walking from Kimmeridge to Lulworth via France

nicholas on 2006-08-29T16:14:59

I went to my parents' near Weymouth over the long weekend. On the Saturday my father and I walked the "missing" part of the coast path I'd not previously walked, from Kimmeridge Bay to Lulworth Cove, through the range walks. As we were descending the steep path into Mupe Bay, my phone got a message "Virgin Mobile welcomes you to France" (detailing the extremly expensive call charges)

I'm not sure what the expected range of the phone is, but France isn't that close to Dorset. (Zoom out on the linked-to map). So I was surprised, and I'm curious what multiple of the usual range to base station my phone managed to sync at.


My guess

jordan on 2006-08-29T19:01:19

I'm no radio engineer, but I bet that what happened was that when you took that steep part, you were blocked from the more local cell towers but facing one on the France side.

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't often have more powerful towers along the shore, on high points, so as to extend the cell coverage out for pleasure boaters.