Terrible O2UK signal on train.

[Echleon]

Hello there.

I took the train today from Cornwall to Worcester and had absolutley dire signal. I couldn't get phone or data 95% of the time. Even when I got to the station I had problems for 30 minutes or so. I'm now near Worcester on the train and everything is fine.

Is this normal? I can easily get 3G in Cornwall but couldn't get anything when travelling through more built up areas.

 

[Malcster]

I travel between Bristol & London regularly on the train and yes, its bad, but i do seem to get atleast some sort of data connection for most of the time, reverting back to GPRS only frequently though.

One thing you should know though is a lot of railway stations have Cloud Wifi, which is free to use with the iphone. I can usually get to it from on the train as well.

One problem i have found with the iphone is occaisionally, it seems to give up trying to acquire a signal after a prolonged period of no signal, you can force it to reacquire by switching it to flight mode and then back again. This seems to help in this situation.

 

[Sebby]

A lot of it is down to the iPhone itself, I think. The iPhone is still not right in terms of its 3G ability, and - especially when moving, such as on a train - I struggle to be able to do anything as it is constantly switching between GPRS/Edge/3G, which it does anything but seemlessly.

 

[The Phazer]

It is worth noting that some UK train companies (Virgin especially) wisely ordered trains with lead lined windows that notably knacker up mobile phone reception. And then advertised those same trains to business commuters wanting to work on the move. Sigh.

Phazer

 

[ppc750fx]

A lot of it is down to the iPhone itself, I think. The iPhone is still not right in terms of its 3G ability, and - especially when moving, such as on a train - I struggle to be able to do anything as it is constantly switching between GPRS/Edge/3G, which it does anything but seemlessly.

1) You can't switch seamlessly between GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA. Any TCP connections will be dropped, as there's just no practical way to keep them alive.

2) 3G coverage in the UK sucks. EDGE coverage on anyone other than Orange sucks. It's not necessarily just the iPhone -- I haven't noticed any difference between my iPhone and my Nokia when it comes to getting and maintaining a 3G/EDGE connection.

 

[Sebby]

Fair enough.