couple of questions just joined virgin mobile on a sim only deal using my galaxy nexus.
do i need to have data roaming enabled to ensure a hand over between virgin and orange ( i have at the min)
also ive noted when i appear to be on orange i get the small v in virgin. when this happens my data speeds are terrible despite been hsdpa+ they run at gprs speeds is this normal.

thanks in advance

No, you don't need data roaming enabled.

Sadly speeds on Orange seem to be worse than compared to T-Mobile. Although when I used to have a T-Mobile contract, at work my speeds crippled to about 0.01mbps on both networks.

thanks for that ive turned data roaming off now wasnt sure if i could still get the net when on orange without data roaming been on.
yes the speeds i get on orange are terrible the hand over back to virgin is none existent as well i seem to have to toogle airplane mode to get it to re connect to virgin

Orange sites that are being kept are currently going through a upgrade phase leading some to having reduced range, variable speeds and general weird things going on. By Summer time things should, UK wide be more stable.

makes sense re the speeds im seeing as phone says im connected hdspa+ but im barely getting gprs speeds when on orange

As it goes I've always had T-Mobile 3G at home but weak signal, since the other day it's now stronger but the same speed, why could that be?