Roaming Reception in the US - worse than competitors?

[chrisdenman]

I moved to Vodafone for its extensive WorldTraveller zone - unrivalled by any other network for the number of countries covered.

But I have noticed that, in the US, even in busy downtown areas, mobile phone coverage seems subjectively worse than my previous network (EE) or 'natives'. I.e. In the same locations, I regularly get 1 bar or "No Service" where others with the same phone get 4 or 5.

The network is the only thing that's changed - the phone and places visit are almost identical. It doesn't make much sense to me, since EE and vodafone seem to use the same roaming networks in the US (AT&T and T-Mobile) - but I've noticed it over a fairly long period of time, especially in the Orlando/Central Florida area and also in parts of California.

Overall it's not a deal-breaker - I'll take the better pricing over slightly better network coverage anyway - but I'm just surprised there's a difference at all when it comes to roaming!

Curious to hear anyone's theories and suggestions

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi,

I have seen past threads where two people both with Vodafone Uk and roaming , using the same phone and firmware with all abroad account caps toggled off ,and one got better reception than the other. 

What I'm trying to say is that as the Uk network cannot have any control understandably of the foreign network and their masts they cannot guarantee the quality of service. 

Can you try an alternative phone ?

My two sons stayed in Las Vegas for holidays and experienced a similar situation. I had already advised them to use wifi where possible due to possible charges and to have their phones unlocked to all networks so they had the choice to use a Local Sim Card. 

They did also find that the local network itself was experiencing issues and initially thought it was their Uk SIM card failing or roaming was failing. 

A Sim Swap to replace a SIM card is a generic troubleshooting tip if it is displaying possible failures. 

[PedroC1999]

US networks use very different frequencies to us. Some UK handsets have very little support for them which means you will have limited coverage.

[chrisdenman]

Thanks for the ideas! It does have the hallmarks of trying to connect to a different frequency or something. It can't be the phone (iPhone 7) itself, though, as that hasn't changed between my previous provider and Vodafone.

Oddly enough, apart from the "No Service" places, it seems to work well even when 0 bars are displayed (minimal network coverage). It doesn't bother me too much, and it's only in the US that it seems to be an issue. Maybe I'll try a SIM swap before putting it down to the masts in the US places I visit not being geared toward Vodafone's flavour of roaming...