Poor reception in high rise building

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I live in flat on the 9th floor in London Zone 2 area. I was thinking 02 should be having very good reception in the area. I checked the 02 network coverage checker and it says my postcode should be having great indoor and outdoor coverage both for 2G and 3G, but unfortunately I have very poor indoor reception. I need to go out to the balcony to make calls which is a bit frustrating. 

I tried my 02 sim in couple of different phones but its the same story. Even tried a sim swap recently, but no luck.

Any ideas what could be the problem?

[MI5]

The type of construction of the building can have a big influence on signal. Lots of steel & concrete can block / confuse things unfortunately....

[darrengf]

Welcome to the Forum.

Could be a number of things.

The masts and area coverage is based at ground level, so with youu living on the 9th floor may be the issue.

Also it depends on where your local mast is, Flats are generally notirous for not being brilliant regarding mobile signals im affraid. The Construction Im affraid doesnt help.

When i was in London I was on the London Eye. I picked up a 3G signal fine at the bottom and so far up, At the top i only got the 2g network, coming back down i gained 3G again.

http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ which is a goverment site and place your post code. this will show you are your local masts, the height of them and you may be able to get a better idea of the coverage.

[adamtemp64]

Also depends on mast location as they are normally pointed towards the ground not up in the air the coverage checker is most likley predicting ground level coverage for your postcode.

[anticpated]

I'm about 1 mile from my nearest mast yet the signal isn't great when home. Probably because of all the terrain where I live.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for you reply.

Any solutions anyone can suggest? Are there any devices whcih i can use to boost signal?

[jonsie]

O2 do a boost box but as yet they are only available to business customers at £150.

Hopefully they will be released to the masses at a more reasonable sum.