Making Sure We Could Actually Make Phone Calls

As technology entrepreneurs, connectivity matters to us.

Fortunately, the house has excellent broadband, so data speeds weren't our main concern.

What concerned us more was something much simpler: would we actually be able to make and receive mobile phone calls reliably inside the house?

Anyone who has spent time in older Cotswold properties will know that those beautiful stone walls can play havoc with mobile signals.

After we'd decided on the house but before moving in, I bought low-cost pay-as-you-go SIM cards from each of the major UK mobile networks and tested them individually at the property.

I walked deep inside the house, behind multiple thick Cotswold stone walls, into the rooms where we'd actually be spending most of our time, and made real voice calls on each network.

The results were surprisingly different.

Some networks that looked fine on coverage maps struggled once those signals had to penetrate several layers of stone. Others performed far better than expected.

The exercise wasn't about internet speeds. With good broadband available, that wasn't a major concern. It was about making sure we could reliably answer calls from clients, friends and family without having to wander around the house searching for a signal.

It might sound like a small detail, but moving is often about getting dozens of small details right. Every one of those checks gives a little more confidence that everyday life will work as expected once the removal van has gone and the real adventure begins.