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Nearly a year of O2 vs. almost 2 weeks of 3 (UK)

A

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macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 12, 2005
1,157
410
Scotland
Changed from O2 to 3 a couple of weeks ago, went for the £25, 30 day contract with all you can eat data (including tethering). After changing the SIM I checked the data use -

o2_data.png


I had being paying £10 a month for a GB of data including tethered data but seldom saw 3G.

After nearly 2 weeks of 3 which includes a weekend away when it was being used to tether another iPhone, 2 iPads and an Apple TV this is the data usage -

3_data.png


Over the 2 weeks I have been able to use the phone more like an smartphone should, so am pretty happy with 3. Downsides are a blackspot in local Tesco's, losing internet a couple of times when listening to internet radio station in car on a trip to fife and the loss of visual voicemail.
 
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I always found O2 was terrible in Norfolk for 3G coverage and 2G was not that great. Never used to get signal in the mall. On 3 I have full 3G signal in most of Norwich and 3G rurally. Funnaly enough I don't get a signal in tescos on 3 here either
 
Most supermarket buildings are incredibly good at blocking radio signals, particularly those on higher frequencies like Three uses (2100MHz).
 
I was seriously considering changing from O2 to either 3 0r Giff Gaff ( O2 Owned, but a little cheaper) 3 just don't have reliable enough coverage here in Wales and other parts of the UK, so that ruled them out...Also the loss of VVM.

Giff Gaff have the same coverage as their sister company O2, but they disable even more stuff. Big carriers do not like people who buy phones themselves....I'm not locked into anything with O2. my 4S is mine and was purchased from Apple as have all of my iPhones, but they seem to be the best of the bunch for my needs.
 
Macman45 said:
Giff Gaff have the same coverage as their sister company O2, but they disable even more stuff.
Click to expand...

What do Giffgaff disable :confused:

I've been using them for about a year now, and the only thing they don't have is Visual Voicemail - which I believe O2 PAYG customers still don't get.

Giffgaff customers also get full access to the O2 3G 900MHz signal, so better coverage in building where O2 have rolled it out.


Ever since I got my iPad 2 though, I took advantage of the 12 months free internet on TMobile (£10 for the year). I'm astonished at just how many places have full 3G coverage on TMobile! I've used O2, Vodafone and 3 and all of them are put to shame by T Mobile. 3 weren't bad, just indoor coverage at Uni was non existent.
 
biohead said:
What do Giffgaff disable :confused:

I've been using them for about a year now, and the only thing they don't have is Visual Voicemail - which I believe O2 PAYG customers still don't get.

Giffgaff customers also get full access to the O2 3G 900MHz signal, so better coverage in building where O2 have rolled it out.


Ever since I got my iPad 2 though, I took advantage of the 12 months free internet on TMobile (£10 for the year). I'm astonished at just how many places have full 3G coverage on TMobile! I've used O2, Vodafone and 3 and all of them are put to shame by T Mobile. 3 weren't bad, just indoor coverage at Uni was non existent.
Click to expand...

VVm isone, and when I enquired, they also got a little snarky with me....probably because I'm an O2 customer anyway.
 
Been with 3 for quite some time now and I'm very happy with the service. I live in the North West and consistently have 4-5 bars of signal wherever I go. My 3G speeds never drop below 2mbps and sometimes go as high as 6-7 in the early mornings/late at night.
 
when i was in ireland this past month i used an old 3g on an att unlocked phone and used "3". The reception was amazing everywhere and it was super cheap. I think we even got visual voice mail on PAYG. Pretty sure about that. Is it diff for using it in Wales and UK?

Anyone know about Australia? Do a any company disable VVM on PAYG in Australia?

Thanks.
 
Macman45 said:
VVm isone, and when I enquired, they also got a little snarky with me....probably because I'm an O2 customer anyway.
Click to expand...

I use GiffGaff and use the HulloMail app, it's basically the same as VisualVoicemail.

I've used three in the past, although the signal & prices are good as soon as you encounter any sort of problem the customer service is beyond shocking, they actually seem to go out of the way to make things more difficult for you!
 
Sim only.

Got a sim only deal with O2 from 5 years ago. Has anyone had a problem just buying a iphone 4s and using my current deal.

Travel a lot and they do a 4 text (from my bundle) for 1 from abroad.Never have to pay for texts. This deal has been stopped for new customers.

I have 100mbps allowance.

Any god/bad experience or advice?

Many thanks.
 
pauliphone said:
I use GiffGaff and use the HulloMail app, it's basically the same as VisualVoicemail.

