Well, I liked Voda, but the voicemail peed me off! I hated cellnet as overseas calling on PAYG used a ridiculous callback system. Then Orange, I have been with 5 years, normally excellent, though in the last few months they have been really pissing me off! So now I am changing to "3" we shall see what they are like, but I don't have high hopes! But with the price of the tariffs!!!

I think the most annoying thing about Orange was the fact it took forever to get through to c/s and their c/s used an 07973 number, so it was quite expensive to call them (short code: 150 from Orange phones).

I take it your on Contract/Pay Monthly?. For Pas as you go users, i dont have to do that. Just free-phone 450, and then wait till it says directing you to customer services. No need to use the 079 number!
Thanh

I'm on orange contract, and I dial 150 for c/s, it is charged at an orange-orange call. If you want to call an orange "short call" number from a landline, you put "07973 100" in front of it, so for you, customer services would be 07973 100 450. For me it is 07973 100 150.

For you it might be charged, but for pay as yo go its nto. If you dial 450 from your PAUG handset, you are set up with a list of places you can dial. You have to wait 30 seconds to be trasnfered to a orange customer rep. That what i always do when i need help.
Thanh

I started off on T-mobile (back when it was one2one) cos of the free weekend calls (that was a long time ago!!!) but the signal quality was notoriously bad. (IS IT STILL THAT BAD?)

Changed to O2, which was a big improvement, and customer services were better. But i was still on contract, and wasting a lot of money. The number porting from one2one to O2 was awful, i was without a line for 24 hours, and both networks blamed each other.

Changed to Voda pay as you go, and got a free sim card (because i ported my number). Number porting was excellent, with a good overlap of half an hour (when my number was actually on both networks!!). Got my free 2.50 bonus within the first month. BUT............this is the best bit: I HAVE NEVER, in my 2 years on voda payt, NEVER HAD TO PHONE CUSTOMER SERVICES!!!

So Voda gets the thumbs up.

Ive never personally been on Orange, but my mum has. I called them and told them i was gonna cancel the contract, so what did they do? Gave me three months line rental for free. Ornage cust serv seem to be the best, i remember there was a direct line through to them (was it 452??) where u didnt have to go through the automated system first (press 1 etc...) and there was no queue to get through!! They didnt publicise that number though.

Orange contract now charge you for cust serv????? OOOOO, time to change network!!

I've never been charged for calling 150 (I'm on YourPlan 120)

I would have to say Virgin as they have always been a good network and are generous with their free airtime giveouts!

Virgin re-sell the t-mobile network. Which is famous for having the worst network coverage in the UK.

Other than that....

It works in my area so i'm not bothered. I hate T-Mobile because i think they are too expensive for their calls.

Virgin works brilliant in my area, and they work on the 1800 band, not the 900 which o2 stil does, i find call quality on o2 is much worse that virgin.

Orange, o2. T-Mobile, and Vodafone cover 99% of UK .

I believe that t-mobile coverage is only 97% which makes it the provider with the worst coverage in the UK

(ither than 3, which has 99% voice roaming with O2, but only 77% 3G coverage)

Oi! in my case having a fellow scot on the phone makes life so much easier!
I must admit I am a fan of T-Mobile myself. OK reception isn't great compared to orange or voda in Glasgow but 99% of the time I have no problems, while at my parents house on other side of the country Orange and Voda don't get a signal at all.

However getting retailer discount on the contract since I work for a national retailer who shall remain nameless softens the deal somewhat (no discounts on O2 or Vodafone, booo! )

I was with Orange for NINE years nearly since there start and they never let me down! Billing, replacement phone or otherwise.

I move to Vodafone this year (Carphone Warehouse are the airtime providers) get a Sharp GX20 and have been dogged by problems.

