Why does the coverage map lie?
Answered 17 June 2026 · reading time about 3 minutes
“The map says excellent signal at my address. I get one bar in the kitchen and none upstairs. Who do I complain to?”
— M.F., Halifax
Every network publishes a map generated by modelling — terrain, mast positions, transmit power. What no model can capture is your walls, your neighbours' walls, and how many people share your local mast at six in the evening.
Run two checkers, not one
The network's own postcode checker and Ofcom's independent one. Where they agree, believe them. Where they disagree, the trial month decides.
Weight indoor predictions heaviest
Indoors is where you live and where every network is weakest. An address that looks excellent outdoors can be hopeless in a back bedroom.
Buy one rolling month
Use the budget tenant on the same masts. Live on it for a full ordinary week — home, work, commute, the supermarket queue — and test the rooms that actually matter.
Re-run it every year
Masts get built, upgraded and re-farmed constantly, and the VodafoneThree merger is redrawing the map right now. An address that failed last year can pass this year.
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