Forum Discussion
Londonderry, Northern Ireland - New Account - Vodafone IE & Very Poor Recption
I just checked and coincidentally there's a message stating they're 'fixing an issue' time-stamped at 12:45pm. I'll wait and see how things go today and tomorrow.
This seems to be a common issue in the border areas as the Irish transmitters seem to have a stronger signal. Even with O2, I get 'Welcome to Ireland' TXT messages driving along some country roads 6-7 miles from the border.
I did try switching to BT mobile several years ago, but it was that bad (I'm one mile from the cell tower) that I couldn't even make a call from inside the house, or even at the front door. I had to walk to the end of the garden to get a signal.
I just checked the locations of the cell towers, and both O2 and Vodafone are transmitting from the same tower, one mile from me. The O2 is showing 3 bars (inside) and the Smarty is showing 0. The attached image shows all the Vodafone towers in the area, the purple line to the left is the Irish border, and I'm in the area marked in red. The screenshot is from the cellmapper.net site. Over 30 cell towers within five miles, and I'm getting 0 bars. Not looking promising.
So I just did some more digging and found an Android app that shows you what cell tower you're connected to, and the results are ridiculous. In my previous response I provided a screenshot of where I am and where the nearest cell tower is, roughly one mile away, with over 30 towers in a five mile radius.
Where is Smarty connecting to? The attached screenshot shows where. The cell tower is in the top left of the image and I'm in the bottom right. Distance between them is 10, yes 10, miles.
One thing to be aware of is that Three's/Smarty's network status checker updates the 'last updated' time automatically (I think it's every half an hour), presumably to give the impression of progress being made. So don't read too much into that timestamp.
It's not surprising that your phone isn't connecting to any of Vodafone's masts in the UK, as Smarty doesn't have a roaming agreement with Vodafone UK - they have roaming agreements with foreign networks (e.g. Vodafone Ireland) so you can use your phone abroad.
Also be aware that masts shown in red on Cellmapper are ones it's unsure about the location of, so it may not be quite as far away from you as it appears to be.
Thanks for clarifying some things there. I just wasn't thinking straight earlier. When I saw 'Vodafone IE', I totally forgot that Smarty use the '3' network in the UK, and that's why I mentioned about O2 and Vodafone using the same towers. However, the attached image shows the '3' cell towers in my area, and although there isn't as many, there are still almost 20 in a 5 mile radius, and it isn't using any of them.
In my previous image of the cell tower that it is connecting to (in the top left of the image), you'll also see a 'green' tower in the mid-left of the image. That is Vodafone IE and is definitely six miles away, so there are over 20 towers (both 3 and Vodafone IE) in a 6 mile radius that it won't connect to.
I've even restarted the phone in typical Microsoft fashion to see if that helped... it hasn't!
Yes, it is strange that it's not connecting to any of Three's masts that are clearly closer to you. Don't get me wrong, there can be circumstances where obstructions between you and a mast, and/or the frequency bands in use on a mast, mean that your phone doesn't necessarily connect to the nearest mast. But I think it'd be highly unusual for none of those Three masts to be providing a stronger signal than the Vodafone Ireland ones some miles away.
JJP2's suggestion sounds like it's worth a try - basically forcing your phone to use only Smarty, rather than it automatically picking the strongest signal out of the networks you're allowed to connect to.
