Coverage compared
How to find out what actually happens at your address.
Photo from a free stock library — illustration only.Coverage maps
Computer models of predicted outdoor signal from terrain, mast positions and transmit power.
- Free and instant
- Useful as a first filter
- Cannot know your walls
- Cannot show congestion
A trial month
A rolling SIM on the target masts, lived through an ordinary week.
- Reflects your actual rooms
- Includes rush hour
- Costs pocket money
- Takes a month
Use both, in that order. Maps rule places in and out; only a month at your own address decides. Run the network's checker and Ofcom's, weight indoor predictions, then test.
Not sure which side of a comparison you fall on?
Ask us. We are independent — nothing for sale, no access to your account, and we will never ask you for a security code. We will read an offer with you, explain a clause, or talk a switch through.
Call 020 3896 5248WhatsApp usWeak coverage
Few or no signal bars, usually indoors or rurally.
- Building materials and distance
- Wi-Fi Calling is the remedy
- Shows partly on maps
Congestion
Full signal bars with nothing loading.
- Too many handsets on one mast
- Peak hours, stations, venues
- No setting resolves it
- Invisible on every map
Diagnose by symptom, not by bars. Switching network fixes weak coverage and does nothing for congestion — which is why the rush-hour test matters as much as the postcode check.
Testing SIMs by landlord
Free indoor remedies
Re-checking
Masts are built, upgraded and re-farmed continuously, and the VodafoneThree consolidation is actively redrawing the national picture. An address that failed a year ago may pass now.
Re-run both checkers annually, and always on a new postcode before exchanging on a house — signal is far easier to verify than to remedy.