Highlands Wi Fi and mobile reception.

basil

Distinguished Member
The tour of the Highlands begins in just over a month. We spend a fair bit of time up on Exmoor and the Wi Fi and mobile reception is almost non existent which begs me to ask the question what the reception is like in the mountainous regions of the Highlands? I`m talking from Dundee through Blair Athol to Inverness to Lochinver and down the West Coast Islands.
It doesn`t particularly bother me but you know what Mothers can be like if her kids can`t contact her or she can`t speak to the Grand kids!
Thanks in advance.
 
I'm with vodafone on mobile and good signal up highlands only short no signal area on A9 around Dalwhinnie to Newtonmore.

I use the iPad on t mobile 3G while in highlands it works fine.
 
Generally speaking, if you are stopping in towns and using main roads, things won't be too bad although there will be black spots. Go off the beaten track a bit, especially in hilly/mountainous terrain, getting a signal will be a bit more of an adventure I'd say.
 
Like Pedro says near the town's you'll be ok, but as soon as you head for the hills bit of a hit or a miss. My mobile must be 80% of the time with no signal, probably not a bad thing!
 
I wouldnt worry about it mate, I have been some seriously weird and wonderful places and had 4G, yet had no signal in my house in Inverness...
 
Ever seen the film local hero? Rural scotland is just like that, you ve to use a red phonebox if you want to call anyone, and fight your way past the local sheep.
 
I travel the world for my job. By and large I can get a 3G or 4G signal pretty much anywhere from Eastern Europe to sub-Saharan Africa, but I still can't get a reliable signal in a lot of Oxfordshire!

In Sutherland we've had satellite broadband at the lodge we rent for the last four or five years, but go beyond there and the signal is patchy at best. In July I couldn't get a 3G signal North of Inverness.

After a day of withdrawal symptoms I actually quite liked it ;)
 
Just back from a week on Arran & I wasn't really able to use the (Voda)phone for anything other than e-mails & texts, which would eventually send or drop in. Just get used to checking/calling when you're by cities, at tops of hills or in cafes/pubs with wi/fi & enjoy how liberating it is not to be a slave to the damn thing!
 
Snap Vodaphone signal appears to be dreadfull just about everywhere, the whole company has gone to pieces. Awfull signal in Yate shopping centre and in Cribbs Causeway, infact shops have to use boosters. General signal in Yate poor. I have barely any signal when in Devon and big tranches none at all. None in Northumberland, in fact mobile signal availability in UK is crap. Go to Switzerland and full stregth virtually anywhere, been in the most remotest of places and had signal.

We being over charged and under provided. How VP can advertise the fact that its first choice of emergency services is beyond me.

Sorry rant over.

D
 
I live in Sutherland (Brora) and, just about, everywhere I get good reception on my Vodaphone; except in Brora. I go down on the beach and always get 4/5 bars, but not in town. Those who do get good reception, in town, use EE. North and South, for the most part, I get good reception. My only problem comes in when the delivery people want to text me to let me know they are on their way. Again, no Vodaphone signal.
 
I can't get a signal in Golspie or up through Knockarthur, but at Sciberscross I can get three and sometimes four bars - must be line of sight to an aerial somewhere!
 
I have found that Exmoor and Dorset are the worst places for phone signals.
You would think that after 30 years of the mobile phone they would have sorted these signal issues.
 
I have found that Exmoor and Dorset are the worst places for phone signals.
You would think that after 30 years of the mobile phone they would have sorted these signal issues.

Where I live it is relativly remote. I get no mobile phone coverage, when the weather is bad I get very little tv signal, need a special sky dish if wanting that and it takes on average 3 seconds per page to load up per Internet and that's if it's a site that's not busy. Couriers still struggle as most sat navs don't recognise my place.
Dont get me wrong I love it like this but when I'm providing 24 hours on call it can be a bugger. On the up side I'm in the middle of a nature reserve, with red stags, roe and fallow, occasional otter in the garden where I'm able to wild forage for wild samphire and mushrooms when seasonal.
 
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