I've used three in the past, although the signal & prices are good as soon as you encounter any sort of problem the customer service is beyond shocking, they actually seem to go out of the way to make things more difficult for you!
Click to expand...

Have only phoned customer service once so far, i wanted to change direct debit date to beginning of month, got a woman who spoke very good english with an indian (i think) accent. Will know in a couple of weeks if she has sorted it but nothing to complain about so far.

O2's support I've found was pretty good, all the people I some to had a Scottish accent which suited me. I was pretty OK with O2 other than the fact I never saw much 3G, but having seen how much data you can download with a decent signal I might have been unhappy with only the 1 GB I paid a tenner for if O2's 3G coverage had been better...:eek:
 
3 in Ireland is crap. Only good thing about them is the unlimited data but what's the point of it when I'm usually getting 0.5-1mb. On Vodafone I constantly get 6-7mb.
 
Question from USA user. Do you guys really get unlimited data in Europe?

I mean unlimited no throttling after 3-5GB of data?
 
aneftp said:
Question from USA user. Do you guys really get unlimited data in Europe?

I mean unlimited no throttling after 3-5GB of data?
Click to expand...

Giffgaff uk and three uk get unlimited Internet and not throttling. It's as advertised, ALL YOU CAN EAT, and it's yummy :).
 
aneftp said:
Question from USA user. Do you guys really get unlimited data in Europe?

I mean unlimited no throttling after 3-5GB of data?
Click to expand...

I do on O2 but I've got an original iPhone contract.

As stated 3 and giffgaf do unlimited too

I'm at 5.8gb this month
 
aneftp said:
Question from USA user. Do you guys really get unlimited data in Europe?

I mean unlimited no throttling after 3-5GB of data?
Click to expand...

And on the one plan (3) in the UK you can also get unlimited tethering along with it.
T-Mobile also offer Unlimited Data with tethering with a 3.8mb/s speed cap on downloads.
 
To add a balance i get solid stable coverage via 02 where i reside and work.

3 do have a better choice of tariff but don't offer the coverage unfortunately.

I wish 02 did offer a 2gb tariff for us payg customers tho !

Ive been tempted with giffgaff but even they have issues.

----------
Lunfai said:
Giffgaff uk and three uk get unlimited Internet and not throttling. It's as advertised, ALL YOU CAN EAT, and it's yummy :).
Click to expand...



True at the mount with giffgaff but even they are looking again at unlimited data due to network issues with people tethering !
 
3 would be the perfect sim only option for me

Only thing stopping me is the no signal I get at 2 places I visit regularly. They aren't even that rural. Shame really, wish they still had 2g fallback. I rely on my phone for my business so I just can't risk it.

I'm on O2 ATM. Old unlimited iPhone tariff. 3G isn't perfect but I'm waiting for them to enable 3G 900mhz to see what it is like then.
 
What do you guys use that is so data heavy?

Used all the networks, very much a case of SSDD, or SSDN if you will.
 
How do you guys like these companies for travel through Europe? I'm headed out there in a few weeks and I need one number to be reached at throughout the uk, France, and the Netherlands.

Do you hear these companies offer good data roaming packages?
 
aneftp said:
Question from USA user. Do you guys really get unlimited data in Europe?

I mean unlimited no throttling after 3-5GB of data?
Click to expand...

I don't know about them in the UK but in Ireland it's 15gb and after that you only get throttled if you're in an area with lots of users. A 3 rep once told me a guy got 60gb one month without being throttled.
 
mellofello said:
How do you guys like these companies for travel through Europe? I'm headed out there in a few weeks and I need one number to be reached at throughout the uk, France, and the Netherlands.

Do you hear these companies offer good data roaming packages?
Click to expand...

Uk Payg / contracts do seem cheaper than the USA but roaming does get expensive.

Vodaphone have Vodaphone passport : http://www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/...abroad/ways-to-save/index.htm?cid=rdr-1326-01

Not bad of you need to make long calls. Their network isn't the best but I guess consistent. Not sure about data roaming.

O2 roaming also worked well for me in the past.
 
I'd be lost without truly unlimited data with three. Makes using a smartphone far less restrictive and the unlimited tethering is a superb addition.

I got tired fast trying to manage my data usage on orange which was limited to 750mb per month.

Most I've done in a month is over 300GB with Three with zero issues. We do so much data as our landline broadband peaks at around 1meg and we get up to 10 Meg with Three. Since going with them, we've given up our landline and landline broadband entirely.
 

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