Best Mobile Phone Coverage in the Midlands / Warwickshire?

[tech_guy]

I'm currently with T-Mobile but it can sometimes be a bit pants - in some towns I can hardly get a signal. Who's the best for overall coverage? Is there a website where I can compare the mobile phone operators? People keep telling me to switch to O2 but I'm not sure yet.

 

The area I'm talking about is roughly a triangle comprising Coventry, Stratford Upon Avon and Daventry.

Edited April 27, 2010 by tech_guy

[LosOjos]

I was looking in to this recently, and I found this:

 

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/licensing/classes/broadband/cellular/3g/maps/3gmaps/coverage_maps.pdf

 

It's for 3G coverage, but it should give you a general idea (I figure if the 3G coverage is good then so must the standard GSM signal)

[WTFBBQ]

I have no problem with Orange. I had no problem with O2 either (was with them for several years). In all seriousness, there's rarely anywhere without mobile signal nowerdays unless you're in the middle of nowhere, or in suburbs with a hill between you and the tower. The last time I had no signal, I was walking in the Peak District. And I got plenty of signal on top of the hills!

[LosOjos]

Based on personal past experience, avoid Orange like the plague. They robbed my phone and billed me £2,500 in mobile internet charges in one month. T-Mobile have been a good network for me, but signal indoors is sketchy around here (Wolverhampton)

[CHR1S]

I have had over the last couple of years, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin and O2.

 

O2 has been the best service by a long way in Birmingham and most other places I have visited. I only lose my 3G coverage in the centre of large buildings where im away from windows.

[tech_guy]

I was in Kenilworth and then Alcester last Sunday and T-Mobile was awful - really poor signal in various places. It's happened before there in both towns so it wasn't a one-off.

[Andrew_C]

I really doubt that you can now say that either of the big two can be broad brush better or worse. You might get very localised differences; O2 is generally OK around here, but in the school environs? Total rubbish, and Vodafone are fine. My colleague found this out to his cost, he's now gone back to Voda after a big falling out with O2 including lots of broken promises.

[powdarrmonkey]

I was in Kenilworth and then Alcester last Sunday and T-Mobile was awful - really poor signal in various places. It's happened before there in both towns so it wasn't a one-off.

 

Alcester and T-Mobile are a total no-go - I used Virgin (t-mobile back-end) for ages and had no end of trouble. O2 seems pretty OK though, and Orange is reasonable but patchy.