Phone Network

[Peter Lloyd]

I have been sailing in NW Scotland. My phone and broadband connection has been very bad. Nonexistent at times and had to rely on wifi a lot when in port.

Are there network providers offering a good/better offshore signal?

 

[Bob & Freddy Tuffnell]

Hi Peter

I can’t reply directly, as my cruising ground is on the West of France. The coast is mainly flat, and usually a good 4G signal will be available at least 5 miles offshore, often quite a bit more.

My comment is that as most mobile customers are wanting increasing speed of data connections for watching videos, and stuff like that, the technology is trending to using much higher radio frequencies : 4G uses 700Mhz to 2. 6 Ghz (wavelengths 40 cm to 11 cm). Now 5G is being deployed, most often using 26Ghz (wavelength around 1 cm). The distance that the signal can travel is (amongst other factors), depends on the frequency. Remember that the defunct Radio 4 LW transmitter at Droitwitch used 198Khz (1500 metres wavelength), and could be received over half of Europe. Our marine VHF radio is 156Mhz, which is around 2 metres wavelength, and ( if the aerials are high enough) will usually cover 10 to 25 miles.

 

[Peter Lloyd]

I had thought my older BT contract with it’s 2G/3G would be better in the wilds of NW Scotland for the reasons you state. However, I have since found my contract has not been upgraded to use the EE network which operate mainly on 4G/5G.

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