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What mobile network do you use?

T

twysta

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 3, 2011
23
0
London, United Kingdom
Tried to use the search to see if this has been done before, but couldn't see anything. Sorry if I have missed it!

Let's discuss the pros and cons of the networks our iPhones use. Here you can get user based feedback if you're looking to change providers!

Okay, here's my 2 pence:

Location: London, United Kingdom
Carrier: 3 UK

Pretty much everywhere I go I have decent signal. Only when I am driving in certain areas (in the middle of nowhere on a motorway) I loose signal dramatically. 3 have IMO the best data plan in the UK.. UNLIMITED! No data caps, fair usage policy.. just 100% unlimited data. That is the main reason why I joined them. I get 2,000 minutes to any network/landline and 5,000 minutes to other 3 users. 5,000 text messages are also included, but with Facebook messenger, etc.. who needs SMS? :p

Cons - hm. I can't really fault them to be honest. The price is right, (£35 a month) and the signal is strong. If I HAVE to pick something, it would be their customer service. There isn't anything majorly wrong with it, but it is non-UK based. I prefer my customer service to be in the United Kingdom. But again, it's not that big of a problem. Oh, they have no 2G network to fall back on, so if there isn't a 3G signal then I'm screwed. I rarely find myself in that situation, though.

I'd recommend 3 UK to anyone. Well, anyone in the London area at least. I don't know what their signal is like in all parts of the country.
 
twysta said:
Oh, they have no 2G network to fall back on, so if there isn't a 3G signal then I'm screwed. I rarely find myself in that situation, though.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything in your post, particularly this part.

I also miss Visual Voicemail (only O2 supports it in the UK).
 
Am on 3 PAYG , fantastic service everywhere . £15 a month top up and I get 3000 txts 300 mins to any network and unlimited data which the most I've used tethering is 39gb in a month. Cannot got wrong
 
Location: London, UK
Network: Giffgaff (O2)
Price: £10pm (250 mins, unlimited texts, unlimited internet)

Best network I've used hands down! Internet speeds around London are all 2.5Mbps or higher and I haven't had any dropped calls. Never been out of coverage besides when I went to the coast at Bournemouth one time but that's expected and I doubt other networks would have had coverage there anyway. Been to other cities in the UK such as Bristol and my coverage has been more than good enough there too.

Overall I would easily recommend them to anyone with an unlocked/o2 iPhone. Definitely the reason I bought my iPhone 4S outright and I'm so glad I did as it's saving me so much money.
 
Giff gaff, pay as you go £10 a month, unlimited text unlimited Internet, 200 mins, £25 cheaper than yours, not only that i get free calls to giff gaff and texts even if I don't top up 2 months after!!!

Cons, you don't get no credit when buying so 0845 are a no no...
 
Location: WI
Carrier: Sprint


Pros
-cheap plans
-unlimm. data (for new users/old)
-Great customer service (IMO)
-free mobile to mobile to any carrier


Cons
-no internet while on a phone call (as opposed to GSM or 4g)
-not as many towers as VzN
-3g is 5X slower then AT&T (same as VzN in my area)
 
twysta said:
Tried to use the search to see if this has been done before, but couldn't see anything. Sorry if I have missed it!

Let's discuss the pros and cons of the networks our iPhones use. Here you can get user based feedback if you're looking to change providers!

Okay, here's my 2 pence:

Location: London, United Kingdom
Carrier: 3 UK

Pretty much everywhere I go I have decent signal. Only when I am driving in certain areas (in the middle of nowhere on a motorway) I loose signal dramatically. 3 have IMO the best data plan in the UK.. UNLIMITED! No data caps, fair usage policy.. just 100% unlimited data. That is the main reason why I joined them. I get 2,000 minutes to any network/landline and 5,000 minutes to other 3 users. 5,000 text messages are also included, but with Facebook messenger, etc.. who needs SMS? :p

Cons - hm. I can't really fault them to be honest. The price is right, (£35 a month) and the signal is strong. If I HAVE to pick something, it would be their customer service. There isn't anything majorly wrong with it, but it is non-UK based. I prefer my customer service to be in the United Kingdom. But again, it's not that big of a problem. Oh, they have no 2G network to fall back on, so if there isn't a 3G signal then I'm screwed. I rarely find myself in that situation, though.

I'd recommend 3 UK to anyone. Well, anyone in the London area at least. I don't know what their signal is like in all parts of the country.
Click to expand...

