three coverage

lo0kash · 04-12-2008 1:38pm #1

Hi all,

I'm thinking about moving from Meteor to Three - i have very poor coverage where I'm currently living. What are your experiences with three? How good is their coverage comparing to Meteor? How good are they in rural areas?

Many thanks,

lo0kash

Cabaal · 04-12-2008 1:39pm

I'd suggest you use the search function

Icdb · 04-12-2008 1:41pm

i would suggest sticking with meteor.. as 3's coverage is poor..

instead... go to network on your menu.. select manual network search.. and choose vodafone roaming.... if it's available in your part of ireland

lo0kash · 04-12-2008 1:41pm

Cabaal: Sure i have done that. but obviously used wrong keywords as I couldn't find anything interesting. thanks anyway.

lo0kash · 04-12-2008 1:43pm

Icdb wrote: »

i would suggest sticking with meteor.. as 3's coverage is poor..

instead... go to network on your menu.. select manual network search.. and choose vodafone roaming.... if it's available in your part of ireland

how could I forget about that:) I'll use that to check which network has best coverage.thanks a lot.

jimmycrackcorm · 04-12-2008 2:05pm

I moved from Meteor to Three. Basically they have fairly good HSDPA coverage for Data, but in Rural areas there is only the GSM fallback provided by Vodafone for calls and texts.

On the other hand Meteor have very good Edge coverage countrywide.

Walkman · 04-12-2008 2:48pm

Icdb wrote: »

i would suggest sticking with meteor.. as 3's coverage is poor..

instead... go to network on your menu.. select manual network search.. and choose vodafone roaming.... if it's available in your part of ireland

3 have a roaming agreement with vodafone too so there is no problems with getting a signal anywhere in the country, in this day and age I would imagine there is little difference in any of the networks coverage with domestic roaming agreements taken into account

Icdb · 04-12-2008 7:14pm

Walkman wrote: »

3 have a roaming agreement with vodafone too so there is no problems with getting a signal anywhere in the country, in this day and age I would imagine there is little difference in any of the networks coverage with domestic roaming agreements taken into account

yes three do have a roaming agreement with vodafone.. but three hobble their phones to cling on to the 3 signal for as long as possible... which means missed calls dropped calls in low 3 signal areas...

I have a debranded phone with 3pay... in low signal areas.. I have to choose gsm only...

with three branded phones.. you can't... only dual mode.... and as I mentioned.... the passover from 3 to vodafone.. isn't great at all... 3g network is programmed as preferred .....

where as.. if you're with meteor.. you can tell your phone to always choose voda..

Walkman · 04-12-2008 7:50pm

I have a three branded handset (two in fact) and never have a problem with coverage, handover or dropped calls

Icdb · 05-12-2008 12:34am

Walkman wrote: »

I have a three branded handset (two in fact) and never have a problem with coverage, handover or dropped calls

I'm talkin bout low signal areas.. here.... if you're right next to an aerial you're fine...

Sam Vimes · 05-12-2008 7:51am

Icdb wrote: »

I have a debranded phone with 3pay... in low signal areas.. I have to choose gsm only...

with three branded phones.. you can't... only dual mode....

it's true that you can't select gsm only on a 3 handset and i often had to do it on my non-3 branded handset because it was trying to latch onto very low 3 coverage in preference to voda

cullenswood · 05-12-2008 11:33am

Sam Vimes wrote: »

it's true that you can't select gsm only on a 3 handset

Does this mean the battery life is but considerably as three phones would constantly be searching for a 3g connection. I have my 800i set to GSM only on vodafone when I am not browsing and it has increased battery length by a lot. Was just thinking of getting the C905 on three but won't if this is the case, or is it easy to debrand and would I lose out on much

Sam Vimes · 05-12-2008 12:33pm

cullenswood wrote: »

Does this mean the battery life is but considerably as three phones would constantly be searching for a 3g connection. I have my 800i set to GSM only on vodafone when I am not browsing and it has increased battery length by a lot. Was just thinking of getting the C905 on three but won't if this is the case, or is it easy to debrand and would I lose out on much

the battery life would be affected but in large areas of the country 3 has no 2g coverage so if you set it to gsm only you'll end up with no coverage.

it wouldn't be difficult to debrand. i haven't used a 3 branded handset for 2 years and i've never had any problems but then i never use planet 3. some of the stuff on that will only work with a 3 branded handset

Icdb · 05-12-2008 1:22pm

Sam Vimes wrote: »

the battery life would be affected but in large areas of the country 3 has no 2g coverage so if you set it to gsm only you'll end up with no coverage.

it wouldn't be difficult to debrand. i haven't used a 3 branded handset for 2 years and i've never had any problems but then i never use planet 3. some of the stuff on that will only work with a 3 branded handset

3 use vodafones network.. which covers most of the country... if 3 has no 2g coverage.. probabally means there's no voda either...

also... keeping phone in gsm mode while not browsing... saves a heap of battery life

long_b · 05-12-2008 1:28pm

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

in Rural areas there is only the GSM fallback provided by Vodafone for calls and texts.[/QUOTE
]
A few people have said this but I use Opera Mini on a 3 SIM in my house with seemingly no 3G signal.
(Me Nokia shows the antenna over the arrows)
Go figure.

