General Chat

That one where they take a bloke up on the skid of a helicopter while he screams in terror.

It is just too real. I can't watch it and have to change channels when it comes on.

I hate it so much I am thinking of complaining about it.

Oh yes - the one to prove you can get a phone signal up high with a particular smartphone! (I have no idea which one, so that's a wasted advert!)

Shame you can't get a signal in Somerset with a smartphone!!
(though my old Nokia gets one in Somerset more often than either my sister or brother's smartphones - which isn't saying much!)

fwiw it is perfectly easy to get a mobile phone signal in the inhabited parts of Somerset such as the remote villages (?) of Bath, Portishead, Clevedon, Nailsea, Weston-super-Mare, Yeovil and so on. Even down on the levels such as Wick St Lawrence it is ok.

OTOH Exmoor, Ilfracombe and the hilly borderlands with Dorset can be a dead zone thoiugh even East Coker has 3 bars and the data connexion is good enough for eBay.

http://oedipa.tripod.com/eliot-2.html

Of course it's "perfectly easy to get a mobile phone signal in the inhabited parts of Somerset such as the remote villages (?) of Bath, Portishead, Clevedon, Nailsea, Weston-super-Mare, Yeovil and so on. Even down on the levels such as Wick St Lawrence it is ok."

I'm sure, if I were to say there was frequent flooding in Somerset, You would reply with a list of places unaffected by flooding - this doesn't negate the FACT that there is frequent flooding in Somerset - and not just on the Levels.

You, of course, cite the bigger towns. Somerset is a lot bigger than the sum of the large towns you cite. There is a phone signal in SOME Somerset Towns, but not in Somerset as a whole.
North of Exeter and West of Bridgewater is a large land mass, with very little signal, but with many hamlets, villages and small businesses..

The nearest town to my brother's studio is Williton - 8 miles away, and the signal there is, at best, 'iffy'. I notice Williton isn't mentioned on your list - yet it's a town nonetheless, with shops and businesses - and an unreliable signal.

So, I reiterate, with a small proviso, there is no 'useable' signal in Somerset - or Devon.

I really am not very interested in the strength of telephone signal anywhere.

What I dislike so much about the advertizement is that it is very real and frightening and it causes me distress to watch it. In fact, I have never really noticed what was being advertized in it.

It's all pretend, Sharron :-D
He's paid good money to pretend to be afraid.

Well Sharron my wife suffers badly from vertigo and the ad terrifies her. It doesn't bother me any ( I like microlights ) but ad producers should take account of vertigo. It is far from uncommon. After all there is enough fuss about flash photography for instance.

On balance such ads should not be permitted.

I already said that the Somerset borderlands nr Dorset (and obviously Devon) had a patchy gsm signal. Given the topography and sparse population hardly surprising. Signal strength around Chew Lake is also very patchy. All the same for 90% of the population of Somerset strenghth of mobile phone signal is not a big issue.

In any case at least two major operators have started delivering wifi hotspots for all and sundry by using the broadband routers of their retail and smallbiz customers (BT, Virgin). A wifi connection can be used for many free voice call services from Skype to Whatsapp.

Of course I know about Somerset flooding. My family has owned property there since the C16 and I have a house in Wick St Lawrence. I can't see that it has much to do with high flying ads though.

btw away from zider country the usual term is advertisement.

Advertizement - advertisement

Rather like:

connexion - connection

:-D

everybody needs a connection
this one is x rated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYMJal35N0o

Surely, if it's 'zider' country, it should be 'advertizement'. :-D

BTW Rollo, you're the one who decided to give a long contradictory reply to my mentioning, in passing, about the Somerset signal.
It's certainly not 90% coverage either - not unless those who live in the sticks don't count!!
And, not having a reliable phone signal is as bad as not having one at all.

If you want to be really pernickety, it's "zoider".

And I agree with Sharron - some adverts shouldn't be shown!

Rollo, Is there anywhere on this planet to which you don't have some personal connection, a career that you haven't participated in at a senior level, people you aren't connected to or personal friends with, any subject about which you are not an expert? The list would appear to be endless!!!

90% of people in Somerset can get a reasonable phone signal and most can get 3G. Yeah probably more of a problem for the cowz and applez.

In any case current wifi / 3G GSM technology is obsolete and the UK should stop trying to roll out this steam age architecture.

The replacement technology is cheap and cheerful LED lights which can be got to provide over 1 Gb data transmission speed. Moreover it does not suffer from the line-of-sight problem. It would be massively disruptive to the business model of OpenReach and physical ISPs. Apple is experimenting with it for their mobile phones. Outside it can run using street lighting with UV capable bulbs.


If the UK is to make a success of brexit then it needs to be getting into the roll out of very leading edge technlogy in the UK not an "industrial strategy" based on the mythical renaissance of UK widget manufacture and export to the BRICS. As it is no doubt in a few years time we will be importing the stuff from Huweii.

https://goo.gl/8aQzmq
http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2015/12/lifi-light-based-communication.html

Um...does Apple know that street lighting isn't that prevalent in rural areas? Who would pay to run Street lighting with UV bulbs? Currently streetlight is provided and paid for by the county councils or their city equivalents.
It sounds very much like another development which will bypass rural communities, either small holder farms in the middle of no where, or the little clusters of houses left from a bygone age.

Rollo would know all about the rest of Somerset - Wick St Lawrence is in Weston Super Mare - a highly built up area compared to most of Somerset, but is, apparently 'typical' of the rest of Somerset - really?. I expect that area has both street lighting and 90% coverage, unlike most of rural Somerset.

Obviously, the FACT that we can't contact our brother from anywhere when he's in his studio and we instantly lose the signal as soon as we're more than 5 miles west of the M5. is a figment of our imagination - because Weston Super Mare has a 'perfect' signal.
Oh - and there's very little 'street' lighting for miles leading up to my brother's studio - roads go on for miles without the glimmer of a light.
The FACT that none of us can any of us get an inkling of a signal until we get to Williton is obviously a figment of our imagination/the wrong phone/we can't use our phones/ wrong provider/ any reason other than the phone signal in Somerset is Cr*p.

Of course, according to Rollo, It's not cr*p, because Rollo's got a house in Weston Super Mare, and he/his tenants can get a signal from there!!

If I said Southern Rail is rubbish at the moment, I've no doubt Rollo would contradict, and 'state' that the train service is amazingly good, because he has a relly up North and has no problem with the trains up there, so Southern Rail must (by that account) be excellent, and I'm talking out of my hat. . :-|

I was working on a "witty riposte" myself Maggie, but you are better at it than me. I must admit that this thread has had me laughing. We have a bloke like R-t-R down the pub. Been everywhere, done everything, read (or written) the book, bought the T shirt. etc. etc. ad nauseum. I await a explanation of the Latin phrase, from it's Greek root word, from Farsi, via Clingon. That's sarcasm, by the way, not irony.

I'm with you Bob, and magpie and Maggie - Rollo has been everywhere, seen everything, done everything, knows everyone - why he hasn't won Mastermind I have no idea - he's a flippin' genius - well he thinks he is anyway

oops - forgot - he's a gardening expert as well - move over Monty Don!!

It doesn't stop me hiding behind the sofa when that bloody ad is on though does it?