Ipad not picking up network at home

[mainmarine]

why can't i get vodafone network on my iPad at home but the same Sim payg works on in my dongle at home, I have just been to the Vodafone shop and it works fine in there but the girl I spoke to said there were different sim cards for i pads and dongles. The sim  is a payg data sim which i have been trying to use since December 2016.

[AnnS]

Hi @mainmarine

The only part of that message which is correct is having to use the PAYG SIM in the ipad for 30 days.  

If you have already used the SIM for 30 days, complete the form as PAYG to get the code.

Support - Unlock My Device

[mainmarine]

Hi thanks, I will have to wait until the rest of the 30 days are up then and try again, I can't remember when I bought the sim but it was in December in think

[Annie_N]

Some old messages have somehow got back into the system; it was months ago that the charge for unlocking was discontinued.

I've had some rather strange automated messages recently, including one that I eventually realised referred back to a tariff that had changed at least 2 years ago. I believe there's an exercise going on to weed them out, but it's something of a distraction when they come popping out of the woodwork.

[mainmarine]

Thanks for your help, pity vodafone can't provide a proper service at my house.

[Rahim]

@mainmarine Thanks for getting back to us. 

As you've mentioned you're able to use the same SIM in your mobile dongle, then this would point to there being a potential issue with your iPad. 

You should be getting a good 3G and 4G signal within your postal area, served from your local site (7208). 

[mainmarine]

Thanks but as my earlier post after driving around my house the signal was fine until I got to my back door, so the iPad was picking up the signal until then.

[Annie_N]

I had wondered a bit about the fact that the same SIM behaved differently in different devices. Some minor problem with your iPad would be one possible explanation.

But your house isn't some unusual modern design, is it? It clearly isn't acting as a full-blown Faraday cage, but it could be reducing the signal enough to make it difficult for a less effective aerial to pick it up. Some designs of modern office are very effective Faraday cages!

[mainmarine]

Hi thanks, my house was built in the 90s from reclaimed bricks, so not a farady cage but I am sure that the nearby overhead cables are, we are in the middle of a vector of cables leaving the local sub station and local masts are the other sides of the cables.

[mainmarine]

Hi, my iPad picks up O2, EE and Three networks when I set the "carrier " to manual search at home, it also picks up Vodafone when I am away from my house, so it is not my iPad that is the problem, it is vodafone's signal strength at my home location.

[Annie_N]

You have obviously tried a number of variations, to exclude different possibilities.

Rather clutching at straws here, but have you tried a different Vodafone SIM in your iPad at home, to see if it finds the reduced Vodafone signal? If you don't have a data SIM, you can use a phone SIM - that way around is permitted, it's just putting a data SIM into a phone that isn't permitted.