Poor Signal on Cloudy Days.....?!?!

[DinoF]

I have noticed that where  commute to and from (London Bridge overground train statiion), always seems to suufer signal issues when the weather is damp, wet or cloudy?!

Normally, this area has a strong 3G signal (on my iPhone 5, I get 5 full bars plus the 3G symbol) when its nice and sunny, however, when the weather is damp, rainy and cloudy, this 3G signal drops to the 'E' symbol (Edge, whcih I think is the slowest speed) and I will typically only get about 2 or 3 bars of service.

I am not sure if this is indeed due to a nearby signal post being wet and damp and possibly clouded over (if it is situated on the top of a building) or just the amount of people using their phones at the station but it does seem weird that it only  happens on wet, rainy cloudy days!?

[adamtemp64 · Accepted solution]

Weather can cause issues but normally on the old higher frequency 2100mhz 3g (which may still be used in london) a bit like sky sat service can be affected

But also it could be congestion if the cells are loaded with people doing things on their phones instard of looking at the nice sunny skies.

P.s. edge is not the slowest gprs is the slowest 2g data type

[Anonymous]

Structures and the metal from the train can cause issues too.

[DinoF]

....hmm - I think it could be a factor of all these issues rolled into one!

Sometimes (on these wet, cloudy rainy days), I will get on the train, and for about a minute or so, my iPhone 5 will show the 3G signal. However, as more and more commuters pile onto the train, I can slowly see my signal dropping by a few dots (can't say 'bars' any more now can we because iOS7 does not have these 'bars' but instead has 'dots', 'circles', 'spots' - just what are these called?!?! ) until it then settles for 'Edge'. As you say - perhaps the wet metal train plus the amount of other users getting on the train who are also on O2, probably causes this....!!

[gemz4the1]

I always lose my signal completely, or go down to just one 'dot' when I am on a train.  There are so many electrical issues going on within a train so it is understandable that it weakens the phone signal.

If my signal goes off, I switch it to airplane mode for a few seconds and then turn airplane mode off and it resets the signal and I get it back.