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Anyone using BT Mobile? What are peoples thoughts?


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Old 31-12-2015, 18:43
ozz
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BT Mobile works out just fine for my parents.

They both have iPhone 5 so the 4G1800 is a bonus to them having been on T-Mobile 3G tariffs for years.

With the BT Broadband discount they're paying less a month than they were doing, extra 1GB more of data and 4G.

Both phone numbers ported on time so no complaints here
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Old 31-12-2015, 18:51
DevonBloke
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The old chestnut. If allowed to tether, then on average people will use more data and are more likely to reach their quota. The business model is predicated on the fact that give people 20GB and on average they will use far less than that.



Yes, that's what I've just said above. However, it's not cynical, it's a perfectly reasonable business model. If everyone who went into Red Hot Buffet ate 8 platefuls they would go out of business.

As it happens, I would like to move to BT from EE, but it's the tethering that stops me. And it's not because I want to use oodles of data, just occasionally want to browse and email when in the car, but I accept BT's business model so I won't be going that way.
The thing is though, is it really?
I can actually see what you're saying and it may be that BT think that running out of data is seen as a bad thing, i.e, the network isn't giving me enough so it's their fault.
I get that, but I still think the businessman in me would say, when you run out you can simply buy some more! But you can't accidentally go over your limit "and remember kids, tethering uses loads so be careful"!!
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Old 31-12-2015, 18:54
mrMick
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20GB has been more than enough for. Most i've used was about 3GB when I was away from home. Other than that, all is well.
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:43
tdenson
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Stupid comment, it is cynical or they wouldn't add restrictions to a fixed allowance. "You've got a 20GB allowance but we'll do our damndest to stop you using it!"

Tell me, what's the real difference between tethering an iPad for SkyGo or watching it on a 6s Plus? Or using my Android phone to download 5GB of files instead of the laptop?

If they allocate the allowance as 20GB then the customer should be able to use the 20GB they have paid for.

Deciding to become defensive on behalf of the networks with a "that old chestnut" is just [insert insult to question intelligence here]...
I'm not being defensive on behalf of the networks, and I'd rather you didn't call me stupid. It's just a plain old business model as used by many industries.
The point is that the bigger the screen, the more likely you are to watch movies on it, just a fact of life. I can't say I've ever watched a movie on my phone as I would always rather have a bigger screen.
As another analogy, if everyone who bought an unlimited day rover ticket on London transport spent all day riding trains then it would soon prove an uneconomical option for London Transport and they would withdraw it. This same sort of things happens in all sorts of different business scenarios. Ski resorts give you unlimited use of the lifts, but if everyone spent all day riding the lifts, the price of a pass would soon go up.
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:46
mupet0000
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I've been on BT Mobile for a day now. It's safe to say that it's a cheap version of EE. You lose out on:
1. Tethering
2. WiFi Calling
3. VoLTE + Band 20[800MHz] (soon to be public with EE afaik)
4. Visual Voicemail
5. Speeds above 30mbps down or 15mbps up

Below BTs speed limits, network performance seems exactly the same as EE. Currently in my house I'm getting between 10-20mbps on both BT and EE. I do prefer the BT Mobile apps compared to the EE ones, they seem to work better for me, I prefer the BT website for changing account settings too.

In the long run, VoLTE+800MHz is the major issue here. I can deal with everything else, but losing out on band 20 and VoLTE isn't something I want. My contract with BT is for 12 months, I would expect in a years time that EE would have VoLTE+800 properly established and I may well pay the premium to get a handset contract with them for the extra data. Unless BT gets VoLTE, but I don't see that happening in the next year.
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:47
tdenson
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The thing is though, is it really?
I can actually see what you're saying and it may be that BT think that running out of data is seen as a bad thing, i.e, the network isn't giving me enough so it's their fault.
I get that, but I still think the businessman in me would say, when you run out you can simply buy some more! But you can't accidentally go over your limit "and remember kids, tethering uses loads so be careful"!!
What I do think would be a reasonable approach and one I would sign up for would be a tethering option whereby one spends say £1 per GB extra when tethering.
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:51
d123
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I'm not being defensive on behalf of the networks, and I'd rather you didn't call me stupid.

Snipped argument not even worth answering
Are you someone who doesn't know the difference between someone calling a comment stupid and calling you stupid?

