[Glennster2003]

Reluctantly, I'm having to move my iPhone from Orange, as their SIM-only plans aren't very competitively priced.

I'm considering joining Giffgaff or Three.

Can anyone tell me if, when I'm out of 3G coverage on Three and it roams onto Orange, will I get Edge or GPRS data?

I go back home to Cornwall quite a bit and Orange coverage fills in a lot of spaces for Three there.

Also, anything else I need to know about Three on iPhone?

[battlezone]

I thought 3 & Orange stopped sharing their signals a while ago???

My iP4 works fine where I live on 3G. Tethering is also possible and works fine on my W7 PC's.

[Glennster2003]

In areas where you don't get 3G, do you get Edge or GPRS?

[WelshBluebird]

It depends on the area. I am on Orange and most of the time I am on a 2G network with them it ends up being GPRS. They don't seem to have many EDGE enabled areas. At least that is the case in south wales and somerset anyway.

As for Three, I believe it will roam onto either. So if the orange cell you connect to is EDGE, then you will get that. If its not, you'll get GPRS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by battlezone

I thought 3 & Orange stopped sharing their signals a while ago???

Depends on the area. Some places Three is happy enough with their own coverage to scrap the roaming arrangement. In others, due to different reasons, Threes coverage is still pretty poor and so they still allow the roaming onto Orange there.

[Thine Wonk]

Make sure if you are on three and using an iphone that you enable data roaming otherwise data won't work if it falls back to GPRS / EDGE.

A lot of areas don't fall back to 2G now on Three, but some do. I was at a service station on the M5 the other day and very unusually there was no 3G and it went back to 2G with data.

[Redcoat]

In my neck of the woods, 3 still fall on to Orange for 2.5G roaming, and data still works.

[moox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glennster2003

I go back home to Cornwall quite a bit and Orange coverage fills in a lot of spaces for Three there.

How recently did you last try 3's coverage?

Over the past year, 3 has improved their coverage dramatically here in Cornwall. I actually get 3G more often than not, and that's in quite rural places too.

You'd probably not want to go with Giffgaff, as they use O2's network and so you'll never get 3G coverage and it probably won't be great even when you do get it.

T-Mobile may be worth considering as they have pretty much the same coverage as 3, but T-Mobile will seamlessly roam onto their 2G network whereas 3 will not seamlessly roam onto Orange's 2G network - data will stop and calls will hang up.

I have not actually had EDGE coverage that often, but IIRC when I was with 3 for my phone (my laptop is set to 3G only), it would roam onto Orange's EDGE network (where available).

[Glennster2003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moox

How recently did you last try 3's coverage?

Over the past year, 3 has improved their coverage dramatically here in Cornwall. I actually get 3G more often than not, and that's in quite rural places too.

You'd probably not want to go with Giffgaff, as they use O2's network and so you'll never get 3G coverage and it probably won't be great even when you do get it.

T-Mobile may be worth considering as they have pretty much the same coverage as 3, but T-Mobile will seamlessly roam onto their 2G network whereas 3 will not seamlessly roam onto Orange's 2G network - data will stop and calls will hang up.

I have not actually had EDGE coverage that often, but IIRC when I was with 3 for my phone (my laptop is set to 3G only), it would roam onto Orange's EDGE network (where available).

There's no 3 3G signal where my folks live, so the Orange 2G fall-back is pretty important. Not a seamless roam though? Sounds annoying.

I'd love to go to T-Mobile, especially as they'll also be sharing 3G with Orange later on this year - but the 500MB internet allowance is too low for me at the moment. I regularly use around 800MB a month.

I'm told Virgin will also start using Everything Everywhere's complete network (i.e. Orange 2G & 3G and T-Mobile 2G & 3G) later on this year. Maybe I'll go with them then.

[Glennster2003]

http://www.three.co.uk/Pay_As_You_Go/Add_ons
Anyone know if those minutes include voicemail? Or would I have to top-up more that the £15 for that?

Otherwise, unlimited data makes it look better value than
the £15 SIM-only 30 day option:
http://www.three.co.uk/Phones/iPhone/SIM_Only

[Lummo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glennster2003

http://www.three.co.uk/Pay_As_You_Go/Add_ons
Anyone know if those minutes include voicemail? Or would I have to top-up more that the £15 for that?

Otherwise, unlimited data makes it look better value than
the £15 SIM-only 30 day option:
http://www.three.co.uk/Phones/iPhone/SIM_Only

Calling voicemail just comes out of the free minutes

[Glennster2003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lummo

Calling voicemail just comes out of the free minutes

Cool. Think I'll give that a whirl first.