Switching to a new mobile phone provider can be done very easily these days, and it can often lead to a much cheaper overall deal as well, especially if you use a comparison site to check out the deals before you buy. However, while choosing a headset and tariff has a lot to do with your own personal opinion on the phone itself, you’re going want access to a strong mobile signal no matter what provider you choose. For example, if you’ve been with Vodafone for the last three years and enjoyed a pretty good signal, can you be sure that your T-mobile coverage on a new phone will perform just as well?

In reality you can never be completely sure whether or not you will receive a good signal everywhere you go – after all, a mobile phone is designed to be mobile and no mobile phone operator could possibly tell you how good your signal is going to be in every location you might visit, after all, you may not even know you’re going to visit them yet! The best way to test signal is to check out the signal strength in places you are likely to be often. You could check out your own home, office, parent’s house… anywhere you spend quite a bit of time and would like to make sure your mobile is going to be able to receive a good signal.

This can be done very simply by the coverage maps on the sites of all the big providers in the UK, including T-Mobile. Using a coverage checker you only have to enter the postcode of an area to be told the kinda of signal are likely to receive. These checks aren’t perfect either, and don’t usually account for physical or natural barriers like valleys, but then again these problems are likely to affect all providers equally anyway. Overall the test can give you a good general idea of what to expect in your area.

No single provider can offer the ‘best’ coverage, although overall every single provider in the UK does a very good job of providing very good 2G coverage, which is needed to make phone calls and send and receive text messages. 3G coverage which is used mostly by smartphones to access internet and data services is a little spottier but getting better all the time, and is usually accessible in most cities and towns.

The one deal which does stick out above the other is the recent partnership between Orange and T-Mobile. This deal allows customers from one of the providers to use the signal of the other provider. This means that you essentially double the chances of receiving a good signal. It works a little bit like data roaming which happens when your phone goes abroad, but unlike data roaming there are no costs involved and the service is completely free for customers of both companies, though you do have to sign up in order to use the feature.