36 
Mobile signal has gotten worse — well, it feels like it’s got worse at least — but it’s not all the collective networks’ faults, the eco-loving, planet and cash-saving movement are equally to blame because of their sodding walls and windows.
Apparently up to some 88 per cent of the mobile bandwidth pumped out to us phone-crazed people is absorbed by energy-efficient walls and windows. That insulation, which keeps your home toasty and the noise out, also nukes mobile phone signal. This inherent signal-blockage means the networks have to work incredibly hard to fire out enough signal strength to get it into your place, and you phone has to work its socks off too. In fact, apparently the modern phone’s battery-drain trend is partly to do with the phone having to switch radios so frequently, therefore a top tip might be to junk 3G when you’re at home with Wi-Fi to save juice. Of course, said Wi-Fi also interferes with mobile signal a little, so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword, even if one side is all but dull.
Moral of the story is this then: If you want decent mobile signal, live in a wooden shack. But if you’re normal, then switch off 3G and hope for the best, just don’t blame the networks when your new super-insulating windows nuke all but a tiny sliver of signal. [The Register]
Image credit: No signal from Shutterstock
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I wonder how long it will be before they start putting a signal booster on your roof or something..
Vodafone sure signal.
Ah, pretty cool but does it work?
Anyone other than vodafone do it?
Seems they do!
This is a really cool product but they all seem around £100-150! OUCH!
Im glad my signal at home is good!
They work. I can verify that. Get full 3G in a house that has one until you unplug the broadband… Of course it does use your data allowance.
Data allowance?
If you have a cap on your fixed line broadband. It uses that.
Not sure about your mobile allowance, it probably uses that as well.
Working in the insulating glass industry I can tell you it’s getting harder to meet these efficiency requirements for replacement glazing, soon you’ll have to brick up windows in order to get the necessary insulation.
Modern houses in the UK are already suffering from this as property developers have realized its cheaper to use brick instead of paying for larger, more expensive triple glazed units in order to meet the energy efficiency requirements by customers, only to the detrimental effect on the poor people living inside. Quite a sad state of affairs.
Very true, you only have to look at the few windows that are put in which tend to be as small as they can get away with.
Is it not worth all homes being equipped with a form of antenna to boost the mobile signal, without the need for a Vodafone like suresignal box that of course requires WiFi?
NO
does not require wifi. requires a wired connection. I think what needs to happen is an amalgamation of landline and mobile services so that calls can be diverted to your home phone upon arriving home. Whoever cracks getting this right first will make gargantuan sums of cash
Many people don’t have a landline phone now, don’t see the point if you have decent signal.