Just noticed the big push on this in the store and it seems like the auto renew bundle is good value for money. I know they use Vodafone as a network and I'm assuming don't offer 4g as it only talks about 2g / 3g.

Has anyone had any experience of this network? Is it worth considering or in a different league when it comes to supermarkets and mobile phones?

They piggyback on Vodafone so expect good nationwide coverage. However, unlike Vodafone Sainsuby's Mobile don't offer 4G yet. Maybe they will in the future though.

Vodafone typically performs very badly for 3G though, don't take my word for it take a look at independent test sites like Root Metrics and others.

Edited for accuracy....

No no no.

I think it's worth considering as the Vodafone is very good. The latest prices are very competitive if you set up a rolling bundle (which is nothing really).

£8
300 mins
500 MB
Unlimited Texts

£10
500 mins
1 GB
Unlimited Texts

£12
800 mins
2 GB
Unlimited Texts

Compared to Giffgaff, which offers:

£7.50
200 mins
250 MB
Unlimited Texts

£10
500 mins
1 GB
Unlimited Texts

£12
500 mins
3 GB
Unlimited Texts

I tested sainsburys mobile but had missed calls and so times people have problems calling me I think it might be Vodafone customers get priority on the network / cell site when busy

A shame really that they offer no 4g and no option to buy more data, But ok for light users

Some of the Root Metrics reports showed call failure rates of 8 or 10% in some areas. That wasn't the only research to highlight that issue either. In most research (excluding their 4G performance) they perform poorly for 3G data and for call reliability.

Rubbish, RM said everyone was good for calls and texts.
EE And Three being a bit better because its them who cover smaller places like Rutland a bit more.
They also said that EE rolled out their 4G a few months ahead of the rest.

Ignoring your locality and just paying through the nose instead can really bite.

No they didn't, the national report.

http://www.rootmetrics.com/uk/blog/s...review-2014-uk



Call performance
Vodafone 6
O2 11
Three 13
EE 13

"It said mobile internet performance is "currently a two-horse race" with EE and Three scoring 85.5 and 82.7 respectively, putting them well ahead of O2 (68.1) and Vodafone (67.0)"


"EE came out best in terms of calls and texts, but RootMetrics said all four networks showed strong results in both these categories."

""It seems as though the gap is narrowing in terms of the main operators in the UK," he told the BBC."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28837671
""All of the networks will be in a fairly similar position this time next year, because they will be deploying 4G more widely."

Notice the a faint hint of a mention of an Ofom report too. But the one that is spoon fed is the Rootmetrics one courtesy of EE .

The difference between 6 and 12 sounds a lot to me, if you look at the bits I put in bold, they specifically highlight the blocked calls being responsible, which is what I was refering to when I replied to this poster.



It isn't just the fact it's a MVNO, in some Vodafone areas (read the individual reports) the average blocked call rate is 10%, meaning 10% of calls fail to get connected and go to voicemail, or if they are outbound you get "call failed" and you have to re-dial.

I did not know that , I have been connected on a lot of older 2g masts and gprs is so slow or does not work on them at all,

There is a vodafone site not far from me 2g only which is linked via microwave and the cover is missing on it and its in a right neglected state but in know its on the roll out plan for 4g upgrade soon,

Having been on Vodafone for work for over 2 years, the feeling in the office is that Vodafone is a "voice network" with occasional 3G in towns. No use for WhatsApp, iMessage, or Facebook messenger or similar due to the lack of data on 2G.

4G will solve the problem, but you need to be on a 4G price plan and be in a 4G area.

When Vodafone eventually upgrade their 3G and 2G offerings it won't be a bad network, its just their 2G data is unusable.

2G data has been unusable on all networks for some time, and it's only really once a site is upgraded for 4G with the necessary backhaul upgrades that 2G becomes usable (I've actually had some pretty good EDGE speeds on EE recently).

Thing is, once you've got good 3G and 4G, you likely don't need 2G anyway.

Obviously anyone with a 2G only phone that has data (and uses data) will benefit, and I bet there are loads of them still around.

If a Voda / o2 site is upgraded for 4g will it also have 900mhz 3g or will they stick with just 2100mhz 3g? if the old site had 2100mhz 3g?

If it were a purely 2100 site which there are a few of when they upgrade the antennas to support 800 to 2100/2600 then they might deploy 3G900 but if it is already a 2G/3G site and they are not already, unlikely and to be honest pretty pointless as 900 being used for 3G nowadays ie much higher data usage and Vodafones 900 spectrum being very limited, speeds are slow especially at Peak. I've witnessed the 900 masts offloading/reducing coverage to deal with the traffic so much at peak times that it renders it not very useful and you should get similar coverage with 4G800 rendering it a rather futile exercise. (ie 2G900 for voice, 4G800 for data)

They just need to pull the finger out. As I've said before and others here believe they could be the biggest competition to EE and they shouted this out loud themselves at the start but so far have not caught up.