise (he was possibly on 3, but I couldn't swear to that....). I've even heard rumour of 4G in small areas of the west coast if you choose the right network!

In reply to hpil:

One day this will come to pass and network choice will be irrelevant

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27953508

I'm sitting here in Edinburgh and today signal strength is in the order O2, vodafone, Orange (with the latter struggling to maintain a call)

It can be a lottery at times

In reply to imkevinmc:

However, mobile phone companies say this would remove their incentive to build more masts to improve coverage.

Yeah, like that's a priority for them just now, rather than 4G rollout (which anecdotally is also leading to reduced 3G coverage).

One theory is that, since 4G has better penetration inside buildings, the networks are taking the opportunity to cut down on the number of masts they have to maintain. That could mean that coverage for 3G users is going to get worse.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/dec/17/mobile-phone-coverage-4g-3g-si...

The above linked article also states that Vodafone and O2 have a mast-sharing arrangement. It's not clear whether that's just a real estate arrangement (ie each can put an antenna on the other's masts), or they actually allow traffic from the other network through their anntennae. This article from The Register seems to suggest it's the latter: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/07/vodafonica/

So in practical terms, there should be little difference in coverage between Vodafone and O2.

To the OP: if you're happy with the performance of the Vodafone network but don't like their prices or customer service then you could consider changing to one of the virtual providers that uses the Vodafone network. I've just done this, moving to Sainsburys and porting my number with no hassle at all. (I didn't even get referred to the retentions department when I called Vodafone to get my PAC - perhaps they were glad to see the back of me?!)

In reply to Martin W:

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I don't think sharing is universal. At home giffgaff (O2) works best at the front of the house and Vodafone at the back. A few weeks back the O2 mast was down for 4 days and I could only use my vodafone mobile.

My smartphones are capable of many wonderful things. They just struggle with voice calls

In reply to hpil:

Having used O2, Vodafone, EE and Orange in the S Lakes for the last 2 decades, Vodafone has the better coverage, but still patchy.