Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

UK iPhone 5 thread

Furifo said:
I've been a 3 customer for years and it all depends on where you are. If you're in the right area, their data speeds are fast:

View attachment 369350

Unfortunately, I'm afraid I may need to switch from 3 to another provider due to signal issues (read below).



3 are awesome in the North. I consistently get very good data speeds and a solid 4-5 bars of signal everywhere I go.

I'm having to switch from them though. In the midlands, 3 is not so good. For example, I'm sitting here in a rented apartment near a window and I'm getting no service. I'm lucky to get one bar when I'm inside and I consistently get no service in libraries, supermarkets, restaurants, my own apartment, hospital wards, lecture theatres (not that I should be using my phone here anyway :p) and generally just places where you would expect to get signal (for example, the signal randomly drops from 1-2 bars to no service whenever I enter the car park for the university halls where my friend lives).

The 3G network is also a little spotty jumping wildly from 10-15mbps to below 0.5mbps from time to time. Speeds have been below 5-6 much more often than they have been above that comfortable threshold.

I've really enjoyed my time with 3 - can't fault them really - and if the signal is good in your area (in the North it is excellent) you will get awesome prices and a very fast 3G network at all times.

Seeing as I'm in the midlands for the most part of the year I'm considering switching to either EE or O2 (despite their network issues recently, they have been solid for my friends where I currently am. Their 3G network isn't as fast as 3 yet but it seems to be consistent).

Anyone got any suggestions for me? I need 600+ minutes, unlimited texts and I should be comfortable on 1GB data with a £20/month max limit. O2s on and on for £20 is looking the best right now.
Click to expand...

I find that odd! I'm in the Midlands (though on the cusp really I suppose South of Watford Gap!) and my service is full most of the time. Indoors it can vary of course.

d123 said:
You do realise that's around a year away? Or longer?

The LTE spectrum auction will only take place next year, and Vodafone and O2 can't start building a network until they know what frequencies they have won. Also, if they overpay for the prized 800 MHz spectrum (all the networks want the 800MHz band), odds of them bringing the price down anytime soon is pretty remote.
Click to expand...

Auction has been brought forward to January 2013. Roll outs rumoured to begin by June-July.
 
Chris_c81 said:
Auction has been brought forward to January 2013. Roll outs rumoured to begin by June-July.
Click to expand...

I'm still sceptical of the new OFCOM timeline, I mean, we are relying on the government, OFCOM, the phone companies and the TV transmission companies all cooperating perfectly.

The spectrum around parts of the South East isn't even going to be free until May 2013. (Oxford and Waltham TV transmitters), so to expect it be up and running less than a month later for LTE is unlikely IMO.

The area covered by those TV transmitters covers areas of London, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield.

The area of SW Scoland around Glasgow won't be freed up until April 2013.

I suppose miracles can happen.....

Full OFCOM press release
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2012/10/02/delivering-4g-mobile-for-consumers/
 
Q : if i get an e-mail for shipping, from where will it be tracking?

is it from UK or from US or CHINA???
 
Last edited:
d123 said:
I'm still sceptical of the new OFCOM timeline, I mean, we are relying on the government, OFCOM, the phone companies and the TV transmission companies all cooperating perfectly.

The spectrum around parts of the South East isn't even going to be free until May 2013. (Oxford and Waltham TV transmitters), so to expect it be up and running less than a month later for LTE is unlikely IMO.

The area covered by those TV transmitters covers areas of London, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield.

The area of SW Scoland around Glasgow won't be freed up until April 2013.

I suppose miracles can happen.....

Full OFCOM press release
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2012/10/02/delivering-4g-mobile-for-consumers/
Click to expand...

If there's profit to be made, it'll happen sooner then later. 4G will generate plenty of that for the networks, who will no doubt charge premium for the privilege.

Firmly believe OFCOM gave the green light to EE to get the other networks of their asses. Since that happened they've had rushed meetings to settle on a rollout timetable. I bet that wouldn't have happened if EE hadn't been awarded early rollout.

The government are under all sorts of pressure to get the country's Internet and mobile infrastructure upgraded as we're well behind other countries.
 
bandofbrothers said:
Thats the 1st time i've seen someone be able to make a reservation on a Sunday.

Wonder if stock is catching up a little with demand.
Click to expand...

Don't get my hopes up!

Plus i agree with another poster, why can't i make one reservation and they email me when i'm next in the line?
 
please post if you get a reservation email this eve.. waiting on one (again) myself, and wondering if the timing is the same on a Sunday, or even if the reservations will actually happen at all. I guess the system hasn't been up for the last few weekends..
 
can't wait for these to launch ;)

anezcz.jpg
 
Aniseedvan said:
Don't get my hopes up!

