Which mobile network?

[Flamingo]

It's that time of the year again, and my mobile contract is up for renewal. A few questions for the forum members, as there always seems to be someone out there who knows.

1. What network would be best for signal along the Great Western area (ignoring deepest darkest Devon / Cornwall)?

2. A few tips on negotiating the best deal with the mobile networks? As a regular contract user, with a high-tariff contract (£40+ a month), I never seem to be able to get any of the discounts others at work seem to get, all I get from the shops is "This is the contracts we have", even if I try playing one off against the other.

Cheers

Flamingo!

 

[jon0844]

I am on Orange, which now roams on T-Mobile, but when I've used FGW to Wales, I've always used a Three dongle and always had great coverage and speed.

Check out the Three One Plan which has loads of minutes, texts and unlimited, uncapped, data. Cheaper than T-Mobile's new Full Monty tariff too. Three has more 3G base stations than anyone else.

Bear in mind that I mostly use data now, so my priorities are probably different. O2 and Vodafone may have better 2G coverage.

Sent from my Commodore 64 using Tapatalk

 

[First class]

34% of Pay Monthly tarrifs for RMT members via the O2 Open Scheme... First Group also probably have their own o2 Open scheme which still gives you the 34% with the discount card. If you haven't got one, I'll send ya one if you PM me.

I'd personally avoid 3 at all costs. Terminating a contract with them is painful. Customer services is based overseas where "Patrick" can't understand your question.

O2 staff are based in Runcorn/Slough. The Slough call centre is starting to sound like the 3 one though... One of the best coverage maps too, and you get o2 rewards!

 

[jon0844]

Three has poor customer service, but the best network (by a long way) if you're after a good 3G connection and high-speed data, as well as the capacity required.

O2 has the worst coverage (3G wise) and has narrowly avoided a range of punishments by Ofcom. However, without a shadow of a doubt, it has the most customer-focused approach and nearly always wins awards for best customer service.

Personally, I'd expect to need to call my network extremely rarely (haven't called Orange in nearly 5 years about ANYTHING) and Three has a fantastic website that manages your account, add-ons, changing details etc. I see little reason to need to call anyone from Mumbai (for the record though, Three manages business accounts in the UK exclusively now).

Still, 34% discount isn't to be sneezed at - even if O2 has pretty ropey coverage in rural areas. Given this includes a lot of railway lines, I'd have to rule out O2 (and giffgaff, which uses the network) myself. I do have an O2 PAYG SIM with an old iPhone and it's nearly always stuck on 2G or EDGE, which is so sloooow!

 

[Lampshade]

Anything but Virgin.

 

[WestCoast]

Three has poor customer service, but the best network (by a long way) if you're after a good 3G connection and high-speed data, as well as the capacity required.

O2 has the worst coverage (3G wise) and has narrowly avoided a range of punishments by Ofcom. However, without a shadow of a doubt, it has the most customer-focused approach and nearly always wins awards for best customer service.
Still, 34% discount isn't to be sneezed at - even if O2 has pretty ropey coverage in rural areas. Given this includes a lot of railway lines, I'd have to rule out O2 (and giffgaff, which uses the network) myself. I do have an O2 PAYG SIM with an old iPhone and it's nearly always stuck on 2G or EDGE, which is so sloooow!

When I finished my contract with T-Mobile, I went on to giffgaff, love it as it's so cheap and hassle free for moderate PAYG usage.

Strange, and this isn't a technical observation in the slightest but my friend is always complaining about not getting a signal on Three!

 

[Hydro]

I do have an O2 PAYG SIM with an old iPhone and it's nearly always stuck on 2G or EDGE, which is so sloooow!

I use O2 on a SIM only deal and work have an O2 contract for the work phones, and it's wearing rather thin to be honest. The coverage is poor for a start. I have been cut off mid conversation on several occasions whilst displaying 3 or more bars of signal, on both my personal phone (iPhone 4S) and work phone (ancient Nokia). The current favourite is to display full signal, and then whittle down to zero and thus "No Service" as soon as you have the temerity to attempt to make a call. As soon as the swearing stops and your grip has loosened, the signal will shoot back up. This has happened on both my personal and work phones.

A favourite with the work phones is to make a call on high signal, be connected and be chatting away, and then to be cut off with no signal. A glance at the phone reveals "No Signal", and before you accept that you may in an area of low-no coverage, it just shoots back to full signal again. Very handy when you rely on mobile coverage to report safety of the line defects.

