[crowfield99]

Hi Guys,

I have had a few 3G Phones now over the past year or so, now where I live the masts for 2G & 3G are in the same location. Each are about 400 yards apart from each other and thats 02, Orange, Vodafone & T-Mobile. 3.

I first stated with 3, not very good coverage - Have to be in a bedroom near the window to get 1 bar of 3g.

Then I went to T-Mobile was a little better, again have to go in one bedroom for it to get half coverage. Does not work downstairs on 3g at all.

Now on Orange PAYG 3G, remember that the masts are in the same area and only about 400 yards apart from each other. I get full 3G Coverage and it works anywhere in the house.

Any ideas? I have looked at site finder and they very much run at the same levels.

Its just a strange one - you would think if they are all in the same area. You would get abouts the same coverage from each!

Just one of them things that bugging me.

[Ben]

Very bizzare. AFAIK the masts are directional, so it could have a lot to do with what direction each one is pointing in. Funny how it works out isn't it!

There's no chance Orange have another mast positioned close to you? They could have a new(ish) one that hasn't been plotted on site finder yet.

[crowfield99]

No, Orange have said they were not planning any as they had enough for demand at the moment. How far do 3G signals travel anyways? I know that on the 1800 band signals travel up to 4 miles.

[Hands0n]

Very odd indeed - I have a similar situation in terms of mast siting (but signals are fine). They are all in sight of eachother spread over a similar 400 metre line. These have been recently established in late 2005. Prior to that I always had a good 3 signal and a rubbish Vodafone signal - so much so that the handset (PAYT) would flip back to 2G rather than persist trying to hold 3G. Now I have 5 bars on 3 (no change there) and 5 bars glowing away on the Vodafone handset.

It could be that the masts are not properly configured into the network (wild guess). Something similar occurred down the road about 2 miles away where a new 3 mast was erected. Calls would disconnect as I approached the mast :eek: and no signal until I passed it by about 500 metres. It was reproducible 100% of the time. Prompted by 3g-g on this forum (he knows this network stuff) I reported it to 3 via eMail, they responded, and within a few days the fault cleared.

So, maybe a call to the respective CS teams would help, if you're still using the other networks.

[crowfield99]

I only use Orange now which is the one that gives me 100% full 3G.

Here is what is from Site Finder, see what I mean you would think that you get about the same coverage from all.