Hi Steve,
Thanks for your recommendations, I did give it a go and the app you recommended is very useful to confirm connectivity, using it all the time now.
At the end of the day its a shame to have to disable a bunch other services just to get one going. As apps are added the services are coming back online (by choice I know) so I find myself doing a hard reboot before each flight (out of wifi coverage or wifi turned off) which gets it going.