Network Coverage

I use T-Mobile which I generally find is a good network (both in terms of coverage, customer support and price).
I do have one slight issue though. Where I live, the signal isn't great. On my Palm Treo (which admittedly doesn't pick signals up as well as other phones) the signal can vary between four and zero bars and that can be with the phone sitting on the desk and not moving! My son who's on a T-Mob PAYG has a Sony Ericsson T630 which suffers from the same varying reception, so it's not down to the Treo alone. The T-Mob website says coverage for my postcode area is good. Hmmmm....They've obviously not tried using a phone here.
Anyway, I sent a nice polite email to Customer Service asking if there was any plans to improve the coverage here: Here's their response. Not much help for me (tried all this many times - except replacing the SIM), but it might help someone else.

Thanks for your email, about your network coverage.

I'm sorry to know that you're unable to use the phone due to bad network and I can understand how concerned you must be about this.

I've checked the coverage in [postcode] and can tell you that there are no known problems in that area at the moment.

You may be able to strengthen your signal by following these steps:

1. While the phone is switched on, remove the battery. The phone will then switch off automatically.

2. After a few minutes, replace the battery.

3. Switch the phone on.

4. Your phone will now display T-Mobile and allow you to make calls.

You might also find you need to manually select the network and you can do this by following the steps below:

1. From your menu, highlight and select network selection.

2. Change from automatic to manual.

3. Your phone will now display searching and bring up a list of networks.

4. Highlight and select T-Mobile.

If you continue to have problems, please try your SIM card in another T-Mobile phone. This will indicate whether there is a fault with the SIM card or the phone itself. We can then give you information on having your phone repaired or we can order you a new SIM card. There's a £10 charge (including VAT) for a replacement SIM card.
Thanks again for emailing me, and I'm sure you'll be able to strengthen the network to use your phone.
If you've any further queries, please feel free to email me and I'll be glad to help you.