Ever thought which mobile/cell phone to buy based on how well they can pick up a signal in a remote area?

Different makes and models of mobile phones have varying performance when trying to connect to the mobile network when the signal is weak. Some are far better than others and can make/receive calls and send/receive text messages/data at much greater distance to a mobile base station than other phones.

I have experienced this in Australia, where distances between towns are great and much of the country has no coverage. On recent 4wd trips my girlfriends phone would usually pick up a signal 20-50km further out than mine.

That's 'no coverage' on my UK roaming phone that can use any Aus network for great swathes of the country where my girlfriend's phone, limited to the Telstra network only, was reliably making calls with good signal strength.

Now I'm back in the UK and looking for a new phone to take on a RTW bike trip. It seems virtually impossible to find information on mobile phone performance. It's not surprising in the UK as we have very high network coverage. I know plenty of countries on my route have limited/flaky mobile coverage.

Of course, for visits to multiple countries, a bit of research needs to be done on mobile network frequency bands too, and a quad (or greater) band phone is likely to improve the number of countries it works in.

Having found nothing on UK/US searches I had a search on Google Australia (google.com.au)...... I finally found the search term "blue tick" in Australian forums discussing 4wd/rural mobile phone usage. This is the Telstra term that they give to phones that have been tested to work well in rural areas, and my girlfriend's phone is on their list.

Of course I'm not suggesting you have to buy from Telstra, but their online shop lists "blue tick" phone models that are also available elsewhere around the world. Why not look it up on Telstra, buy locally & reap the benefits?

Maximise your Next G Mobile Coverage - Telstra

Ian
@IncyWincyRider