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Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

graemeW
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

Got my sim today, having ordered it on Friday. The accompanying letter said my service would be activated at midday, 2 days after the welcome email.

Put sim in phone. Ding! Service found

Signal looks weaker than current Tesco signal so wandered around and yes, it's half the strength. For the next hour I removed and replaced sims several times but no improvement, so I decided I needed to exercise the right to cancel service within 14 days. Can't seem to access any acount information and even the link on the email goes to page not found. Am I suprised as I wasted hours on Thursday trying to order on line!

Went to "chat" and explained.

"Your service wont be connected yet!"

"It is,I have a signal"

"No, it's not connected until the day after you get your sim"

"But the email was dated Monday, so as it says, it's connected today. And I have a signal"

"Well, you can't cancel till tomorrow"

THe inference was that all would be better tomorrow. Does the signal mature with age?

12 REPLIES 12
flanzm
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Registered: ‎20-04-2016

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

The only way your signal may get better is the SIM may not be currently active.  When I got my life SIM originally it found the EE network and showed a signal but didn't actually register on the network (didn't show the actual network name). Once it was active (and showed the network name) it allowed me to roam between the old Orange and T-Mobile masts which did actually change the coverage a bit.

If you are actually showing PlusNet as the network name one thing you can try - are you connecting via 3G (phone says 3G or H/H+) if so you can try forcing you phone to use 2G you may find the signal is better.  If it's no better after that - then that's your best.

 

Are you in a fairly rural area ?  If so I am not surprised your signal is slightly worse than Tesco (who use O2).  EE uses 1800MHz,  O2 uses 900MHz for 2G.  The higher frequency used by EE doesn't penetrate buildings as well, hence why your indoor signal may be lower.

graemeW
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

THank you. The signal was designated "Plusnet" so i assume it was the full monty! We are close to the edge of a "reasonable" signal area and as the patterns are a bit "blocky" they are probably not to precise.

southerner
Aspiring Pro
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Registered: ‎27-11-2013

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

It's quite possible some networks will be stronger for you than others depending where you live & which masts you're near to. I hardly get any O2 signal, a weak Vodafone one and pretty strong 3 and EE ones.

flanzm
Pro
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Registered: ‎20-04-2016

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

Yep.  Makes sense.

o2/Vodafone share masts through something called Cornerstone.

EE/Three share masts through a similar venture called MBNL.  Although I understand there are still some legacy Orange masts out there, as I have one  near me.

graemeW
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

THat's why I needed to make sure I had a get out in the contract. Tesco/O2 is good here but the Plusnet deal is a better deal. But not if I can't make the calls! The signal maps tend to be optimistic and rather coarse in their bondaries. Just unfortunately it is weaker here than the map suggests.

graemeW
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎07-12-2016

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

.... but would that take 24 hrs to switch in? (sorry, posted to the wrong answer... this was in response to the shared masts reply)

flanzm
Pro
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Registered: ‎20-04-2016

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

No.  If you sure you are fully registered on the PlusNet network then I think you can use EE (MBNL) and legacy Orange/T-Mobile masts.  I can't see the coverage changing now.

Might be worth double checking there are no Network issues in your area https://myaccount.ee.co.uk/networkchecker/checkservice just to discount any temporary network issues.

Failing all that - have you tried forcing 2G only?  My 3G is marginal but my phone stupidly insists on using it, by forcing into 2G only mode when at home I can make calls reliably.  If I left it on the default it would be useless.

If you are on Android a good app to download is 'Network Cell Info Lite' - that will let you see the actual signal strength in dBm (a lower number here is better - anything less than 80dBm is what you are after to avoid dropped calls etc).  It also has a database of masts so will show you where you are actually being served from, plus all the other masts you could use, along with the strength of those masts.  It's a bit geeky but very interesting!

PeeGee
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Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???


@flanzm wrote:

 

 (a lower number here is better - anything less than 80dBm is what you are after to avoid dropped calls etc).

I think you mean "better than -80dBm", though I don't seem to have much of a problem at -105dBm (EE) and -113dBm (3) is definitely very flaky (or should that be unusable without the wifi calling app Shocked ).

Phil

Plusnet FTTC (Sep 2014), Essentials (Feb 2013); ADSL (Apr 2009); Customer since Jan 2004 (on 28kb dial-up)
Using a TP-Link Archer VR600 modem-router.
flanzm
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Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

Yes - need to make it clear that mobile signal strength is specified as a negative number so -70 dBm is better than -80 dBm etc see here 

For 2g and 3g generally anything more negative than -100 dBm is considered to be very poor with calls dropping out and poor data throughput.  Note 4G/LTE uses a different scale, where -100 dBm isn't so bad, but it's still the case that smaller negative numbers indicate increased signal strength.

 

 

southerner
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Registered: ‎27-11-2013

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???


@flanzm wrote:

Yep.  Makes sense.

o2/Vodafone share masts through something called Cornerstone.

EE/Three share masts through a similar venture called MBNL.  Although I understand there are still some legacy Orange masts out there, as I have one  near me.


Yes, that's what I heard.


southerner
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Registered: ‎27-11-2013

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???


@graemeW wrote:

The signal maps tend to be optimistic and rather coarse in their bondaries. Just unfortunately it is weaker here than the map suggests.


 

I don't find the coverage maps much use either. They say I should get excellent indoor and outside signal on all the big 4 but I can hardly get an O2 signal and Vodafone is quite poor as opposed to EE and Three being pretty good.

 

I basically did my own tests with an unlocked phone and a free PAYG SIM for each of the networks (you don't need to put any money on them)

flanzm
Pro
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Registered: ‎20-04-2016

Re: Does the mobile signal get stronger after 24 hours???

To be fair, the coverage maps are just computer models, based on a load of assumptions.

They can't take into account things like the construction of the building - for example many new houses now use foil backed insulation in walls which kills mobile signals.