The Carrier Thread [Europe]

[Mac-lover3]

We are in 2015 now and still in Europe there are still roaming costs here but people wanna know what the best carriers are in these different countries. If you know from your experience which the best is for your country please share it in this thread.

France

3 main carriers: Orange, SFR, Bouygues

– Orange is definitely the best carrier at this moment their 4G network is already in almost every city now, coverage is good and service is great although they are a little more expensive than Bouygues.

– SFR is the carrier you must not take! They are more expensive than Bouygues but their network (cellphone and 4G) is not as good.

– Bouygues is the middel carrier not the best coverage neither the most advanced internet network but they are doing it for much less than the other two.

Belgium

3 main carriers: Proximus, Base, Mobistar

– Proximus is the leading carrier with best coverage and 4G in most of the northern part of the country in the south they provide it in the major cities. But they are the most expensive one.

– Base is getting better and better. Coverage is good, internet is okay, service is okay. For the lowest price.

– Mobistar is in the middle for pricing but their coverage is not so good. Internet is okay. Service is okay.

Italy

3 main carriers: TIM, Wind, Vodafone, (Tre. = 3 Italia)

– TIM great network, 4G in most of the regions and service is okay. Prices are almost the same as the other ones.

– Wind has a good network but lacks on the out-roll of 4G. Service is very good though. Prices are almost the same as the other ones.

– Vodafone has a good network, 4G in big parts of the county. Service is okay. Prices are almost the same as the other ones.

– Tre is a new player in the business that focuses on internet use. Very good and stable 3G and 4G network in the 'whole' country. But a little bit more expensive than the other ones.

 

[fabytmHD]

Ok, so I'll try to write an unbiased opinion about the carriers here, in Romania. There are 4 major players in the mobile telecom industry here. Orange, Vodafone, Telekom, Digi Mobil.

Orange has since 2004 been in the lead as far as amount of subscribers goes. They have a dense, nationwide DC-HSPA 2100MHz (42.2 Mbit/s) network with very good speeds! They currently have deployed LTE in most towns around the country and also have activated LTE-A in a few cities. One downside would be the fact that they use the 2600 MHz high frequency band in most cities, therefore, the penetration is less than ideal. Speeds above 100Mbit/s can be seen often. 2G serves as a backdrop and EDGE works for music streaming and light browsing. Premium prices for the most part for a premium service.

Vodafone operates an almost nationwide HSDPA/HSPA+ network as well. They use 2100MHz in cities and 900MHz in rural areas. While the 900 MHz band is ideal for coverage, the fact that they still have GSM in this band limits the speeds that could be achieved on 3G. Their deployment of LTE has been slow and while the speeds are generally really fast, the coverage inside cities can be sometimes disappointing(LTE coverage). While they have talked about VoLTE and LTE-A, still no signs of these two technologies being available! They are the only GSM network around here to not have GPRS, which means that if there's no 3G or LTE coverage, you're stuck with almost no internet. To this day, they still limit VoIP on a lot of plans! Premium prices for the most part as well.

Telekom has had a late start in Romania and for a long time didn't even have 3G. They have perhaps the best GSM coverage, their 3G is fast but not available nationwide and their LTE network is only available in very few places. Middle range prices for a middle range network. One of their advantages is being able to sell bundled packages (cellular+landline+TV+internet).

Digi Mobil has taken the world by storm by launching the most aggressive plans in Romania and being the first 3G only carrier. While their coverage is somewhat lacking, they have a national roaming agreement with Vodafone for places where they don't have native coverage. No LTE in the near future and they don't even have HSUPA (5,76 Mbit/s upload) in most places yet. 3G speeds are unreliable for the most part and ping times are very high! 5 euros/month will get you unlimited talk and 5GB of data though!