3G Signal...or lack thereof.

[Anonymous]

I am in the Royal Navy and am currently working at RNAS Yeovilton, a naval airstation just outside of Yeovil in Somerset. I would like to know why there is no 3G reception anywhere in the vicinity of such a large military establishment. There are somewhere in the region of 3,000 civilian and military personnel either living or working at RNAS Yeovilton, and one topic of conversation that repeatedly comes up is the lack of a decent mobile signal, and complete lack of a 3G signal. What this means for the people who are permanently based at Yeovilton is constant call dropping, poor call quality, text message delays of (I kid you not) up to 24 hours and a frankly usealess mobile internet service. I currently own a Palm Pre, and when I go home on leave to Manchester I cannot fault the speed and quality of the 3G connection for calls, messaging and browsing the internet...but when I am back on the base, I might as well be carrying a block of wax around with me. This problem could, I imagine, be easily remedied with the installation of a 3G cell site anywhere near the base...so can anyone at O2 explain why we here at Yeovilton are deprived of a high-speed signal?

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine, who is a marine, tells me this is a common complaint on some bases because there are restrictions on siting the masts near certain bases.

[Anonymous]

There are also issues with local councils, transmission to the sites, planning permission etc 😞

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies - they're all valid reasons I suppose, although the living site and technical site are at different ends of the base...and there are various villages in the area that would no doubt benefit from a local 3G enabled mast. Furthermore, there is actually a cell site on the main A-road that links the base to the village of Illchester. Very strange. Oh well.

[adamtemp64]

join the somerset lack of 3g club.


Only joking but yeovil is the nearest 3g to yeovilton there is very little if none on the whole a303/a30 corridor.

[Anonymous]

If their are only a few villages around the area you will probably be waiting a long time. Generally the better services are brought to citys and towns first.
I don't get a 3G signal either unfortunately.