Yup with them too, did a spreadsheet and found they did the best data deal. Great reception so far including in the Midlands and North of England.
 
salacious said:
Giff gaff, pay as you go £10 a month, unlimited text unlimited Internet, 200 mins, £25 cheaper than yours, not only that i get free calls to giff gaff and texts even if I don't top up 2 months after!!!

Cons, you don't get no credit when buying so 0845 are a no no...
Click to expand...

He got the phone on that contract as well...That's why its cheaper lol

Anyway here is mine

Network: 3UK

Pros:
Great coverage in most places and I live in Norfolk and its pretty much the only network to actually have any kind of 3G coverage outside Norwich. 3G coverage on Vodafone and O2 is atrocious and Orange is not much better.

Cheap price - 2000 minutes, unlimited data, 5000 texts and 5000 3 to 3 minutes and it would be £25 but I have a £10 loyalty discount so I only pay £15.

Orange fallback is great. Anywhere relatively remote the Orange fall back is still on so I never lose coverage pretty much outdoors anyway in Norfolk.

Cons:
More personal to me but the only place coverage is not that great is at my house for me. I'm surrounded by 3 Three Uk masts but I happen to be bang in the middle and am in a little bit of a dead zone. I get a signal in my bedroom, study and living room though( 1 or 2 bars) so not a major issue. Just can be annoying

Customer service can be annoying as they just read of a script but some how you still seem to get told different things although the staff do seem to genuinely want to help and if they can't find the answer themselves they will find out.

Coverage indoors can be patchy in old buildings due to the 2100mhz frequency.

Of all the networks I've been with I have to say it has had the most dropped calls although this tends not to happen during a call it only tends to happen when dialling and when I redial it normally goes through fine. This only seems to be an issue at work though.

photo22v.png
 
Location: Newcastle
Carrier: Three
Price: The One Plan £25 a month (1 Month Rolling Contract), 2000 Minutes, 5000 Texts, Unlimited Data

I was previously with O2 and was on a rolling 1 month contract and to be honest the signal I was getting was absolutely terrible, I was lucky if I got one bar signal in my house and I used to drop calls all the time.

Since getting Three I have had at least three bars signal all the time and it is usually full signal plus I haven't dropped a call so far.

The unlimited data is nice as well as I have a Wi-Fi only iPad and with The One Plan from Three you can have free tethering using the iPhone's Personal Hotspot which is nice if I'm somewhere with my iPad and not near a Wi-Fi connection, With O2 they wanted to charge extra for the ability to tether plus I only got 500MB of data with the plan I was on with them anyway.

I'm basically getting an extra 1400 minutes, Unlimited Data, Tethering & Good signal for an extra £5 a month with Three compared to O2.
 
Location: GA
Carrier: H20/At&t

Pros: Don't have to be jailbroken/unlocked to use h20 on the iphone. Its $50 a month for me and I get unlimited minutes and texting + I get excellent service.

Cons: Customer service is horrible. Data speeds are slow and limited.
 
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Carrier: Vodafone

500 minutes, 500 texts, 1gig data and Free VF to VF calls and tests for €65 a month.

Pros: Good customer service and good coverage.
Cons: Expensive and terrible web site.
 
salacious said:
Giff gaff, pay as you go £10 a month, unlimited text unlimited Internet, 200 mins, £25 cheaper than yours
Click to expand...

Try less than £7 cheaper. Which I'll happily pay for 8 times the minutes to other networks and tethering included with my unlimited internet. Also the convenience of not having to fork out 500 quid at once for the handset. I'm not knocking that GiffGaff tariff as I've set-up family members on it, however it's not all black and white when you state your monthly cost of £10 vs my monthly cost of £35.

3UK The One Plan = £35 x 24 + £69 = £909 / 12 = £37.875

GiffGaff PAYG + Price of buying the iPhone 4 = £10 x 24 + £510 = £750 / 12 = £31.25

NOTE. Prices based on the prices at the time I got my iPhone a year ago.
 
Location: Dorset, United Kingdom
Network: Three-UK.

Yep, their data is good, and that guy doing 39GB pm in tethering - wow - just wow.
 
I feel out of place since I'm in the US and it seems like all the posts here are from Europe.

Anyway,

Location: New Jersey, USA
Carrier: Sprint

Family Plan for $110 per month for 2 lines is the best I've seen after work-related discounts.
1500 Shared Minutes, Unlimited Text (including MMS), Unlimited Data. Free nights and weekends, free mobile to any carrier mobile.