It's a bit pointless arguing with someone who struggles with the basics, so I won't bother.
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:54
ozz
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Can you use band 7 lte (2600MHz) on BT Mobile?
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:55
lightspeed2398
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I think it's fair enough when limit tethering on Unlimited data because otherwise people will just use it as a fixed broadband connection. If they are offering 20GB and allowing people to use it then they should allow people to use it as they want. However as tdenson has said they have built their current business model presumably around people not using the whole allowance, whether you think it's right or wrong.
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Old 31-12-2015, 19:57
Ben_Fisher
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I've been on BT Mobile for a day now. It's safe to say that it's a cheap version of EE. You lose out on:
1. Tethering
2. WiFi Calling
3. VoLTE + Band 20[800MHz] (soon to be public with EE afaik)
4. Visual Voicemail
5. Speeds above 30mbps down or 15mbps up

Below BTs speed limits, network performance seems exactly the same as EE. Currently in my house I'm getting between 10-20mbps on both BT and EE. I do prefer the BT Mobile apps compared to the EE ones, they seem to work better for me, I prefer the BT website for changing account settings too.

In the long run, VoLTE+800MHz is the major issue here. I can deal with everything else, but losing out on band 20 and VoLTE isn't something I want. My contract with BT is for 12 months, I would expect in a years time that EE would have VoLTE+800 properly established and I may well pay the premium to get a handset contract with them for the extra data. Unless BT gets VoLTE, but I don't see that happening in the next year.
As someone who doesn't call it leaves tethering and speeds above 30mbps.

I rarely get above 30mbps and i'm 99% sure that 30mbps would cover ALL my needs. Can stream anything with that (1440p youtube?). Also tethering is a bummer if I ever needed it but not used it in the last 12 months with EE.

EDIT: Also I can't imagine anything majorly changing in 12 months, and after that I can switch again!

I have a Nexus 6P and EE never supported wi-fi calling like they promised anyway.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:00
mupet0000
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I'm not being defensive on behalf of the networks, and I'd rather you didn't call me stupid. It's just a plain old business model as used by many industries.
The point is that the bigger the screen, the more likely you are to watch movies on it, just a fact of life. I can't say I've ever watched a movie on my phone as I would always rather have a bigger screen.
As another analogy, if everyone who bought an unlimited day rover ticket on London transport spent all day riding trains then it would soon prove an uneconomical option for London Transport and they would withdraw it. This same sort of things happens in all sorts of different business scenarios. Ski resorts give you unlimited use of the lifts, but if everyone spent all day riding the lifts, the price of a pass would soon go up.
You are completely right. BT can offer 20GB plans, that doesn't mean they want everyone on them to use 20GB every month. Not allowing tethering means for sure that data usage will be less. EE allow tethering, yet offer half the data allowance. It sure adds up.

I don't think EE's network would be as fast as it is if they didn't control it the way they do. Look at Three's network, they used to offer unlimited data + tethering and now they give you a tethering allowance, because they don't want to you use as much data as you can when you tether. Still, their network is much slower than EE and congested in many places. In Central London I often find that Three 4G doesn't even work.

If you give out tetherable plans with huge data allowances, people will buy them and use them. That's not necessarily a good thing for network performance. They do what they can to limit data usage while being able to offer plans that look attractive to customers.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:02
d'@ve
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At £5 a month for 200 minutes (I usually use about 150), unlimited texts and 500GB data, which I rarely use, it's a bargain for me. I save more than the £5 I pay by being on a lower BT landline tariff so it;'s as if they pay me to use their mobile!
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:05
mupet0000
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As someone who doesn't call it leaves tethering and speeds above 30mbps.

I rarely get above 30mbps and i'm 99% sure that 30mbps would cover ALL my needs. Can stream anything with that (1440p youtube?). Also tethering is a bummer if I ever needed it but not used it in the last 12 months with EE.

EDIT: Also I can't imagine anything majorly changing in 12 months, and after that I can switch again!

