I'm currently with T-Mobile on a rolling contract. I think I can get a better deal with Virgin as I'm a Virgin Media customer.

Is there any difference in coverage at all given Virgin uses the T-Mobile network? Are Virgin customers benefitting from the Orange coverage at the moment?

To answer your latter question, no.

I assume they will once full integration happens?

I was told in our local Virgin media shop that Virgin customers will hopefully get access tothe Orange network "later this year"......

Have a look here, towards the bottom:

http://www.virginmediapeople.com/changes/JV15/

I have been with T Mobile all my mobile life. I found to begin with that the reception on their network was shocking, but this has not been the case since Orange and T Mobile have teamed up. For sure, it's not the best reception found out there (I believe that that accolade belongs to Vodafone) but it's also not the worse.

I have 2 friends that are with Virgin as their mobile provider as they do have some of the best deals out there on mobiles. They have said that the phone reception though is shocking; in some cases matching the likes of 3!

Both my wife and my phones are on Virgin Media. Her phone displays "Virgin" where mine has always displayed "T Mobile". Wonder if this makes any difference to roaming to Orange?

I think so. T Mobile's 3G isn't perfect. If I want 3G mobile broadband in my house, I have to go upstairs. That does not happen very often though as I have an iPhone so I hook up via wifi.

I was with them for 18 months and they have the worst customer service teams of all the networks I've been on, yes worst than 3.