Pros:
- Calls complete as expected. No excess loss of signal, very rarely drop calls.
- Calls to Customer Service have been answered in less than a minute every time.
- Only US Carrier to offer an Unlimited data plan for the iPhone (T-Mobile does not count until they offer 3G support for the iPhone)
- Free Features like GPS Navigation, Sprint TV (live ESPN, etc.)

Cons:
- CDMA network is considerably slower for data compared to GSM (T-Mobile, AT&T).
- Sprint's data network appears to be slightly slower than Verizon Wireless, which is also CDMA
- Sprint's overall coverage area appears to be less than Verizon's. Again, I never have a problem with making or dropping calls, but I do typically see areas with 3 or 4 bars instead of 5, whereas I used to see 5 bars on Verizon at this location.

I can live without blazing data speeds as long as all the features work on the phone... I don't NEED 10 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up and go racing to my data cap on a competitor.

The main reason we'd switched to Sprint from Verizon in the first place was because they offer a feature where you can have unlimited mobile to ANY carrier mobile minutes. There are minimum plans that have this, so make sure you get one that supports "Any Mobile, Anytime". We've gone down from using around 1000 minutes per month as a family to under 200. AT&T also has this feature now, and I can't stress enough how awesome it is. Unfortunately, Verizon didn't have this and at this time still doesn't offer it.
 
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pilot1226 said:
I feel out of place since I'm in the US and it seems like all the posts here are from Europe.

Anyway,

Location: New Jersey, USA
Carrier: Sprint

Family Plan for $110 per month for 2 lines is the best I've seen after work-related discounts.

Pros:
- Calls complete as expected. No excess loss of signal, very rarely drop calls.
- Calls to Customer Service have been answered in less than a minute every time.
- Only US Carrier to offer an Unlimited data plan for the iPhone (T-Mobile does not count until they offer 3G support for the iPhone)
- Free Features like GPS Navigation, Sprint TV (live ESPN, etc.)

Cons:
- CDMA network is considerably slower for data compared to GSM (T-Mobile, AT&T).
- Sprint's data network appears to be slightly slower than Verizon Wireless, which is also CDMA
- Sprint's overall coverage area appears to be less than Verizon's. Again, I never have a problem with making or dropping calls, but I do typically see areas with 3 or 4 bars instead of 5, whereas I used to see 5 bars on Verizon at this location.

I can live without blazing data speeds as long as all the features work on the phone... I don't NEED 10 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up and go racing to my data cap on a competitor.

The main reason we'd switched to Sprint from Verizon in the first place was because they offer a feature where you can have unlimited mobile to ANY carrier mobile minutes. There are minimum plans that have this, so make sure you get one that supports "Any Mobile, Anytime". We've gone down from using around 1000 minutes per month as a family to under 200. AT&T also has this feature now, and I can't stress enough how awesome it is. Unfortunately, Verizon didn't have this and at this time still doesn't offer it.
Click to expand...

thats kind of the way I felt, like US wasn't allowed in this thread
 
TheOriginalKi said:
Try less than £7 cheaper. Which I'll happily pay for 8 times the minutes to other networks and tethering included with my unlimited internet. Also the convenience of not having to fork out 500 quid at once for the handset. I'm not knocking that GiffGaff tariff as I've set-up family members on it, however it's not all black and white when you state your monthly cost of £10 vs my monthly cost of £35.

3UK The One Plan = £35 x 24 + £69 = £909 / 12 = £37.875

GiffGaff PAYG + Price of buying the iPhone 4 = £10 x 24 + £510 = £750 / 12 = £31.25

NOTE. Prices based on the prices at the time I got my iPhone a year ago.
Click to expand...

i guess it comes down to what you use the most, i just use mostly internet based services, i dont need ultra fast connection as 2mb download does me, and i hardly call anyone mostly text as im busy at work, and the benefits of being on payg is that at any time i can sell the phone and not have to keep paying per month, also as i stated if i chose not to top up for up to 2 months after i could also phone giff gaffs users and text them for free, tethering i dont care about, i use my phone for internet on the go, so in reality your plan is a good one, and so is mine, guess it all depends on how you like to roll..


and 3 have by far given the best deal, however the ability to not pay every month suits me better..
 
Location: MO
Carrier: AT&T

Pros:
-Good Call quality, never had a problem hearing someone
-Fast data, i don't need home network speeds but they are good enough for me
-Reasonable Prices, Very similar to Verizon but i get a discount.
-Great Customer Service, haven't had a problem talking to anyone
-Once i start up u-verse in April, i'll be getting a nice discount because i'm a wireless customer

Cons:
-I live in St. Louis which isn't one of their "major" cities, so since i don't live downtown coverage can SOMETIMES be spotty
-don't seem to be getting hspa+ speeds even though their maps show i should be

Honestly i don't have any more cons about AT&T.

