Anyone any information on T-Mobile phone reception at campsites in Snowdonia and the Lakes?
I know Great Langdale is out until you're up near Pavey Ark.
Before anyone shouts me down for having a mobile in the hills, let me explain that I'm of an age where the missus worries about me coming a gutser on my own, and has the need to be able to contact me at least at the campsite.
When you get to my age my boy, you'll know what it's like ;-)
Well orange works fine in dol gam just outside betsy so id imagin t-mob would be ok there to.
Never tried it so i cant be sure!
huh???!!! whenever i head even vaguely near a molehill (or the maths room in college for that matter) my orange phone decides to go into network search mode, promptly flattening the battery hence beeping at me until i turn it off/sitck a charger into it (and surprisingly enough, i dont tend to be able to find a plug socket 1/2 way up helvellyn!)
lakes....dnt bother! never get a network signal except in ambleside or penrtih/keswick. wales aint bad except in oggy valley.
Get a better signal in capel than i do in my house grrr!
At Gwern Gof Uchaf (Tryfan) Emma got a signal (voda) and I didn't (T Mobile). Neither of us could get one in Llanberis.
Had Orange, cellnet and vodaphone - none works in Langdale or any other slightly remote place but as soon as you get up a few hundred feet I have always got a full strenght signal. Use with care though as dont wanna upset those who want to get away from such things!!
Pretty sure that my Vodaphone thing worked at the Langdale campsite. Certainly did from the pub (old) as there was a Q for the payphone and someone borrowed my mobile.
I agree with Guy, I'm on cellnet, in the lakes signals are OK high up or close to most of the TV relay points in the dales. Cellnet appears to be the best on the Western Isles too.
Cellnet seems OK in most of the bits where I've tried it in the Lakes (except Langdale), might be worth remembering, you can send a text message even with a very poor signal where you wouldn't be able to make a call
yeah, agree with Dave, txts punch through very well. Also if someone sends you a txt and you are in a bad area the txt will get through as soon as it gets a signal. That doesn't happen with a telephone call. The number of times I have thought "oh I have got a signal at last" then rung up my ansaphone only to get cut off due to a poor signal! Annoying.
I know this is an old thread, but I can now say with authority that you can get Vodafone at the Langdale campsite. Unfortunately, it's too unreliable to have anything other than novelty value. Each end of the day seem most reliable, particularly on Monk Hill on the campsite.
My experience is forget T mobile in Wales apart from the city/town centres.
O2 (cellnet) and vodaphone are the best two for coverage in Wales with orange coming a poor third.
We cover the whole of Wales and most of our Ambulances and RRVs have mobiles on either O2 or Vodaphone and my observations are based on our trialling of other networks as well as my own personal experience!
all the current mobile phone coverage maps are on the LangdaleWeb, ConistonWeb, WasdaleWeb, EskdaleWeb & ButtermereWeb if you are interested.
They update automaitcly from the main networks when coverage changes. Also you may beinterested to know that Orange have two new mast and a third planed so their coverage is getting much better.
I can get an orange signal up to the Stickle Barn in Langdale and to the Bottom of Hard Knott in Langdale
I was in a mobile phone shop the other day and one of the salesmen brought up a signal coverage map on a computer. Oddly enough, it showed no coverage whatsoever for the whole of Cumbria! On a whim, I suggested that the guy highlighted the whole screen, and voila... coverage was then highlighted in the form of lots of little squares. A bit daft of the company to print white squares on a white background, but they showed up grey when highlighted. I presume that most mobile phone outlets could bring up a similar screen for different networks and let you see what sort of coverage you're going to get anywhere in the country.
Course... they'll try and sell you a phone while they're at it!
Alan, I have found 02 to be good in the hills.
I would not dram of having a go at you for carrying a mobile, most of the walkers i know do so and its common sense to carry one even if you have it switched off and have it for just incase.
You cant rely on a siganl thats true but I know of two cases where a serious leg fracture was sustained and allthough in neither case was there a signal at the location of the accident there was a signal to be had much closer than the nearest land line so rescue was effected much sooner than if the injured person had to wait for a companion to get to a land line.
Also nothing wrong with reducing the worry that our nearest and dearest might go through in any situation, thats just being considerate :-)
Au contraire Monsieur Grand Slam. T Mobile works OK in Snowdonia, and it was fine in the Blacks when I was there on a backpack last April.
Never used to be able to get Orange to work much in Scotland so I switched.
You might well have "pockets" of cover Marcus, but I maintain that for best overall coverage, you will not beat O2 and Vodaphone!
Tony's right - in the Lakes i would say O2 (is that the Cellnet network?) and Vodaphone are the best.
In some areas a few years back even Vodaphone wasnt very good but most of them gaps have now been filled.
I am on Vodaphone and find the coverage (except in dead spots like valleys) adequate.
I can't disagree with you Tony as I haven't used the other two.
Also my expectations of being able to use a mobile phone when mobile are very low! On the other hand I've been quite pleased with the T-Mobile service over the last year and it's certainly been a vast improvement for me over Orange. The only places I remember it causing me a problem were Patterdale and Kinlochleven - which meant a trip to the nearest payphone to call in at basecamp.
Yes Neil O2 is the brand name for the old Cellnet.
I must say Marcus that where coverage is good with T mobile, then it is just that.
Obviously, from an Ambulance point of view, we really need a service with an overall coverage from cell area to cell area, rather than perfect reception in "hot spots."
One of my daughters had a T mobile for a while and the coverage was excellent in urban areas, but it did suffer from losing reception when moving between adjacent areas with many dropped signals and non contact.
I think the obvious answer is that O2 and Vodaphone have more cells nationwide for reception, so their overall coverage is bound to be better.
My only criteria for suggesting the "big two" is that if someone is going to an area where cell phone reception is an unknown quantity, then the big two are usually the best choice.
In the cities and larger urban conurbations, then the service providers are much of a muchness!
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