Orange iPhone 3GS - No Service, Dropped Calls and Poor signal

Thanks to the patience of the staff at the Orange store at Hempstead Valley Gillingham (Thanks to Gareth, Dario and Fran) my iPhone has finally gone back to Orange. Due to the poor signal received in the ME8 postcode area Orange agreed to cancel the contract and return the phone as there was no guarantee that a replacement iPhone would have any better signal strength.

The latest problems were missed calls when there was full 3G signal showing on the phone and dropping calls mid way through, again when the iPhone initially showed full signal strength. It appears that the iPhone has much more sensitivity to poor signal and moving the phone can affect the aerial so that calls drop even when signal shows as good. Comparison with a non-iPhone mobile on the Orange network shows that iPhone signal strength can be 1 or 2 bars lower which would account for the signal problems encountered if the coverage is patchy.

I have been very impressed with the iPhone 3GS itself and as both O2 and Vodafone have stronger coverage in the area I will be taking out a new contract with one of them once I receive my PAC code from Orange.

[The process of moving a transferred number for a cancelled contract is very convoluted but can be done! You firstly need your contract phone to be reverted to its original number (ie the one before your number was ported into the network). Once this happens you need to register a PAYG SIM with a new number, your phone number can then be transferred onto the PAYG phone to preserve it. You can then request a PAC code to transfer your number to a new network - got that?! Sadly Orange only supply PAC codes by post unlike 3 that send by text message thus speeding up the whole process.]

UPDATE - The difference in service between the O2 and Orange networks in the area is marked. Orange certainly have much higher 3G network coverage than O2 but the way the iPhone operates between the Orange and O2 networks is also different.


The Orange iPhone appears to hold on to a 3G signal for as long as possible even if the service has dropped to one bar, sometimes even getting to the No Service message. The O2 iPhone seems to be much more aggressive with its switching between 2G and 3G networks to presumably avod the dreaded No Service message. The downside is that on O2 the phone is more frequently on the 2G network but does have full signal. Another finding is that the iPhone does seem to have lower coverage at a specific location than a standard Nokia 3G handset.

Orange iPhone No Service on Orange Network : iPhone Searching and 2G/3G Mobile network switching problems [O2 iPhone comparison with Orange]

[Latest update - this seems to be quite a common problem as Orange customer services are receiving many calls about it and this blog is receiving lots of hits about "orange iphone no service". Further testing I have done shows that for any network the iPhone does seem to have lower network coverage at a specific location than a standard Nokia 3G handset, perhaps one of the compromises of cramming so much into a compact device.]

I have purchased an iPhone on the Orange network and have been finding some signal/network coverage problems with the phone that appear to be quite common.

Sometimes the phone seems to lose all signal and show either "No Service" or "Searching" errors. This appears to be related to the phone not being able to switch between 2G and 3G networks fast enough.

There are also several articles that mention that this problem with the Orange iPhone may be related to OS (firmware) 3.1.2 although it has been happening for some time before this as well.

The phone itself is fantastic and an incredibly useful device - just a little frustrating when the phone shows no service when you know there is coverage in the area.

UPDATE - As you may see from later posts I have now cancelled my Orange iPhone contract and now moved to O2. The difference in service between the networks in the area is marked. Orange certainly have much higher 3G network coverage where signal exists but the way the iPhone operates between the Orange and O2 networks is also quite different.
The Orange iPhone appears to attempt to hold on to a 3G signal for as long as possible even if the service has dropped to one bar or even getting to the No Service message. The O2 iPhone seems to be much more aggressive with its switching between 2G and 3G networks to presumably avod the dreaded No Service message. The downside is that on O2 the phone is more frequently on the 2G (GPRS/EDGE) network but does have full signal. Another finding is that the iPhone does seem to have lower coverage at a specific location than a standard Nokia 3G handset.

How not to design a website : Council pays A Councillor's Own Company over the odds for parish website

It has been brought to my attention that Langley Parish council have recently paid a company run by one of their local parish councillors to design and build a website for Langley village in Kent.

Apart from the obvious conflict of interest in voting to pay yourself to do work for your own parish council the design of the website is unbelievably poor and extremely difficult to navigate.

A free option for parish councils is available from Kent County Council that allows local parishes to maintain their own websites and content - all at no cost to them. Despite this Langley Parish Council appear to have decided to pay a company run by one of their councillors over £6000 to produce a website for them. In addition the councillor's company are being paid over £100 per month to maintain the site. All of this would have been available for no cost from KCC and any member of the parish council could have updated the site.

You can view the £6000 Langley Parish website here and compare it to the Linton parish website that is run for free by Kent County Council. Which do you think is the easier to view and navigate and better value for money? Do you really believe that the Langley website is worth £6000? In fact the records appear to show that the total spent on the site is approaching £13,000. It would seem to be virtually impossible to justify this level of spending on the quality of website provided.

According to the minutes of Langley Parish Council, no mention is made of any personal interest in the decision being made - despite the councillor (Hans Dieter Reichert) being part of the council making the decision. Make your own minds up whether this is a case of corrupt practice by our locally elected representatives or just an example of a parish council wasting public money for no reason.
You can find out more about this story on the Lenham Net website.

Backing up your photos and data cheaply to USB Hard drive

With most people now having several years worth of digital photos stored on their PC it is becoming more and more important to ensure that your valuable digital media is properly backed up. PC hard drives do not last forever and it is all too easy to forget to copy your photos to a secure location until it is too late.

We use a large server to store and backup all our digital media files (photos and video) plus important documents but affordable solutions are available for little outlay.

If you purchase a 1Tb (terabyte = 1000 Gb gigabyte) external USB hard drive (around £60) you can connect this to your PC to enable backups to be made. There are various free software packages that will manage this backup process for you. If you configure this software it can automatically copy any new or changed files from your PC to the external USB drive making sure that copies are available in the event of a hard drive crash.

Some of the software you can use is SyncToy (free from Microsoft) or DeltaCopy (open source). The configuration of DeltaCopy is more complex but it is a powerful piece of software that we use.



SyncToy is free but can easily be setup and be scheduled to run every time your PC starts or you can run it when you want.