Mobile Hone Coverage

[whiskeryron]

In the news yesterday it was stated that mobile phone coverage was being extended to all rural areas in the UK. I live in rural Herefordshire & the village where I reside has no mobile phone signal whatsoever, does anyone know if there is an actual programme planned to alleviate the problem ? ( I wont hold my breath.)

[whiskeryron]

That should of course state PHONE

[Jomlett]

On the contrary, Ron, A proposal by the UK government to improve rural coverage through ‘national roaming’ has been knocked back by mobile network operators (MNOs) as being unworkable and undesirable, according to the Financial Times.

[Old_Geezer]

If commercially funded it needs to be commercially profitable. Maybe if it is desirable the government can consider funding shared aerial sites, perhaps for a appropriate fee to go with the obligation to rent ?

[whiskeryron]

OG. are you suggesting that we ( the users) should fund it ? we pay enough as it is. Bear in mind that anyone in our situation is paying for a service that they are not getting, is there any way we can suggest that this is illegal ?

[Old_Geezer]

If the State thinks it desirable & viable and the industry doesn't want to know, that is the only other option isn't it ? Unless the locals wish to fund it.

You will have bought into the service knowing that there was a possibility of low/no coverage, and a cooling off period I'd guess. I don't think you'd get an "illegal" claim to fly. The service offered is what it is in the areas it is.

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe if you complain you can get a mutually acceptable agreement to cancel the contract without penalty. You never know your luck.

[mikey4444]

The reality WR is that the Mobile companies are making money hand over foot with the customers that they already have. There are parts of mid-Wales where sheep and cows outnumber humans by a factor of at least 1000 to 1, and its difficult to get a signal there as well. If farmers wanted to stay in touch with their livestock, you would be getting 5 bars on your phone !

Also consider the local reaction if a phone company wanted to put an aerial up in your village...I am sure you have some nimbys living there !

Is there a techy on here today that could tell us if it is possible to "piggyback" Mobile calls onto a WiFi for a PC ?

[Old_Geezer]

Skype ?

Once on a PC I don't think you'd want to "SIM" it back to the mobile network as a mobile originated call, or even as a landline one come to that, when you can use the Internet you've already paid for access to.

[mikey4444]

OG...I wasn't really thinking of Skype. Its just that if you have a good internet connection, it should be possible for a Mobile to use that to access the mobile phone network. Perhaps its not possible...I don't know, but it seems like a good idea to me !

[whiskeryron]

thanks guys for your answers. Now here's an update that works, we have discovered that by changing supplier to O2 & downloading a free app called ''Tu Go'' we can get a signal through Broadband ( we have BT) which enables us to use our mobiles from home, aint that clever ?

Ron.

[mikey4444]

Clever and just what I was thinking about WR ! It makes sense !

[Old_Geezer]

Since a mobile originated call costs more I am not seeing the advantage of using WiFi to get it. Part of the extra cost is to run the base stations the mobile connects to (where it can). Once WiFi-ed to a PC I'd have thought for the majority of calls it would be better to connect a cheaper way.

[Huderon]

Mikey, it is possible to get some kind of adaptor which you plug in to your broadband to let you use your mobile in areas where the signal is poor at best. The trouble is that each operator has their own adaptor and there would be restrictions (with 3 you can register a limited number of phone numbers to use the adaptor). That's fine if you want to use your mobile at home, or close to home, but not much use if you are half a mile from home and need to make a mobile call.