You name it they've cocked it up (CPW Airtime) not Vodafone, customer service is horrendous, they can't bill properly, you cant manage your minutes and they even forgot to activate my phone!! on port day (not bad going for the first FOUR months)

The Sharp has packed up, but was EVENTUALLY repaired so Im going back to Orange when my contract's up.

Got a Three Pay jobbie and so far besides the odd network glitch it's been fine.

In terms of coverage arguments, remember that 99% MEANS UK population NOT land mass!!

Following my previous message, I don't know what's happened to Vodafone since I was last with them but so far I've been disappointed.

Okay, the phone arrived by courier Saturday morning. So far, so good.

However, the SIM card still wasn't activated at 5pm yesterday. So, after double-checking the web site to ensure that I had remembered correctly that the SIM card was supposed to be activated automatically on the day of delivery, and after spending some time trying to find the correct contact details, I rang up the customer services number (on a national rate number on the landline, I might add) to resolve this. The first time I was bounced between departments then cut off. The second time I was told the department to which I needed to speak was closed (though they did kindly let me know what the opening times were).

So I tried again at 10am today (when the department was open again, supposedly). After having a nightmare with their call queueing service I gave up and rang the 191 number (still on the national rate number on the landline) and asked to be transferred. They told me my number was scheduled to be activated today (Sunday) and that I should try it every hour or so.

Okay, I thought, no biggie. Except that it's now 2am Monday and the damned phone still doesn't work. I am really not impressed.

I won't say this is the last time I have anything to do with Vodafone, because I know from my own past experience and other people's present experience that they're usually pretty good, but it's certainly put me off ordering a phone from them online.

Well, go checking the facts, i went to all those website's to find that information. It states on the t-mobile site, its 99%

Has to be o2.

Been with them for 3 or so years nowm and can't fault them (apart from the coverage in Cornwall).

I have a work phone on Orange, and that has a very dodgy reception in certain built up areas in Sussex.

Also on the 789 number on Virgin it says in one of the menus "virgin mobile covers 99% of the uk population.."

ive had all the networks and BT Cellnet were quite good. When I had Vodafone, I couldnt get good reception. Im with Tmobile and have found that they are ok. Most people I know are on tmobile and the offpeak allowance comes in handy.
im with orange aswell and i hate it. their c/s is good, but i dnt like the idea of payin for voicemail and also their allowance enquiry is like 24 hours behind (which mislead me to believe I had sufficient minutes to make calls and resulted in a HEFTY bill!). Also, i thought 150 was free on orange? i would be peed off if they started chargin for it.
I think PAYG is rip off on all networks if you make alot of calls. maybe it works out roughly the same as contract but with contract, u may get other little benefits like free txt and probably a better handset.

And you do on Pay as you go. My txt saver was free in the sun, but you get 5 free txts a day for £20.00 a year.

Thanh

PAYG isn't really designed for heavy mobile users. Its best application is for people who use their mobile very occasionally (in other words, for whom even the minimum £15-a-month charge on a contract is uneconomical).

Vodafone are the best!

I've been with Vodafone for the majority of my 'mobile' life, had a quick stint on O2 which I found expensive, but otherwise ok, then back onto Vodafone. I had no problems with the general day-to-day service, great text bundles etc but found they weren't that bothered keeping me as a customer so I moved to Orange in January.

Afterwards I was dogged with bad number porting from Vodafone plus endlessly ringing up to cancel my contract, being told it was cancelled only to get another bill soon after. They hadn't released my number properly after a few months turns out??!

So far everything has been great from Orange, love the free minutes and customer service is always very informative. I also like the fact i can change my Price Plan and check my inclusive minutes anytime.

I just got the sharp gx 30 phone on vodafone (of course) and i dont think there the best network. Ive been on every network and find vodafone to be one of the worst. They say they have good signal strength but my phone keeps going no service. One minute the signal is top and then goes to no service a few seconds later. I could not rely on vodafone and the price plans arent that cheap. After my contract is up, you wont see me with another vodafone mobile.