I've had service with all 3 major carriers.

Verizon's service at the time i had them (probably about 7-8 years ago) sucked. I had no signal all the time and couldn't stand not being able to text or make calls.
Sprint's customer service was horrendous and the way they handled family plans was a joke.

Now i'm not saying AT&T is perfect, i'd say i drop a call probably once every two months or so, nothing to get pissy about, i just hit call back and its all good.

But as a person who's been with all 3, i like where i'm at with AT&T
 
Network: 3 UK

The One Plan at £35 per month which seems to be a popular plan here.

Cannot fault them at all and the data is truly unlimited.
 
Location: UK
Network: giffgaff

Cost: £10 per month pay as you go...(with option of auto topup if you wish)
........unlimited data, unlimited texts, 250 mins, free giffgaff to giffgaff minutes
Sweet :)
 
AlphaVictor87 said:
Location: MO
Carrier: AT&T

Pros:
-Good Call quality, never had a problem hearing someone
-Fast data, i don't need home network speeds but they are good enough for me
-Reasonable Prices, Very similar to Verizon but i get a discount.
-Great Customer Service, haven't had a problem talking to anyone
-Once i start up u-verse in April, i'll be getting a nice discount because i'm a wireless customer

Cons:
-I live in St. Louis which isn't one of their "major" cities, so since i don't live downtown coverage can SOMETIMES be spotty
-don't seem to be getting hspa+ speeds even though their maps show i should be

Honestly i don't have any more cons about AT&T.

I've had service with all 3 major carriers.

Verizon's service at the time i had them (probably about 7-8 years ago) sucked. I had no signal all the time and couldn't stand not being able to text or make calls.
Sprint's customer service was horrendous and the way they handled family plans was a joke.

Now i'm not saying AT&T is perfect, i'd say i drop a call probably once every two months or so, nothing to get pissy about, i just hit call back and its all good.

But as a person who's been with all 3, i like where i'm at with AT&T
Click to expand...

You might have to call AT&T and make sure you're on the right cellular data setting. I've seen a few posts on the forums where people were erroneously on the regular HSPA 3G data plan instead of the one with HSPA+ enabled speeds. Call technical support, maybe they can check it for you.
 
Location: Berkshire, UK
Network: 3
Price: £15 Pay-as-you-go bolt-on (300 mins, 3000 texts, unlimited internet; effectively a one month rolling contract)

Pros: Best network I've been on (been on O2 and Orange, so it's not saying much!) Only been once without coverage, and the last time I checked it has Orange's 2G network to fall back on if there's no 3G coverage. 80% of the time I get 3-5 bars and 3-6 mbps. Even on one bar, I still get 1-1.5 mbps. The fact that it's truly unlimited is great too. Many people say the customer service is bad, but I have had a relatively stress-free time when calling to the nice people in India :)

Cons: 2G network (Orange's I think) is very slow. I miss visual voicemail from O2, but I don't call much so it's no biggie.
 
pilot1226 said:
You might have to call AT&T and make sure you're on the right cellular data setting. I've seen a few posts on the forums where people were erroneously on the regular HSPA 3G data plan instead of the one with HSPA+ enabled speeds. Call technical support, maybe they can check it for you.
Click to expand...

Well i've seen the posts talking about this and they said the difference is that you would either see "DataPro 2GB for iPhone 4" or "DataPro 2GB for iPhone 4s" and i've checked and mine does have the 4s.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.1; en-gb; Galaxy Nexus Build/ITL41F) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

Not on an iPhone but I'm on Three UK and "the one plan".

Pros:
Signal is fantatic where I live (south east UK) and I get some blazing speeds (fastest is 10meg, averages at around 6 meg).

49365831


In fact, we've cancelled our landline based broadband (average speed 512k to 3meg) and use the unlimited data as our only source of internet access.

Cons:
Three are a 3g only network with no (or very little) 2g fallback. In most cases, no 3g = no signal.

My wife has an iPhone 4 on Orange UK.

Pros:
Magic Numbers lets her speak to family and friends for very little cost.

Cons:
3g signal in our area is flaky (this is not related to her handset as I was on Orange prior to moving to Three and had poor 3g reception too)
500MB data plan.
 
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