"Where the ^^^ have you been? Your tea's been going cold for hours you useless *** "

"Why didn't you phone me?"

" I did, you just wouldn't answer"

Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three each have their own networks with different coverage. EE is supposed to be the best, but here where I live it doesn't work in the garden.

I wonder why you can't have one SIM in your phone that can use the highest signal strength wherever you happen to be.

-Lives will be saved; people lying bleeding in the ditch in a 'not-spot' have a greater chance of their distress call being picked up.

-Phone companies, as a business sector, have the opportunity to extort even more money from the consumer by charging a premium for enabling other networks to be used when it's warranted.
-- bhumphrys, Nov 28 2024

(Some-one correct me if I'm wrong...) I think emergency calls always work like this, even without a SIM.
Back in the past, different companies used different frequency & encryption systems, so the "separation" made sense (here in New Zealand, it was a very big deal when the 2 main systems could finally txt each other...). But now they're (mostly) the same, so it could be done as you state.
-- neutrinos_shadow, Nov 28 2024


Excellent.
-- bhumphrys, Nov 28 2024


I think you already can, you just have to have a SIM from a small obscure company that doesn't run its own network, but rents network time from Vodafone, EE, and O2.
-- pocmloc, Nov 29 2024



random, halfbakery