 

[Flamingo]

Thanks guys. I'm currently on O2, and I find them ok, but patchy in spots. I think I have only had to ring their customer services three times in 10 years, so it's not a major problem (I hope). I was wondering about 3, they have some pretty good plans, and the O2 salesman was running them down all he could last week (poorest coverage was his main argument against 3). Of course 3 say they have the best (as O2 did), I just wanted an unbiased view. The only coverage maps I could find online were a few years old.

 

[DarloRich]

I echo Hydro on the O2 situation. My work Blueberry is poor signal wise but great emial wise.

I changed my personal from O2 to T mobile ( now merged with Orange to create "Everything Everywhere") and rarely have an issue with them. I now have a wildfire Desire s or something!

I am on pay and go. £10 per month gets me unlimited uk texts and internet (as long as i top up £10 every month) and my £10 of call time. f i fail to top uop, which i have done i simply use my credit for texts.

It works well for me

 

[WelshBluebird]

The best way to find out, especially if you are going to be covering large areas which you would be, is just to get hold of a PAYG sim card for each network and give it a test out. It may not be the most practical, but will certainly give you a much better idea of what the coverage is like.

I am on Three, and they do seem to be pretty good in most places. Although I do seem to remember quite a large number of black spots around the Castle Cary - Taunton are from when I did that journey last year.

 

[Geezertronic]

Anything but Virgin.

Why not? They use the EE network (Orange/T-Mobile) which isn't so bad?

 

[transportphoto]

Have a look at giffgaff, they piggy back on the o2 network so the coverage is the same but customer services etc are different and UK based.

Cheap Rates too.

TP

 

[richw]

I'm on T mobile, and cant fault them. Went to O2 for 18 months, and came straight back to t-mobile.
Regarding the above mentioned 34% discount on o2, My T mobile tariff is 40% cheaper than identical on o2.
T mobile seems to have 99% coverage even down in Devon and Cornwall since the merger/ joint operation whatever it is with Orange.

 

[Aictos]

It's that time of the year again, and my mobile contract is up for renewal. A few questions for the forum members, as there always seems to be someone out there who knows.

1. What network would be best for signal along the Great Western area (ignoring deepest darkest Devon / Cornwall)?

2. A few tips on negotiating the best deal with the mobile networks? As a regular contract user, with a high-tariff contract (£40+ a month), I never seem to be able to get any of the discounts others at work seem to get, all I get from the shops is "This is the contracts we have", even if I try playing one off against the other.

Cheers

Flamingo!

PM sent,

 

[Blue Pool Halt]

The best way to find out, especially if you are going to be covering large areas which you would be, is just to get hold of a PAYG sim card for each network and give it a test out. It may not be the most practical, but will certainly give you a much better idea of what the coverage is like.

I am on Three, and they do seem to be pretty good in most places. Although I do seem to remember quite a large number of black spots around the Castle Cary - Taunton are from when I did that journey last year.

Most phones allow in the setup menu, to manually search for providers , the phone will thus display any network providers in the phones coverage area (without the need unlock the phone or buy sims to test with).

Some phones will display 3g coverage from the provider too.

Give it a go from you network settings, select manual search..........

The result below by manually searching operator on my locked Samsung Galaxy

 

[WelshBluebird]

Most phones allow in the setup menu, to manually search for providers , the phone will thus display any network providers in the phones coverage area (without the need unlock the phone or buy sims to test with).

Some phones will display 3g coverage from the provider too.

Give it a go from you network settings, select manual search..........

The result below by manually searching operator on my locked Samsung Galaxy

True, but sometimes the phone will "see" the network, but not actually be receiving a strong enough signal to connect to it (or make it actually usable).
It certainly can give a half decent idea though.

 

[jon0844]

A network scan like the above won't mean you can select all of the networks that show up, but besides the top network usually being your home network, most phones will show the rest in order of signal (in the case of T-Mobile and Three, they're probably the same as they'll be at the same location).

It's a fairly good way to check signal, but not necessarily quality or speed (in the case of anyone using mobile data). Sorry to keep going on about data, but 95% of my usage is data and 5% voice these days. That's why 3G is especially important to me, such that I've set my phone to lock to 3G even though it means I have no 2G fallback in rural areas.

If you were on O2, that would mean no coverage loads of the time. I think O2 has only 70% population coverage on 3G (the lowest in the UK) and Three has 98%, closely followed by T-Mobile (which will ultimately become the same, as well as Orange).

I've only left out Vodafone as I don't have a SIM card at the moment to test - so it's neither suggesting they're bad, or good. Just untested!

