UK Coverage

Being able to use your mobile phone depends on it receiving signal from your network. It is not possible to use a different home network, even to make an emergency call.

Visitors to the UK can use any network their home network has a roaming agreement with.

The networks estimate coverage on the basis that you will be outdoors when you use your mobile. Many people want to use them indoors, and so in-building coverage matters. The two frequencies used by GSM mobile networks each have their advantages and disadvantages, and it is not true to say that one frequency is better than the other for in-building signal. Some buildings let 900 in better than 1800, and others are the opposite.

Each of the networks have the best coverage in some places, and each of them has the worst coverage in other places.

As more and more people use mobile phones, the networks are building more bases, and coverage improves all the time. Most of the time, all the networks' coverage is easily good enough for most people.

The Five networks and there basic coverage are summarised below:

3 (three)

3 is is a UMTS (3G) network which is building base stations across the country, but does not yet have national 3G coverage (they call it "Video coverage"). A condition of the licence for this new entrant to the market was that their users should be able to use an existing mobile network. 3 has an arrangement for users to use the O2 network, so the coverage for voice calls is as that of O2 (see below). The 3 coverage checker shows both voice and video coverage.

O2

O2 have a superb web page at http://www.webmap.o2.co.uk/ that allows you to check the coverage in any given postcode area, showing coverage on a zoomable map, which also shows the cell sites. It tells you about the cell, and gives any planned maintenance downtime information, details of where planned cells will be installed, and shows GPRS coverage. A must for base-station spotters!
O2 mostly uses GSM 900 but also uses 1800MHz frequencies to increase capacity.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile is a GSM 1800 network. They are now catching up with their competitors, but their coverage area is not quite as wide as that of the others.

Orange

Orange has had a policy of installing many more base stations than its rivals, and uses GSM 1800. Although offering not quite as widespread coverage as Vodafone, they are catching up fast, and the solidity of coverage seems excellent.

Vodafone

Vodafone has always been the leader in terms of UK subscriber numbers, and has consistently been in the lead two in terms of coverage. The Vodafone GSM network is mostly 900MHz, they do have some 1800MHz bases.

We are not the authors of this information, we thought it would be useful knowledge. This information can be found at

http://www.mobileshop.org/buyguide/coverage.htm