[DBC]

I am glad to see that no one has voted for BT mobile. As you can see from my other post on this board their customer service is terrible. It is not unknown to have to wait 15 minutes for someone to answer the phone and e-mails take a week to be answered. Not bad for a major communications company !

I am pleased to see that the company I have chosen to switch to ( Virgin Mobile ) rates highly. Roll on the beginning of December when I can cancel my BT contract and switch to Virgin.

[wavejockglw]

If the 3 network actually worked to an acceptable standard then I guess at less than £100 for a year with 500 X/Net mins a month and a free handset it'd be the winner hands down.

Sadly it does'nt and calls and data are a lucky bag - so for now the best deals seem to be on the GSM networks. There are some stunning 1/2 price contract deals on nice phones with off-peak free minutes that depending on your usage pattern could just about match the unuseable 3 deals.

[sean2003]

Virgin will have bundels available on 18th, or 20th ( not yet sure )

And as far as i know these are likely to be the options available:

£7.50 40mins
£7.50 100 SMS
£7.50 20mins & 30 SMS
£7.50 70 SMS & 10 MMS

£10 60mins
£10 200 SMS
£10 30mins & 60 SMS
£10 120 SMS & 15 MMS

£14 100mins
£14 400 SMS
£14 40mins & 100 SMS
£14 200 SMS & 20 MMS

£24 200mins
£24 800 SMS
£24 100mins & 200 SMS
£24 500 SMS & 30 MMS

Minutes are crossnet and onnet, and they rollover.

[Steven L Hunter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean2003

Virgin will have bundels available on 18th, or 20th ( not yet sure )

And as far as i know these are likely to be the options available:

£7.50 40mins
£7.50 100 SMS
£7.50 20mins & 30 SMS
£7.50 70 SMS & 10 MMS

£10 60mins
£10 200 SMS
£10 30mins & 60 SMS
£10 120 SMS & 15 MMS

£14 100mins
£14 400 SMS
£14 40mins & 100 SMS
£14 200 SMS & 20 MMS

£24 200mins
£24 800 SMS
£24 100mins & 200 SMS
£24 500 SMS & 30 MMS

Minutes are crossnet and onnet, and they rollover.

Are these confirmed?

[sean2003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevenGray16

Are these confirmed?

Virgin are yet to confirm them 100%, but its likely to be about right

[Steven L Hunter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean2003

Virgin are yet to confirm them 100%, but its likely to be about right

Ok thanks for the info!

[takot]

3 is easily the best, im not saying that cos u probably think people who buy them hav load of money, but they dont, i works out the cheapest of all networks!!! Honest, take a look if you done belive me.
As an e.g
75 texts for £5, for 75 texts normally it would cost £7.50, as texts are around 10p, but not on threepay. Check it out now!

[sean2003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by takot

3 is easily the best, im not saying that cos u probably think people who buy them hav load of money, but they dont, i works out the cheapest of all networks!!! Honest, take a look if you done belive me.
As an e.g
75 texts for £5, for 75 texts normally i would cost 7.50, as texts are around 10p, but not on threepay. Check it out now!

I've checked it out, uncle has it and a mate does, uncles calls keep getting cut off, and mate cant get ANY signal in her house on it. No good for users who dont want to pay 50p ( 15 a month ) a day for a phone they may not want to use all the time.

[takot]

no, im just saying its good value, but it is only good for medium, to high users and in a good signal area. But its still good aint it?

[beavis]

I've just gone onto 3, and I'm in a voice and text area. So far no problems. Are the problems with 3 mentioned on this forum in the full 3G areas only or all over the country?

[DBC]

I think one of the problems with 3 is the coverage They are still building and commissioning base stations so things should get better. One problem is the NIMBY s who don't want transmitters built near them , even though many of these people use mobile phones.

[mysterymermaid]

We live in a rural location and our next door neighbour is a dairy farmer..He has just had a mast put right next to the milking parlour..can see it from the back of our house...

[takot]

thats bad. they could of put the transmitter somewhere else me thinks. Anyway, if lots of people buy "3" then the service will get better by far, but if your not in a 3g area, then around 99% of the country can still use the 2g services, which "3" offers, just like a normal mobile

[sam.jones30]

I prefer orange than all other networks. There call quality is great and their customer service is fantastic! I'm on orange and o2 though, and i only use the o2 sim for wap surfing as it is free, but the call quality and reception is abismal. If orange offered 300 free wap mins per month, i would use orange all the time. Still, a fantastic network though!!!!