 

[Blue Pool Halt]

Guys, the method I have suggested allows a quick method of seeing which networks the phone is capable of transmitting to / from and is better test than some theoretical postcode lookup that providers give.

You can get an idea of signal strength (hence speed) by placing the phone on the floor or lowest part of the property , or in a metal box etc, then noting which networks have dropped out on a re search.

 

[jon0844]

You won't be able to judge speed by doing a network scan, as that will vary on lots of things;

1) What your hardware supports (obviously)
2) What the network supports
3) Local congestion (which is why a network with capacity is just as important as coverage)

The network scan is fine for establishing that there is a signal, but there is a bit more to it than that. Ideally getting a prepay SIM and testing it out is the only decent way to see how it works, especially as you're unlikely to want to do multiple network scans in every part of the house, upstairs/downstairs etc.

 

[devon_metro]

I'm with T-mobile. Coverage is good I find. The T-mobile 3G network is pretty extensive from my experience, and the merger with Orange provides a decent boost to the 2G network (since the Orange 3G network coverage is pretty hopeless)

 

[jon0844]

T-Mobile has also lifted the speed cap on most of its tariffs since the launch of the new Full Monty tariff, which is nice. T-Mobile has a lot of HSPA+ enabled sites now, while Orange has a bit of catching up to do.

 

[Lrd]

I have been on Three for past year now, they have some great coverage and are fairly cheap. Was on O2 before that and often struggled for coverage if I was ooot and aboot (wasn't terrible though). As others have said (I think) Three also allow us to roam on the Orange/T-Mobile network although I only seem to get GPRS with them. Get full fast internet with Three.

I am happy with Three and can see myself staying with them for a while longer.

EDIT: Just tested the internet speed on my phone and am getting ~4.1Mbps Download and ~300Kbps Upload, which is a lot faster (and cleaner) than my home broadband. (Taken from speedtest.net app)

 

[Flamingo]

PM sent,

Thanks
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Most phones allow in the setup menu, to manually search for providers , the phone will thus display any network providers in the phones coverage area (without the need unlock the phone or buy sims to test with).

Some phones will display 3g coverage from the provider too.

Give it a go from you network settings, select manual search..........

The result below by manually searching operator on my locked Samsung Galaxy

Thanks, I'll try that.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Some impressive data figures there lewis. I don't use data that much, it's more phone calls and the ability to make them that I want. I hadn't thought of T Mobile, I'll investigate them.

 

[jon0844]

If data isn't so important, you can't probably go far wrong with T-Mobile and the ability to roam on to Orange (2G) seamlessly, or by enabling roaming for 3G.

 

[Flamingo]

TBH, I don't even know the difference between 2g and 3g, let alone GPS, GPRS and all the other acronyms that get flung about

 

[b0b]

TBH, I don't even know the difference between 2g and 3g, let alone GPS, GPRS and all the other acronyms that get flung about

And yet you're supposed to understand all the various codes printed on rail tickets

 

[jon0844]

TBH, I don't even know the difference between 2g and 3g, let alone GPS, GPRS and all the other acronyms that get flung about

Think of 3G as first class and 2G as standard, GPS as an anytime ticket and GPRS as off-peak. EDGE is like an advance ticket and the speeds depend on what railcard you have.

Mmm, perhaps that isn't going to work. Now I'm confused!

If you need any advice on handsets, services or anything then let me know. I hope that as the ex-editor of a mobile phone magazine for eight years, I should know something.

 

[Flamingo]

And yet you're supposed to understand all the various codes printed on rail tickets

You'd be amazed what I do know!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Think of 3G as first class and 2G as standard, GPS as an anytime ticket and GPRS as off-peak. EDGE is like an advance ticket and the speeds depend on what railcard you have.

Mmm, perhaps that isn't going to work. Now I'm confused!

If you need any advice on handsets, services or anything then let me know. I hope that as the ex-editor of a mobile phone magazine for eight years, I should know something.

So 3G GPS is best, 2G GPRS next best, and I've never even heard of Edge!

 

[CC 72100]

On my iphone 4, 3G is the fastest, followed by EDGE (is that effectively 2G?) and then 'o' which is bog standard, weakest signal mobile internet

I'm on 02 myself, so I find these coverage woes quite interesting as I've never had massive problems. However, although I don't seek mobile internet whilst on the train, I'll admit that it can be patchy coverage whilst on the move

 

[Lampshade]

3G = Broadband

EDGE = Slow broadband

GPRS = Dial-up

WAP = Semaphore