Trying to get a signal

Published 28 September 2014

Trying to get a signal

Over the summer I spent a week in Tywyn in Wales, staying in a holiday cottage in the town. I say a cottage; it was a three story town house and not very cottage like. But that’s not important.

What is important is that it didn’t have wi-fi, meaning, for the first time in ages, I was reliant on using mobile data to use the internet. Except the signal was poor. If I sat in the cottage’s bay window, I got nothing at all. Sitting in the middle of the house gave a reasonable job, whilst the toilet was mobile signal heaven.

This was in a town. A reasonably large seaside town on the Welsh coast. Yet the mobile signal was terrible.

When you’re out in the middle of nowhere, sometimes it’s even harder. Back in 2010 we walked the Coast to Coast, and stayed at the remote (well, for Yorkshire) Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge. There’s next to nothing there. A pub, a road and a few other buildings. To get to the pub you either drive, or you walk.

And because it’s in the middle of nowhere, there’s a pretty naff mobile signal. For some reason, such a place isn’t a priority for the mobile networks. Although, to be fair, nor was central Tywyn. Except out on Blakey Ridge it wasn’t a matter of sitting on the toilet to make a call, but doing something more extreme.

It’s probably a good thing such places exist. We get too reliant on technology. Sometimes it’s nice to take a step back, and put the screen away. Although if it really is a problem for you, well I believe the Lion Inn has wi-fi these days.

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