[dvs]

Based on my past experience of various operators, I would say that Orange is the best. Sure, Orange has it's faults but my overall experience of Orange is that it offers the best service and support. It's a shame that existing customers do not benefit from the same deals the new customers do. In some respects, you are better off moving networks every year to get a free phone and a good promotional tariff.

One question I have that you guys might be able to answer: When you receive a voicemail notification on O2 or Vodafone, do you still get a text message or do you get a voicemail icon/message like with Orange and T Mobile?

[sam.jones30]

still, my friend was on 3, and evrytime it switched from 3g to 2g or vice verse, it cut him off. Customer service was in India, and didnt knw about the phones!!! Texts didn't get sent and it was basically just terrible. He ended up writing to the director and getting his contract ended after 6 months!

[barker14]

As ive already said i believe orange is the best network, however if anyone from orange is reading this your email leaves a lot to be desired!!!!
I wanted to use it so i could recieve free email alerts on my phone but its so slow and always throws up the odd error. Does anyone else find this?

Paul

[beavis]

I'm on 3 in a 2.5g area and no problems so far. It's like being on o2 (which I was on before) but cheaper and with more inclusive minutes. And you can get standard SMS delivery reports, which you can't do with o2. Also o2 provide the best coverage in my area.

In answer to dvs's question, when you receive a voicemail on o2 you get a text message. Don't know about Vodafone, but just left myself a voicemail on 3 and received a text message. Whether it's different in a 3g area, I don't know.

[pje1979]

I am with Orange an very happy. I am on the 300 minutes to landlines and Orange phones and 500 texts/ month deal. Orange has the best coverage in my area of Scarborough. Only problem I have with them is they keep charging me for not paying by direct debit when that is how I pay, so I have to keep phoning CS to get the charge refunded!

[Sucmedic]

Orange - because the signal quality is fantastic and the customer serivce is amazing - always help out, very short time on hold and always call back when promised.

[takot]

people, wake up and smell the..(insert what you like), 3 is by far much better value than any of the other networks......this can be proven!

[mattworld]

That'll be why the ASA uphelp 8 complaints about 3's missleading adverts comparing their tariffs to other mobile networks then.

I fail to see how 3 can always be better value. It depends upon what you call 'value' really and a number of other factors. Personally I find I get much better value from my Vodafone and Orange contracts than I would a 3 contract.

[Steven L Hunter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by takot

people, wake up and smell the..(insert what you like), 3 is by far much better value than any of the other networks......this can be proven!

Wake up! £15 for 50 minutes + the £5 allowance, that is expensive especially when calls are 30p/min when the minutes have been used up and it expires after 30days, Virgin have 100 minutes for £14 and they roll over if you dont use them all in the month so no expiry plus calls are from 15p/min for first 5 mins then 5p after minutes are used up!

[takot]

i was talking about threepay, but think about it, there is a price plan, where you spend £15, get 25 voice minutes, 100 texts, and £1.50 cerdit, this is a very good deal. As iv compared it to t-mobile, where 3 is much better. Then theres virgin, vodofone, bt mobile, and then it is very close between the three 3, orange, and o2, they are very similar to their great values.
But.....3 also gives you a great handset(maybe a bit bulky, but they are always getting better!)

[mattworld]

I get 100 minutes and 100 text messages from Vodafone for £18 a month, plus the minutes roll over, OK so its a contract phone, but the threepay tariff is equivalent to one of their contract ones. Vodafone's is a much better tariff than 3's in my opinion. I also find Vodafones customer care to be good (better than my sister has had with 3) and make use of their value added services, such as vodafone mail. Most of the Value added stuff I use 3 don't even offer & what they do offer instead I wouldn't use. I also refuse to have a large handset, the smaller the better for me. If you count 'value' as how many minutes and texts you get and ignore all the rest of the product you are paying for then 3 is good value, but looking at the whole thing, it really depends upon what you use. 3 Would be useless for me in anycase, even if they gave away line rental and calls as I find it difficult to get an O2 signal and I'm not in 3's coverage at all.

PAYG wise, I still don't think you can beat virgin on the whole, especially with their new bundles.