SE23 Forum

I have just move onto Wood Vale and have almost no Orange mobile reception & no 3 signal for my mobile broadband dongle. Does anyone live in that area and get a good signal from any provider?

If you're at the Horniman end of Wood Vale, there is a mobile blackspot which seems to affect all networks bar O2 which has a base station on the junction of Lordship Lane and Underhill Road.

Many times I've travelled through that part of FH on the bus and suddenly everyone comes off their phone!

Virgin no good either, I'm afraid.

I'm on Virgin who share T-Mobile's base stations. Nearest to Wood Vale is the one at The Grove in Dulwich.

Mobile reception doesn't return properly I find until you get to the Honor Oak Road end of London Road.

I'll second rbmartin's thoughts on the black hole of mobile comms.

When I had Orange, I had to contort myself in the kitchen to get any signal in the flat... and it was slightly better in winter over summer.

I have O2 now (Horniman end of Wood Vale) which is reasonable (4 bars of 5 with 3G data on my iPhone)

Three's mobile coverage checker doesn't recognise the blackspot in Wood Vale/Horniman area.

http://www.three.co.uk/Help_Support/Cove...SE23%203DS

There seems to be a well known "black hole" for all networks in the "Horniman Triangle".

My goodness, how did we ever survive without a mobile phone!

Yes I remember the fun I used to have going to see clients in little hidden away areas of London, not being able to find the address and then looking for a pay phone in the pouring rain only to realise I had no change. What fun days those were.

Thanks for the advice I can get an Orange signal if i hang out of my bedroom window. It is mobile broadband that im having big problems with. I have a 3G dongle, not enough signal to log on, i bought a Vodaphone dongle, same there. I will try an 02 dongle and see what happens.I have just moved in so i dont have a land line to hook broadband up to yet.
I have to be on call for my job, i had a whole week of constantly checking my phone to see if there was a signal for recieveing calls!!
Oh the days of wee smelling phone boxes!

Whilst on the subject of mobile signals -
Has anyone else noticed that the signal is invariably lost and the call dropped when driving over the top of Forest Hill Road - Honor Oak Park, or Sydenham Hill - Kirkdale? Not using a hand held mobile whilst driving of course. Seems to apply to all networks I've used.

Sydenham Hill across to Kirkdale yes. Never tried FH Road to Honor Oak Park, although I'm sure that I've seen mobile phone transmitters on the Wood Vale Estate?

I suspect the problem is not so much the lack of transmitters as the fact that from the top of the hills, the phone can 'see' too many transmitters (and v v). The system tries to use the transmitter giving the strongest signal but this will vary very rapidly if too many transmitters are in range. The system gets confused and instead of being passed smoothly from one transmitter to the next, the connection is lost. Well that's my theory anyway - from someone with a little knowledge of how it all works (which as we know is a dangerous thing!).

I've discovered the Ofcom Mobile Phone Base Station search finder.

If you go to http://sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/search and type in Wood Vale SE23, it shows where exactly the base stations are in our area.

Cheers for that andrewr,
looks like 02 is the way forward for me, another trip to the phone shop.