Sam Vimes · 05-12-2008 1:30pm

Icdb wrote: »

3 use vodafones network.. which covers most of the country... if 3 has no 2g coverage.. probabally means there's no voda either...

also... keeping phone in gsm mode while not browsing... saves a heap of battery life

they only use vodafone in some places. you can't just search for vodafone and connect to it anywhere in the country. it's like meteor's deal with vodafone that only applies in the west of ireland

jimmycrackcorm · 05-12-2008 2:03pm

long_b wrote: »

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

in Rural areas there is only the GSM fallback provided by Vodafone for calls and texts.[/QUOTE
]
A few people have said this but I use Opera Mini on a 3 SIM in my house with seemingly no 3G signal.
(Me Nokia shows the antenna over the arrows)
Go figure.

I actually managed to get GPRS data access on 3 down in Co. Galway last year but that was the only place and was hit and miss -sometimes just saying you are out of the Video coverage area. there was no 3G signal there at all.

jimmycrackcorm · 05-12-2008 2:06pm

cullenswood wrote: »

. Was just thinking of getting the C905 on three but won't if this is the case, or is it easy to debrand and would I lose out on much

My C905 receiver is very weak compared to my nokias. In work in the city centre it drops the 3G very quickly in the building where the Nokias were solid. No surf while turf for me :-)

weekends · 05-12-2008 2:28pm

Agree with some of the other comments - 3 coverage is not great so stick with Meteor. I hear they are putting in 3G so it might improve with Meteor.

Sam Vimes · 05-12-2008 2:46pm

weekends wrote: »

Agree with some of the other comments - 3 coverage is not great so stick with Meteor. I hear they are putting in 3G so it might improve with Meteor.

it's already up and running in dublin and cork

wheresthebeef · 05-12-2008 4:23pm

i have had a 3 pay monthly contract for the last year and have used 5 different phones (nokia 6288, nokia n73, sony ericsson w910i, sony ericsson k800i, and a nokia e71 of late) and have never had problems getting coverage anywhere, mostly dublin, kildare and some travel to cavan, westmeath, clare and galway. You won't get 3G coverage everywhere, but you will always have voice coverage and SMS in my experience. Plus three are starting a new 3cent Texts for life promotion. I think they are good value for money compared to say Vodafone. I always felt like Meteor was the Tesco Value of the phone industry, until unbelievably Tesco actually launched a phone network, which my mother is on and is a complete sham imo.

lo0kash · 05-12-2008 4:37pm

Many thanks for all your help. The problem I'm getting is very poor coverage downstairs in my house - next to impossible making calls from there. I'm not using phone a lot so best signal strength would be the priority, not too sure now maybe I'll just check some other networks. I can't switch do any other network in my phone - i'm getting "no access" message.

Walkman · 05-12-2008 5:13pm

lo0kash wrote: »

Many thanks for all your help. The problem I'm getting is very poor coverage downstairs in my house - next to impossible making calls from there. I'm not using phone a lot so best signal strength would be the priority, not too sure now maybe I'll just check some other networks. I can't switch do any other network in my phone - i'm getting "no access" message.

You can try 3 for 14 days and if your not happy return the phone and get a full refund. This should be enough time to see if you can get the coverage you looking for.

lo0kash · 05-12-2008 5:22pm

Walkman wrote: »

You can try 3 for 14 days and if your not happy return the phone and get a full refund. This should be enough time to see if you can get the coverage you looking for.

Yeh, thats a good idea i may try that. thanks.

Blaster99 · 05-12-2008 7:56pm

By far the best idea is to try it out. In my experience, whenever I call anyone I know with a Meteor phone it's break-up city, and that's regardless of rural or urban locations. In some rural locations there's no coverage at all. 3 is far from perfect either, particularly if you're driving down the country and you go from 3G to 2G. That's nearly guaranteed to kill the call. But I've never been anywhere in Ireland with no 3 coverage. At the end of the day, I can live with the few downsides with 3 because there are quite a few upsides.

three coverage

Comments