Plus i agree with another poster, why can't i make one reservation and they email me when i'm next in the line?
Click to expand...


I was kinda losing a little hope on my 14th attempt but i eventually got there !

I read somewhere on here that an apple store employee said they had 10 sim free iPhone 5's for reservation, and were being swamped with 100's of reservation requests. How true that is i don't know.

When i was in the apple store people were trying their best to bully the apple specialists into selling them a sim free version !

Very much a lottery.
 
Vundu said:
Not without jail breaking as Apple does not recognise them as a iPhone certified network provider.
Click to expand...

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Blog/Upcoming-goodybag-and-tariff-changes/ba-p/6203900

£10 goodybag (updated goodybag)
250 UK minutes
Unlimited UK texts
1GB Mobile Internet (Tethering will be allowed)
Free calls to giffgaff numbers

I concede, though, that there's no specific mention of iPhone tethering, so I don't know if this only refers to tethering on other handsets or what.
 
OutSpoken said:
Have they released prices yet? that will determine whether I switch or not.
Click to expand...

They haven't yet. Assuming that's EE they are rolling out their service on 30/10/12 but haven't announced any details yet. There will be contracts involved but that's all that has been said so far. If you're on T-Mobile or Orange you will need to start a new contract.
 
Lithearium said:
I asked the Apple lady that was setting my iPhone up about the reservations. She said the following:

You can make a maximum of 5 reservations per day (it doesn't matter which store, etc.) The system picks up on any matching data, whether that's email address, name, telephone number. If there are 5 matches with any of those it will cap it at that and will not validate any more of your reservations.

I hope that helps anyone that's been frantically reserving.
Click to expand...
Lucky you are! Do you know of they will refuse all future reservations from the over-5-reservation person? I don't think I made that many, but somehow when I used the name of my friend Marco instead of mine (Anton) the reservation came through
P.S. Looks like no luck for me today
 
minkyman said:
please post if you get a reservation email this eve.. waiting on one (again) myself, and wondering if the timing is the same on a Sunday, or even if the reservations will actually happen at all. I guess the system hasn't been up for the last few weekends..
Click to expand...

Nothing for me, realise some emails have been coming through later, but tomorrow is another day..
 
Mr.C said:
They haven't yet. Assuming that's EE they are rolling out their service on 30/10/12 but haven't announced any details yet. There will be contracts involved but that's all that has been said so far. If you're on T-Mobile or Orange you will need to start a new contract.
Click to expand...

What will be interesting is if the 24 months starts again or the date starts from the date you signed the contract with Orange/T-Mobile.
 
fat jez said:
What will be interesting is if the 24 months starts again or the date starts from the date you signed the contract with Orange/T-Mobile.
Click to expand...

To my knowledge and from my personal experience early upgrades typically mean the start of a new contract from the beginning. I would expect it to be the same upgrading from a standard 3G contract on T-Mobile or Orange to a 4G/LTE EE contract.
 
Credit Card payment

Hi, i placed an order for iphone through Apple website and am expecting delivery end of October, initially the payment was showing as "pending" on my credit card but now has disappeared from "pending" but is not shown on my statement, does Apple only take money once my phone is confirmed "dispatched" from their warehouse?
 
Mr.C said:
To my knowledge and from my personal experience early upgrades typically mean the start of a new contract from the beginning. I would expect it to be the same upgrading from a standard 3G contract on T-Mobile or Orange to a 4G/LTE EE contract.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but we were told that if we wanted a contract on EE, we had to sign up to a contract with Orange/T-Mobile first. EE are the owners of Orange and T-Mobile, so it could just be a case of transferring across to a contract with the new company, but we just don't know.
 
evan79 said:
Hi, i placed an order for iphone through Apple website and am expecting delivery end of October, initially the payment was showing as "pending" on my credit card but now has disappeared from "pending" but is not shown on my statement, does Apple only take money once my phone is confirmed "dispatched" from their warehouse?
Click to expand...

Exact same thing happened to me. Is this your first order? Or did you also order on day 1 and already get yours delivered?
 
evan79 said:
Hi, i placed an order for iphone through Apple website and am expecting delivery end of October, initially the payment was showing as "pending" on my credit card but now has disappeared from "pending" but is not shown on my statement, does Apple only take money once my phone is confirmed "dispatched" from their warehouse?
Click to expand...

If you used a credit card then yes. When initially placing the order they will put a temporary hold on the amount. That charge will disappear and before shipping it they will actually charge you for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back