Mobile Phone Network - Which one do you find the best and why?

[Mick]

So which Mobile Phone Network do you use and why?

I can only use vodafone, not because we do not have decent coverage in london, but because I have a major issue in my house with any other network. and surely decent reception at home is the most important!

And its funny that all the networks map coverage says it's in a strong reception/coverage area!!!

Anyway (small rant over lol), with any network except vodafone, I need to go into the garden to talk, do not get me wrong it can be hit and miss for me using the vodafone at times but it works the best and I have tried all the networks from O2, T Mobile, Orange, three (3) network...

Don't get me started on three though lol, that has to be the worst out of them all in my experience, it would be down to pure luck if the phone would work. at one point I was on 3 different sites and it would not work on any.

I did find that the Tmobile and Orange was brilliant for reception just could not get a signal in the home.

Also I found three to be the cheapest, if you could get a signal reception??? but T mobile was also very good price wise especially when they did that £16 one plan Deal.

So for me the best network its vodafone, then tmobile/orange, then O2 (though I cannot really say I have much recollection of my time with O2), then far far behind is that fecking Three network lol.

I added a poll.

Let me know if I missed any mobile networks!

Mick

 

[biffo1]

I voted three network ,for the all round deal its the best around just got the wife an iphone 5 free unlimited internet free call to free unlimited text and 600 mins to any network, the signal has improved ten fold and i tether my iphone free for my ipad

 

[oneman]

I'm on virgin mobile who are a MVNO using EE. Right now sitting at my desk at work I am getting 20mb on a 3G connection, at home I get 16mb. UK coverage is pretty good, there are few places where I can't get at least a basic signal.

There best offer at the moment is a £15 VIP package with is 30 day rolling contract, unlimited data, voice and text + free landline to mobile calls and they don't seem to care about tethering either.

 

[ManofScience]

Only thing that drives my selection is cost!

I'm on GiffGaff, so are all the family, coverage is a bit patchy in my house - but i can live with it!

 

[Mick]

I voted three network ,for the all round deal its the best around just got the wife an iphone 5 free unlimited internet free call to free unlimited text and 600 mins to any network, the signal has improved ten fold and i tether my iphone free for my ipad

Cheers @biffo1

it must have been 2-3 years ago since I used them so hopefully the three network has improved it was really bad back then for me anyway!

I'm on virgin mobile who are a MVNO using EE. Right now sitting at my desk at work I am getting 20mb on a 3G connection, at home I get 16mb. UK coverage is pretty good, there are few places where I can't get at least a basic signal.

There best offer at the moment is a £15 VIP package with is 30 day rolling contract, unlimited data, voice and text + free landline to mobile calls and they don't seem to care about tethering either.

@oneman That is a very good deal mate £15, what does MVNO mean (I did try and guess lol)?

And I forgot about EE, with old Kevin Bacon being plastered all over the Tele lol, I thought EE was part of Tmobile and Orange to be fair though???

Only thing that drives my selection is cost!

I'm on GiffGaff, so are all the family, coverage is a bit patchy in my house - but i can live with it!

@ManofScience Is GiffGaff a Reseller?

Regards
Mick

 

[buzzer]

Giff gaff for me.

i dont get any coverage problems and its really cheap.

a little miffed that they don't allow tethering on their goody bags right enough..

 

[oneman]

Cheers @biffo1


@oneman That is a very good deal mate £15, what does MVNO mean (I did try and guess lol)?

And I forgot about EE, with old Kevin Bacon being plastered all over the Tele lol, I thought EE was part of Tmobile and Orange to be fair though???

Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Basically means like Tesco, giffgaff (owned by Telephonica who also own O2), etc they don't operate their own network but instead use one of the existing networks to provide their actual coverage.

T-mobile and Orange have merged their transmitters though keep their own frequencies AFAIK. The new merged network is branded as EE so you now see T-Mobile powered by EE. All this means that you end up with better or worse service depending where you are and who you are with. Virgin Media use T-Mobile frequencies but in theory should drop to (2G) on Orange if there is no T-Mobile reception.

