People living in rural areas should avoid getting a smartphone if they want the best reception while making calls, according to research. Older 2G mobile phones are often better for making calls because they allow more internal space for aerials, watchdog Ofcom said. While newer, 3G smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone are far more sophisticated and allow access to high-speed networks, email and the internet, they deliver a poorer performance when starting and completing a call.
Ofcom’s report said: “In the more rural areas that the phones were tested, entry-level phones generally returned somewhat better performance than smartphones for call completion and call set-up. This may be due to the reduced complexity of antenna on these devices and 2G phones not having issues in switching between 2G and 3G networks.” Quality of sound was not found to differ between 2G and 3G devices, the regulator found.
It said: “Performance differences are likely in practice to be modest, and not necessarily a factor that consumers should base their choice of phone on.”
