Unfortunately, I was one of the folks in the UK who switched to Vodafone from O2 just for the N900. And what a stupid mistake that was!

I live in North London, and on O2 I used to have reception everywhere, and no disconnects.

Now with Vodafone, I get crap reception everywhere. Hardly ever do I see 3 or 4 bars. Usually 1 or 2. I always get disconnected from calls, and always lose "cellular data". Its just so annoying.

I have read somewhere that the N900 is also crap when it comes to network reception. So what my problem?

Is it vodafone or the N900... or both?

Anyone else having similar difficulties?

How can I check if its the N900 or just Vodafone?

I am also with Vodafone and fortunateley am not experiencing the problems that you are. Must be a real pain. Don't know what to suggest, sorry.

i am thinking that it could be the phone.

any way i can check the network receiver on the phone

I was thinking the same, after last night. I was stoked that I had "full bars from Northern VA to Philadelphia, with only (3) areas where lost signal (all on the highway), using T-Mobile USA (first time on network). I was even able to stream internet radio feed all the way from Baltimore to Philly, with no drops, on 3.5G.

However last night, 4 blocks from my house, where I get full bars and consistent 900Kb DL, I completely lost signal when I went inside my local supermarket. As soon as I went outside, no more than 10M, I was back on full bars 3G. I'm wondering also how much of a difference with wall penetration T-Mo USA's frequency has, from my current AT&T service.

I'm on a different continent and using different carriers. I switched from AT&T (no 3G) to T-Mobile (3G) and never had the "no cellular" error with AT&T but already experienced it a couple times per day with T-Mobile. I just chalk it up to poor coverage (their maps show full coverage for the areas in which I live, work and travel... but...)

I wonder if the phone is not able to gracefully handle these situations as well as other phones? It seems like once it loses the cellular signal, it has a hard time reconnecting to the network. I use the 3G/2G mode selection applet to "kick start" this process. Usually when it has no signal, if i change the mode it'll magically have 3 bars of signal or more...

I will add that it seems like every time I put the phone in my pocket with T-Mobile it loses signal, either 3G or completely loses all cellular, but never happened with AT&T (and never happened in 2 years with my N95)

Fair enough. Everyone criticized AT&T's service, in particular in my area, yet T-Mobile has a rep of providing superior coverage (DC/Balt corridor). I wonder if its just the nature of CDMA/WCDMA technology, and antenna/radio issues. Reception was "NEVER" a concern with my Motorola Q, on AT&T 3G, from VA to RI, but when I manually switch to Edge, I notice signal fluctuations. I had the same, but worse issues with my Droid on Verizon. I hear that other phones, on VZ in the same area, do not suffer from signal issues. I did an antenna mod which helped the Droid's reception drastically.

http://androidforums.com/motorola-dr...light=homemade

With the 900 on T-Mo, I was able to get 3Mb DL speeds in Philly, but at my dad's house, 20 blocks up, I had signal issues, where it dipped to half strength or lower. I noticed that when in the AT&T store, the HTC TP2 had signal issues, just picking it up off the display cradle, where again my Q was rock solid on "full bars". I know its kind of an apples to oranges to steak comparison, but just trying to emphasize that "it may be the phone".

You're right, it's really a difficult thing to evaluate like you said, from street to street, from phone to phone, everything that goes into the signal strength. Almost every piece of info we can provide is anecdotal. So here's more.

For me, with my N95 on AT&T I had full bars everywhere I ever went in the metro area, and full speed 3G. I did not experience the issues with slow data, dropped calls, network congestion etc. that I always read about online from other cities. I have heard that AT&T's 3G network in St. Louis is one of their best in the country. (Oddly enough the only time I was unable to make a data connection on AT&T was when I attended a baseball game with 45,000 other people sitting in the shadow of the AT&T tower in downtown St. Louis, with its large illuminated AT&T sign...)

With T-Mobile, who claims full coverage and full 3G coverage here as well, the N900 gets about 3 bars (roughly half signal?) at the best, and only finds 3G signal about half of the time. If I put it in my pocket the N900 loses all signal entirely quite often.

I don't know if that's poor reception by N900, weak signal by T-Mobile, alignment of the planets, who knows.

I guess the best thing to try would be to find some other person with N900 in your area on the same carrier and compare phones signal as you travel around...

Does T-Mo only have 3G on the 1700 band? Or does it depend on region? I do notice that if I put my hand on the right side of the phone (I believe where cell antennae are) that signal strenght drops. Again, this is not something I exp. on my AT&T branded Q, so I'm not sure if its the "frequency" or "the 900's antenna/radio".

Does AT&T use "WCDMA"? Or is their 3G a different tech?

Yes, T-mo only has 3G only in the 1700/2100 band (speaking of the U.S., of course). AT&T uses the same tech as T-mo, which is an evolution of WCDMA.