whilst on vacation in Cornwall, my phone was often showing ORANGE F

Guess it just picks up the strongest signal

 

The "R" shows on three network on mine everytime I am on a 2g connection, it's not a problem, it will show that everytime you switch to GSM

 

I pity any folk who live in Dover. While walking the White Cliffs I kept getting text messages welcoming me to France and some hugely expensive roaming rate.

 

Meh. Norfolk/Suffolk might as well be overseas


KYI

 

I get this alot when I move from town to country, I think the roaming setting disabled the data and not the phone and I think three does not charge for phone calls when roaming

 

I believe that Three phones can roam on the Orange network at no charge to the user. Three has a deal with Orange to plug the holes in it's coverage.

 

On the 3 network you will get this in any area that has a poor 3G signal. 3UK are a 3G only network and as such they have an agreement with Orange to use their network to provide 2G coverage where there is no 3G.

Your phone will switch automatically and continue to be ok, as long as you are not leaving the country you will be safe to activate data roaming as you are not charged when you go onto the Orange network and use 2G data (Slow as hell but ok in a pinch).

I did hear somewhere that there are plans to make it so that when you switch its not classed as roaming so the "R" doesnt appear and can happily switch off data roaming.

 

If you live in Dover (or have a similar situation), then you'd just set your network manually to your actual network instead of Automatic - then if there is a stronger signal (from say Orange F) it will stay on your own network.