BTW, the same thing is happening with Vodafone and O2 merging their transmitter networks.

As for VIP SIM

http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/paymonthlySimOnly.do

 

[miggy]

T-Mobile for me, but I do get a little annoyed when it is contract time. They know how many calls I make, How many texts and how long I browse the internet for. With this knowledge that they have about me they then calculate my usage and price accordingly. Many times now I have been left with no internet on my phone. They insist on saying why pay more for something that I don't use much.

 

[HappyH]

Three for me. Been with O2, Tesco Mobile, T-Mobile & Virgin mobile but Three easily the best for me. Saying that I'll probably change again in October since the 50 quid cashback I got moving to Three made them the cheapest deal with unlimited Internet at the time. If somebody else is better (cheaper) when my year's up I'll move without hesitation.
HH.

 

[biffo1]

@Mick yes it has i was with them 5 years ago , i left them due to the signal being crap ,now its great i dont have a problem and to boot no one can touch them on the phone deals

 

[Mick]

@Mick yes it has i was with them 5 years ago , i left them due to the signal being crap ,now its great i dont have a problem and to boot no one can touch them on the phone deals

Might give the Three network another go when my contract is up, I could at least go for a rolling monthly contract to see

Cheers @biffo1

 

[Rat]

Im with Tesco who piggy back off o2

been with them about 4/5 years now and cant say Ive ever had a problem with them
started off with a 12 month iPhone contract when that run out I moved over to the 30 day rolling contract

500 minutes (+150 minutes coz I got family on network) so 650 minutes
unlimited texts
2048MB data
£10 a month

but according to the tesco mobile app I have it says I have unlimited everything

cant see me changing any time soon either

 

[ryanm01]

I use vodafone on their Pay as you go sim. With the Freebees for text and web. This works out well for me, I top up £10 get free texts and web for the month. A tenner last me just over a month as I then also have the credit to spend! Highly recommend this for people who text and surf the web a little on their phone

 

[madnlooney]

15 years on vodafone, but the signal seemed to go downhill lately and they didnt offer enough data, now family are all on giffgaff which is working well. £12 goodybag

 

[joe516]

T-Mobile for me been with them about 5 years now and cant say Ive ever had a problem with

500 minutes unlimited texts 4 £9 a month

 

[friendzi]

i picked o2. Had a number of contracts in the past with them and have always been great. Im with vodafone at present but think their customer care is ridiculous. Think ill try 3 next as ive never been a customer of them yet

 

[f1maverick]

Locally for me orange is the best. Wife has been 02 and vodaphone and lost signal a few times. Iv been fairly steady.
also, customer service has actually been quite good.
i used to be with tmobile before they joined orange and the customer service was not great.

orange or noe EE is my personal fav and doubt i would move.
Wish giffgaff wasnt o2...

 

[Shindig]

I chose VF here in NZ.
You have a choice of telecom, 2degress, skinny mobile.

VF and telecom are the big players over here but you find 2degrees offering the most discounts or benefits first, then the other 2 offer something slightly better.

Tons of discussion over here on the local tech forum as to which is the best overall. It's a toughy, VF always been good for me but in rural landscape with nothing around coverage has been a hot topic.

 

[snp-g]

I picked 02, I'm on a rolling monthly sim, mainly because I get £6 discount on my broadband bill every month. Now that Sky has bought the broadband/home phone part of 02 I'll probably go to giffgaff's £10 goodybag instead.

 

[McrRed]

I'm on ovivo. Piggybacked on vodafone. 15 pounds for their sim and then no further costs. 150 minutes, 250 texts, 500 megabytes of data. No further fees. In my mind if the company doesn't go belly up for 2 months then I'm quids in. I know people who jumped on this deal 18 months ago when it was only 5 pounds. crazy not to...