Does anyone find bad signal on National Rail?

[evantkh]

Does anyone find bad signal on any National Rail train service even though for city lines?

[MI5]

Yes

[evantkh]

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@evantkh wrote:

Does anyone find bad signal on any National Rail train service even though for city lines?

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The coverage is often exaggerated.

The coverage map says good indoor and outdoor LTE, but I always get poor signal when actually travelling around there.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

In defence of the coverage maps (and National Rail) these are based on static positions and they calculate stuff like distance to tower, signal strength, the amount of average users for that cell tower all that kind of gubbins. However, when you are on a train your not static, your constantly flicking from tower to tower and your phone is searching for a connection to a tower, this is why it drops in and out. Its why some rail providers now provide onboard wifi so you can use stuff like TuGo and surf as your travel.

Or at least this is how it was explained to me many moons ago

[evantkh]

The problem I am having is in another way. I am getting poor signal when the train is arriving at a station, rather than the rest of the journey, and the coverage map says good indoor coverage there.

[MI5]

Indoor coverage can never be guaranteed.
Too many variables.

[Anonymous]

Also depending on the station you dont know what else is floating around interfering with the signal, its radio waves at the end of the day, it could just be interference from something beyond their control. A radio tower for drivers communications or something like that.

If its a big enough station to have kiosks in see if there is any wifi you can piggyback off, most places tend to theese days.

[evantkh]

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@MI5 wrote:
Indoor coverage can never be guaranteed.
Too many variables.

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@MI5

I am just using that statement as a reference. The station is not actually indoor, it is just at a concave position along a river.

The National Rail is not the only problem. When I am travelling by bus along that area, I also get poor signal around that area when on bus where outdoor coverage should be considered.

However, if I switch carrier, I will get poor signal around my living area, but national roaming is abolished today.

[evantkh]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Also depending on the station you dont know what else is floating around interfering with the signal, its radio waves at the end of the day, it could just be interference from something beyond their control. A radio tower for drivers communications or something like that.

If its a big enough station to have kiosks in see if there is any wifi you can piggyback off, most places tend to theese days.

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National rail should have their own licensed frequencies, and also some mobile network works well there.

[Anonymous]

Dunno then, I did see your other post about it happening generally around the area not just the station so I am out of ideas, that said its been 12 years since I worked for o2 so i'm probably out of date anyway. If it is constant might be worth contact CS and logging it as a dead spot.