Mobile phone reception and connecting to masts

[Infobleep]

Apolgoies if this has been recently asked. I also wasn't certain which fourm to use. I couldn't find one for mobile phone reception. I think that would be a useful fourm.

I have a Nexus 5 running 4G. I live in Surrey and regularly travel through South London and Sussex. Is it my imagination or has the mobile data coverage got worse? I've only had my Nexus 5 for just over a year so if I am experiencing issues, is it likely to be due to my Nexus 5 jot picking up the mobile data signal that well?

Also how does the Nexus 5 decide which mast to lock on to for data. When passing through Surbiton the quality varies from non existent; E; occasionally G; H or 4G. It appears as if it's random as it never seems to be the same each time I pass through but their will be a reason for it.

Some days I can hold a conversation all the way from Kingston to Surbiton and other days it keeps cutting out once I reach Surbiton.

Also Guildford and Woking have 4G but when I arrive by train, I seem to end up on H or E and it can't always connect to anything.

Is there away of forcing it to use a certain mast or refreshing it so it picks a better one?

An O2 guru once suggested going into mobile networks, selecting one I cannot connect to and then switching back to automatic as that will clear it down. Is that the best or only way to sort out the mobile data issues? I'd rather not restart the phone everytime but I guess that might be another option. Last night however my mobile just seemed to hang on the searching for mobile phone networks so I ended up restarting the phone.

I use some apps that make use of my location but although I've not noticed any problems with my GPS, they only work if I have mobile data coverage in addition to GPS coverage. Hence why I am trying to see what I can do to improve things. When I'm in Kingston upon Thames town centre I get 4G and never any problems so this issue doesn't occur everywhere.

Thanks for reading.

[Infobleep]

I can't seem to be able to edit my previous post. That shouldn't have been modifies but modified. Also newer and not beer.

[MI5]

There is no real explanation. It's just radio waves and in some areas / locations you can pick up a better signal.
3G only phones may work better if the 4 G phone is trying to latch onto a weaker 4G signal but in a strong 3G area.....

[Infobleep]

Thank for your reply. I find all of this fascinating.

Perhaps I should switch off 4G when at my parents and when in the second hand record shop, switch off 2G/3G if I can indeed do that.

[MI5]

Most android phones give you the option of 2g, 2g/3g or 2g/3g/4g

[Anonymous]

What many people don't know is that you cannot actually make a phone call over a 4G network. 4G is strictly data only. When you make a call your phone will 'fall-back' to 3G (or 2G) to complete the call and then try to reconnect to the 4G network. It may be that the problems are about this reconnection.

Chris

[MI5]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What many people don't know is that you cannot actually make a phone call over a 4G network.

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You can make calls over 4G.

Three has already rolled out VoLTE and O2 have been trialling it.

I'm sure EE and Voda aren't far behind either.

[Anonymous]

I am sorry for not being clear. You cannot make conventional calls over 4G. VoLTE is (like Skype) a data connection and has not yet been fully implemented by any UK network.