If you’re thinking about switching providers or picking up a new phone this year, remember that you might want to consider mobile phone coverage as part of what provider you go with and what phone you pick up. When we normally end our current contract and go for a new supplier the thing that we’re most interested in is the handset itself, or maybe the tariff that we’ll get and how much it will cost. Obviously, having a phone you like for a good price is a pretty important part of being on a mobile phone contract, but what’s the point of having a good phone if you can’t get a signal in the places you’re going to be?

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all phone providers can give you an equal service. All of the big providers in the UK operate their own network, which means signal could be completely different from one provider to another, even in the same area. Each one operates differently from the other. The only exception to this rule is deal recently signed between T-Mobile and Orange which allows customers of one service to use the others signal. This is incredibly handy for customers of either of these two providers as it doubles the chances of being able to pick up a decent signal wherever you go.

So without having actually used a different mobile provider, how can you tell which one is going to be the best for you? There’s a couple of ways of doing it. The most reliable is to pick up a free PAYG Sim card from a provider you’re interested in and just try it out for a few days in places you are likely to visit often. Obviously you can’t ever guarantee a good signal in every single area you might visit but you’ll want to make sure that you get a good signal in the areas you are likely to be often, such as your own home or your office.

This is a good way of testing signal, but if you don’t have a spare phone you can use to test a Sim card on, it’s not very useful. The other reliable way to check for signal is to use the online postcode checkers of the big suppliers. Every network in the UK has a postcode checker on their site and if you put in your location it will give you a rough idea of the signal strength you should expect. Obviously, it’s not perfect and it can’t really tell you the kind of signal you might have in your home as that depends on a lot of different factors like how thick your walls might be, but it should give you a general idea.

If you end up signing up for a contract that can’t provide you with any signal at all in your home, then you can legally get the contract cancelled within a certain time frame so not all is lost even if you do end up on a provider with a really bad signal but of course it saves time and energy if you do everything you can to check out the potential signal first.