Signal strength in NW Scottish Highlands ?
We're crawling slowly out from the stone age here, having bought a Tablet & unlocked Mifi for use while away. (We don't have smart phones, and still resist having them!)
We'll be off to the W Highlands of Scotland with this wondrous technology. The various providers show maps indicating reception of phone, 3G, 4G, in various places, but I'm told they're ambitious; O2 & EE appear to have the best claims.
Some of you here live or visit there, I know: which one's really the best to go for, O2 or EE, when buying our data-only SIM card?
(Still a bit confused about needing a tethered one, or not, in a Mifi, but that's another question!)
And having written all this, I'm reminding myself that one of the major points of being away is to get away from it all!!
Comments
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Not sure what you're referring to by 'unlocked Mifi ' - do you mean you have a separate 3G/4G dongle that you can connect the tablet to via wifi ?
IAC a few general observations:
- IME o2 is generally the worst for coverage - having said which ...
- an airtime provider may have coverage in one area and not in another where a different one has coverage. For that reason SWMBO and I have different airtime providers on our phones and a different one again for our (data only) mifi dongle
- you need to look at 4g; even 3g is slow by the standards we're now used to - OK for checking email but not much else - and 2g (which many parts often are) is really only good for voice and texts
- In NW Scotland the coverage is IME often better than in many more rural parts of England (why would that be I wonder
)- Make best use of cafes / tearooms / pubs - many have wifi these days
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In 2014 I got an O2 mobile signal all the way around the NW of Scotland with the exception of Scourie. BUT, it was GPRS and not 3G/4G.
We need to remember that caravan sites are often situated away from urban centres where the best signal strengths exist. I wouldn't count on bring able to do more than make phone calls and send texts in most remote areas which is why I've not gone down the Mifi route. I think you would definitely need an unlocked device with a sim for each network and, even then, you might not get 3G/4G.
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It's a Mini Wifi device, dongle, call it what you will, which was originally EE but has been unlocked to work with any, so we'll be getting a couple of different pre-loaded data SIM cards with different providers, and swapping them round to see which, if any, gets the signal, then wifi-ing off that with a tablet.
And it'll mainly be for checking emails and looking at information websites - no video or music streaming.
I hadn't heard of Mifi either until about 10 days ago! We're deliberately not smartphone owners, partly as a way of being more able to switch off.Interesting that O2 gets a poor report here, it shows the best on the coverage map. But that's their claim, presumably!
... and if none of it works, we'll just have to be more switched off
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I went into this quite recently, HH, but in view of my experience in 2014 decided not to bother. Check out the 3 Network's Internet on Legs on Amazon. There are some good deals and the 12gb sim lasts for 12 months.
I don't fully understand you not wanting smartphones as they are good at picking up signals and do all that tablets do. They can also be turned off in total or in part. Your choice, though.
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The reception varies between sites and I doubt there is one best supplier for all sites. If you know which sites you are visiting I would ring them and see what they advise but if you are visiting several you might not be able to get a signal at all of them.
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I might understand reluctance for a smart phone. I now have a Galaxy A Tab when away instead of a 12'' lappy. Large screen and therefore, for me, better than a smart phone. A useful size screen smart phone would be larger than I would wish to carry. My small Samsung Flip top slips easily into my trouser pocket - sometimes it gets lost in there.
I use my mobile phone rarely other than on holiday to occasionally phone a site, call a doctor, call breakdown, find out where OH has got to in a city. So for me PAYG even at 30p per minute is cheaper than the lowest monthly Tarrif. I use EE for the coverage and cheapest package would be £5 a month = £60 a year. I doubt that I use much over £10 a year on PAYG - maybe £15 on a heavy year.
If I want internet I use club wifi or might buy on non CC sites. When in Scotland late April/May for 8 sites (2 AS, one commercial and 5 CC) I don't think that I had internet on more than 1. Not sure that I actually had it at all.
Internet on holiday does not trouble me greatly. I use it at home more as I do not watch TV. On holiday I rarely use it more than an hour on and off.
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I'm using my smartphone nearly all the time, on giffgaff I have not had a problem yet although some areas are slower due to lack of 4G (as in where I live!
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