What is your iD coverage compared to other providers?

Hey Kodak,

Welcome to our iD Community!

You may find coverage is better in urban areas as opposed to rural areas.

There's a great tool on our website that lets you check the estimated coverage for different postcodes.

You can do this here: https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/uk-coverage-checker

Perhaps other users can weigh in on this?

Mohammed

Hi Mohammed,
Thanks for your reply. I have checked the iD coverage map and I can see that towns and cities have the best coverage, As I do a lot of hill walking I also need a signal in rural areas, so far in my area O2 gives me that better signal. It would be interesting to know if the poor iD coverage in rural areas is common in the UK compared to other providers.

Kodak

Hi Mohammed,
Thanks for your reply. I have checked the iD coverage map and I can see that towns and cities have the best coverage, As I do a lot of hill walking I also need a signal in rural areas, so far in my area O2 gives me that better signal. It would be interesting to know if the poor iD coverage in rural areas is common in the UK compared to other providers.

Kodak

I believe the iD Mobile network piggybacks off Three's backbone network, so it depends on the Three coverage and Three do not have any 2G GSM masts (or a very few), which can cause issues in rural areas where O2 might have masts nearby.

If you phone supports VoLTE which uses the 800MHZ 4G spectrum and a supported VoLTE device by iD Mobile, then that can also significantly improve coverage due to a lower frequency which has a longer wavelength allowing a better signal coverage.

It does depend on the firmware provided as iD Mobile are only supporting a few mobile phones with VoLTE even though I have compatible VoLTE handsets, these are (at the moment) not supported by iD's network.

I noticed the same thing. It really would bug me as if I needed to call somebody or text someone and all I had was EMERGENCY CALLS ONLY due to being somewhere rural, it means if there was ever an emergency I was caught up in, such as a broken down vehicle, I couldn't let my mum know if it had happened on the way home. I do not take my phone with me because of this. If there was better signal in rural areas, it would be fine. I once had to call her at my home, because my taxi left me stranded. I haven't been stranded since but that was really stressful. Luckily I had my phone, otherwise my mum would be asking why I was outside my home. I had another taxi this month that diverted because I thought mum wasn't home, turned out she was but I didn't know, as we were so early I let them know and they went to some other kid's home first then back to mine. Mum thought I was late...

I now keep a basic pay as you go mobile in the car with an 02 SIM card in it just for emergencies. It's a shame that 2 phones are needed in 2018 due to unreliable mobile coverage.

As mentioned by DeliriousMetro the different frequencies of the signal can affect coverage, especially over long distances as would occur in rural areas.

As iD Mobile is a 3/4 G network, 4G calling (VoLTE ) can have a significant impact on the level of service received and this can be demonstrated on our site.
www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/uk-coverage-checker

You can see the list of 4G calling handsets here, this is updated when new supported models are released.
www.idmobile.co.uk/4g-calling

-Phil