Have a blackberry curve and with virgin mobile and i can never get my blackberry apps to work (unless i'm on wifi) in my local area, only when I get into town do they seem be able to work.

Is there anyway to make my signal better?

The only way really is to move closer to a transmitter'
There may be a glimmer of hope in the new year when T-Mobile and Orange fully integrate to become one network as MVNOs (ie, Virgin) will be able to make use of the area currently covered by Orange, if that makes sense?
Do you know if Orange provide a decent signal where you are? If it's good you may be OK next year.

Not sure I think 02 is the good one in my area. But even if i got 4 bars of signal my blackberry apps won't work if i'm in local area