Sure they all say 99% population coverage, and I've found with Orange / T-Mo venture outside a city/town and its rubbish, I think O2 seems to have a signal almost everywhere. Whats your opinion?

It's subjective. Some networks have a reputation for having very good coverage in parts of the country and pretty rubbish in others. For example, I often hear how Orange have an excellent 3G coverage, but in N.Ireland it's nothing to write home about, roughly level with O2. OTOH Vodafone have better 3G coverage (only 3 is better) but in Britain they're often criticised for their coverage, or have been here recently.

I used THIS site recently to gauge coverage. Zoom far enough in and you get all the mast positions, types and operators - good starting point

Very interesting, shows my closest mast here at home is 5-6 mile away

I have found the joint Orange/T-Mobile coverage to be quite reasonable and my mobile switches between the two without any problems. Where I am, it seems like O2, Vodafone and Orange/T-Mobile seem to roughly have the same number of masts with 3 trailing behind in a noticeable fourth place.

All 3 masts are also T-mobile 3G masts. 3 and T-mo actually have more 3G masts than any of the others at coming up to 18,000 3G masts. In terms of 2G coverage, that's different, but 3G it's got to be Three - Tmobile.

Interesting this question will be answered in the next few weeks as Ofcom is going to report on that very subject yet again. Hopefully they will be releasing the maps again like before, although I don't know whether they will include new maps.

O2's 2G coverage is good, but it's 3G isn't so good. Seeing as I spend more than 1/2 the use time on my phone using data 3G is much more important to me than 2G and Three and T-mobile's 3G is much better than O2 in my opinion.

Around here is seems to be O2, then Vodadone, and the other 3 all the same, O2 is the clear leader though

The data is probably out of date - but this is a portal to each of networks own maps. http://ukmobilecoverage.co.uk/map/

Strange, 3 have 3G coverage in Omagh but T-Mobile have only 2G coverage.

Can't roam on 3g which is the reason

It's different in Northern Ireland I believe.

Cornwall.

3/T-Mobile have really got their arse in gear over the past year. I can put my laptop (integrated WWAN) into 3G only mode and *never* lose 3G coverage. Orange's 3G coverage is okay although not amazing.

Meanwhile, my Vodafone phone is almost never on 3G. O2 is only marginally better than Vodafone (although O2's network is generally poor anyway.

3's network is excellent, their 3G signal far outstrips any of their competitors and it's wonderfully snappy, but the roaming problem spoils it for me. Lose 3 for even a few seconds, and you find yourself without a signal for a while, and then roaming on Orange's awful slow network for five or ten minutes unless you start digging around in the settings on your phone.

If it fell back immediately to a non-roaming 2G signal, and then went back to 3G as soon as it was available, it would be vastly improved. I find Orange's signal almost unusable for data - recently on a trip to the Outer Hebrides (with a full strength signal showing as E on my phone!) I found it taking five or ten minutes for my Google Mail to sync, or any web pages to load.

The other well-documented problem is, of course, calls dropping rather than falling back when you move from 3G to 2G. Do any of the knowledgeable members on here know if the Everything Everywhere network share is going to remedy these issues and give 3 some "native" 2G coverage?

I think for complete standard coverage 2G wise that O2, Vodafone and Everything Everywhere are all great. However for 3G I think 3 easily outweigh any of the other networks and I think their signal is excellent even if it is only 3G, I never ever lose signal and quite often have 4/5 bars.

That's why I had to move away from 3 for my mobile phone - last year, their 3G coverage in my house was just on the edge, so my phone would keep switching between 3G and 2G and that would cause havoc for phone calls and battery life (all of the 3G cell sites are built for the very major A road that is at the other end of the village a mile or two away).

Fortunately 3 let me out of my contract very early (though I couldn't keep the phone unfortunately), as they claimed that they checked their systems and there were no plans to improve their coverage in my village.

But now it seems to have improved to the point where I can leave my laptop in 3G only mode and never lose signal.

I'm in the exact same situation - half of my house is in 3's coverage (just) and half isn't. It means most of the time, if I carry my phone round the house, it's switching back and forth, or without a signal, and it means lots of missed and dropped calls and poor battery life. It's why I still put up with O2 even though their 3G coverage is awful.

Within about a thirty mile radius of me O2 seems best for voice/txt/2g 3 for 3g