Mobile phone coverage Northern Scotland and the Western Isles

West Scotland has reasonable mobile coverage near to population centres and on many of the populated islands. On board coverage will come and go and much depends on the mobile operator. You can normally get coverage at least once a day when cruising and unless in a remote anchorage you will have either 3G or wifi at marinas and harbours.
 
We cruise on the West Coast, and particularly the islands. We have O2, Vodafone, and EE (Orange). We quite often have no signal when in anchorages. Usually better at Sea, or near busy places, or we sometimes have to climb a hill. Calmac piers generally have WiFi, and I have an O2 data sim card, which can occasionally work enough for emails and XC Weather.
 
It varies hugely - and as NormanS says often better a some point during the day (generally when doing some tricky sailing or navigation the phone comes into life!) and worse in a sheltered rocky anchorage.
Worth making a point of having multiple mobiles on differnt networks. We had Three and Vodaphone last year.
Vodaphone was probably slightly better, but quite a few places only Three worked, and many places neither worked.
To send & receive important text messages we sometimes hoisted the phone to the masthead in its waterproof case - jokingly referred to as "mobile fishing" as hoisted up, waited a while and brought down to check :-). Also tried this as mobile hotspot wifi-ed back to tablet on deck. Sometimes worked - often didn't
 
I'm on Three, which I find generally works pretty well, though the furthest north I have been with it is Skye. It roams onto Orange/EE 2G when out of range of Three's own network. I also have a Tesco PAYG phone for the boat, which uses O2. That works pretty well too.
 
Over the 7 years I've been cruising the West Coast of Scotland from Northern Ireland to the Orkney Islands, I've found Vodafone to be the best for general coverage. But having said that, it's very patchy, normally just GPRS and I can't get the internet on GPRS, my phone seems to need 3G or 4G, to access the net. The only 3G outside the Clyde is around major centres of population and very limited in range.
I've found that it's often very difficult to send text messages, even when I have 3 bars of signal, especially in the evening when everyone is phoning home. Text seems to have a lower priority than voice.
I've found that WiFi is available in lot of quite remote places if you have a high gain antenna and amplifier (as discussed in several recent threads). I have a bt WiFi account and can often login through that using my home based contract at no additional cost. As noted above most ferry terminals have free WiFi, but the antenna are usually quite directional, and of course marinas normally have WiFi, but I tend to avoid marinas.
I've just got a GymSim sim card and put it in an old unlocked iPhone5, That should pick-up the strongest carrier in the area, so it'll be interesting to see how the different companies pan out over the summer.
 
There was suggestion that vodafone and Cal Mac had an understanding that their" vodafones"masts would give some coverage of cal Mac routes and certainly my experience that vodafone had more likely hood of a signal than other networks
 
get both vodaphone and O2 sims

or get a forwign sim that will allow you to roam

apparently tho this is being allowed for anyone/anywhere ?from april? (roaming)
 
Most of the time I seem able to get email and XCWeather on my phone, as well as texts. Once you are at anchor you may have to climb a hill to get a signal, but usually that's no hardship as the views are worth it :)

SWMBO and I have a phone each, on Tesco and talkmobile which I believe run on O2 and Vodafone networks, rarely notice any difference between them.
 
Prepare for withdrawal symptoms; twitching, cold sweats and eventual nervous breakdown.

Tell the family/business you'll be 'off air' for some days. Switch the damned thing off and enjoy your holiday.
 
NormanS said:
I find the opposite, in that texts can often be used, when voice cannot.
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I think this is down to the technology used in the phone. My old Blackberry was very good at texts, it seem to keep trying and eventually got through. The iPhone5 I have just gives-up after a few attempts and gives a red exclamation mark in circle, with the option to try again or send an email. The new Galaxy 5s I now have seems to be much better, more like the old Blackberry, but I haven't had it long enough to find out how good it is on the West Coast.
I text in an "I'm OK message" every night (and I spent 123 days on board last season) so my family know where I am and that I'm still surviving.
 
Pretty hopeless if you want to be connected 24/7.

Vodafone on Mull was down for months as an interconnector failed - I don't know if it has been repaired. N of Ardurmurchan very patchy; usually only around population centres, and even there hit and miss. Places like Lochmaddy seem to have nothing.

At sea is often better than amongst the lochs. I use both O2 and Orange/3/EE. Get some sort of signal from one or the other for about 50% of the time I have to make a call, but this is not much good for incoming calls. Anecdotally, Vodafone is getting better (15 years ago it was quite decent, but went through a poor phase).

Forget 3 and 4G in the N/NW. Even in townships you will only get 2G. 'Simple (cheap) phones seem to be better than the latest super-dooper smart ones.
 
When we went right round the top I don’t think there was ever a time when we couldn’t get a phone call through on Orange when at sea. In the lochs reception was usually non-existent unless you climbed to the top of a hill.

In some places it was impossible to predict. For instance in Stromness there was just one square surrounded by tall buildings where we could get a signal.
 
Thanks for that Ian, that's pretty much what I am after plus getting my daily forcast would be handy. If this is not always possible can someone suggest how I can get the forcast daily. Many thanks
 
Planet said:
Thanks for that Ian, that's pretty much what I am after plus getting my daily forcast would be handy. If this is not always possible can someone suggest how I can get the forcast daily. Many thanks
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Coastguard every three hours on ch16?
 
Planet said:
Thanks for that Ian, that's pretty much what I am after plus getting my daily forcast would be handy. If this is not always possible can someone suggest how I can get the forcast daily. Many thanks
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As Kelpie says, the CG issue the forecasts at regular times on VHF, unless they are busy. :rolleyes: I find Navtex very useful.
 
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