When I was visiting Swansea uni 2 weeks back I didn't have signal but my friends on EE did (2G). Might not be roaming in all places

Thats funny - I'm in Uplands, quite near the uni, and its definitely worked here when I've tried it within the past week. Tried it in town and in Pontarddulais too and it was working there.

Is it as random as individual cell sites I wonder?

Possibly or maybe my phone was just being odd or it wasn't available that specific day.
(Obviously I had signal outside in the uni grounds and in most rooms but there were one or two where I didn't even though they had big windows )

There are two 3 base stations most likely to service the uni - one to the south west at the beach car park and the other one to the west of the hospital. If I'm overcome by a wave of greater than usual geekiness this week I'll wander down with my 3 sim card and experiment.

Ahh right I see. And okay

I live in the Brecon Beacons and they don't have 2G roaming anywhere round here as far as I know. The 3G signal is generally good but quite patchy in one or two places.

My parent's live in the valleys just south of the Beacons, and 2G roaming is still in use around there. 3G coverage is great outside, but can be pretty poor inside.

where I live its poor inside generally but about 3 bars outside.

The transmitter i use with three in Loughborough was down over Easter and it rolled back to orange. Calls a very delayed texts but no data at all.

Just been to Dover this weekend, and Orange is working all over the town but sadly no more 2G data backup too...