I have a Nexus 6P and EE never supported wi-fi calling like they promised anyway.
Well I am streaming 1080p 60fps YouTube right now and it's buffering way ahead of the video so absolutely no problems with the speed cap. As for tethering, if you don't use it, you aren't losing out.
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Old 31-12-2015, 20:40
Ben_Fisher
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Well I am streaming 1080p 60fps YouTube right now and it's buffering way ahead of the video so absolutely no problems with the speed cap. As for tethering, if you don't use it, you aren't losing out.
Just tested. Streams 1440p fine on my phone and buffers quite a bit ahead. That's my biggest use case.
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Old 31-12-2015, 21:41
DevonBloke
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Also I can't imagine anything majorly changing in 12 months, and after that I can switch again!
The next 12 months is going to be mental.
EE basically have to get their network to 90% geo and 99% population by Feb 2017 or near to it.
It was going to be by the end of 2017 but they won the emergency services contract.
Queue, changing up 3 gears and flooring it....
It is my prediction that by this time next year we will have nearly every mast doing 4G1800 with power cranked up to near 2G levels.
This alone would be pretty amazing but also most of those 800 masts will be up and running too. I bet half of them are already, just not yet accessible.
Anyone with a VoLTE 800 handset is going to be in mobile heaven.
However, that will be the perfect time to change!
Mind you BT might have changed their options by then.
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Old 01-01-2016, 15:11
mupet0000
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Can you use band 7 lte (2600MHz) on BT Mobile?
I can confirm that yes you can indeed use band 7 2600MHz on BT Mobile:
http://i.imgur.com/j0h3ZQJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/yrc7loj.png

iPhones don't show 4G+, they will only ever say 4G (unless Apple changes this), but it's definitely connected to 2600MHz.
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Old 01-01-2016, 16:09
ozz
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I can confirm that yes you can indeed use band 7 2600MHz on BT Mobile:
http://i.imgur.com/j0h3ZQJ.png
http://i.imgur.com/yrc7loj.png

iPhones don't show 4G+, they will only ever say 4G (unless Apple changes this), but it's definitely connected to 2600MHz.
That's good to know, thanks for finding this out 👍🏻
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Old 01-01-2016, 16:15
jchamier
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iPhones don't show 4G+, they will only ever say 4G (unless Apple changes this), but it's definitely connected to 2600MHz.
Of course just being connected to 2600 means less users, not 4G+.

To get 4G+ you need to have carrier aggregation between 1800 and 2600, which it is unclear if EE SIM only accounts can access. I can't see why BT accounts would have access as they are speed limited already.
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Old 01-01-2016, 17:04
mupet0000
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Of course just being connected to 2600 means less users, not 4G+.

To get 4G+ you need to have carrier aggregation between 1800 and 2600, which it is unclear if EE SIM only accounts can access. I can't see why BT accounts would have access as they are speed limited already.
Ah I didn't think of that. Next time I'm out I will stick the BT sim in the S6 and see if it says 4G+ or not. Either way, just being able to access 2600MHz on BT is enough considering the 30/15 speed limit.
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Old 01-01-2016, 17:11
Ben_Fisher
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Ah I didn't think of that. Next time I'm out I will stick the BT sim in the S6 and see if it says 4G+ or not. Either way, just being able to access 2600MHz on BT is enough considering the 30/15 speed limit.
Be able to access the 2600mhz band might help take the load of the local 1800mhz??
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Old 01-01-2016, 19:57
japaul
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A pointer to the future there in the top left hand corner at what all of us on EE have to look forward to our phones showing? I'd say probably not this year. More likely to be 2017.
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Old 01-01-2016, 20:59
cooler
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If you give out tetherable plans with huge data allowances, people will buy them and use them. That's not necessarily a good thing for network performance. They do what they can to limit data usage while being able to offer plans that look attractive to customers.
During the last year, EE have been offering free SIMs with 100GB data a month for the equivalent of £5/month. Yet I don't hear people complaining about network performance on EE.
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Old 01-01-2016, 21:02
Gigabit
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During the last year, EE have been offering free SIMs with 100GB data a month for the equivalent of £5/month. Yet I don't hear people complaining about network performance on EE.
Yep it's still excellent - no drop at all in my many trial areas.

EE could I think offer unlimited data if it wanted to.
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Old 01-01-2016, 21:34
tdenson
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It's a bit pointless arguing with someone who struggles with the basics, so I won't bother.
You're "not bothering" because you can't answer the argument I make, as it is entirely rational and not stupid.
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Old 01-01-2016, 22:18
d123
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You're "not bothering" because you can't answer the argument I make, as it is entirely rational and not stupid.
You've been answered, and not only by me, but you carry on living in denial, I'm not going to stop you being the pointless defence champion...
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