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Which Network Has The Best Reception/Prices/Deals On Sim Only Contracts?
Styker
18-07-2016
I'm thinking of switching to a sim only deal and I am wondering which network has the best reception in your experiences and who would you recommend I switch to on a sim only deal? I'm not into texting, so more minutes and data is what is best for me.

Thanks in advance.
Lyceum
18-07-2016
Nobody can know what network has the best reception in your area. What has the best reception for me could be utterly useless to someone five minutes up the road.

Best bet is to get a bunch of payg sims and see who has the best signal for you.

EE and Vodafone are awful where I am. O2 and Three are great. So I'm with Tesco mobile as it uses o2's signal but is cheaper. I wrongfully assumed they'd all work equally because o live in the middle of a big city. They don't. And the only way you'll know which signal works best for your area is to test them.
Styker
18-07-2016
Originally Posted by Lyceum:
“Nobody can know what network has the best reception in your area. What has the best reception for me could be utterly useless to someone five minutes up the road.

Best bet is to get a bunch of payg sims and see who has the best signal for you.

EE and Vodafone are awful where I am. O2 and Three are great. So I'm with Tesco mobile as it uses o2's signal but is cheaper. I wrongfully assumed they'd all work equally because o live in the middle of a big city. They don't. And the only way you'll know which signal works best for your area is to test them.”

I did realise that which is why I am asking in posters exeperiences who have they had best reception from. It seems all the networks are saying the coveridge in my area is good but in more than a decade of living at my current place the reception is not good when I am at home.

Also the excuses keep on changing too. When I used to have an old 2 g phone some years back, I was told by networks that I needed to upgrade to a 3G phone as the phone companies were now mainly using 3g and when I did upgrade they all seem to be using their network coveridge maps based on 2g infrastructure like and I was then told that 2g provides the voice phone call parts of coveridge and 3/4 g provide things like internet coveridge. So are they right, should I base my decision on how good network's 2g cover is?
moox
18-07-2016
My knowledge may be a touch outdated but I still believe that 3/EE and MVNOs are still the way to go if you want broadly excellent coverage.

Vodafone and O2 have yet to bring their network up to 20th century standards around here.
Lyceum
18-07-2016
Originally Posted by Styker:
“I did realise that which is why I am asking in posters exeperiences who have they had best reception from. It seems all the networks are saying the coveridge in my area is good but in more than a decade of living at my current place the reception is not good when I am at home.

Also the excuses keep on changing too. When I used to have an old 2 g phone some years back, I was told by networks that I needed to upgrade to a 3G phone as the phone companies were now mainly using 3g and when I did upgrade they all seem to be using their network coveridge maps based on 2g infrastructure like and I was then told that 2g provides the voice phone call parts of coveridge and 3/4 g provide things like internet coveridge. So are they right, should I base my decision on how good network's 2g cover is?”

Maybe telling people what area you're in might help? Then those I. Your area can share their experiences. And will actually have an idea of who's got a good signal where you are.

Knowing that O2 have a grand signal in my street is a bit useless isn't it.

The poster above me recommends EE and not O2 and despite living in a big city I had no signal at all with EE and have a full 5 bars with o2 on 2G/3G and 4G. Peoples experience will differ from street to street. Unless you by chance come across someone who lives in your street then it really is just all guess work.
Styker
18-07-2016
Originally Posted by Lyceum:
“Maybe telling people what area you're in might help? Then those I. Your area can share their experiences. And will actually have an idea of who's got a good signal where you are.

Knowing that O2 have a grand signal in my street is a bit useless isn't it.

The poster above me recommends EE and not O2 and despite living in a big city I had no signal at all with EE and have a full 5 bars with o2 on 2G/3G and 4G. Peoples experience will differ from street to street. Unless you by chance come across someone who lives in your street then it really is just all guess work.”

I'm generally quite guarded on public forums/social media in general when it comes to revealing too much about ones own identity. I stray into some aspects if I really have to but in general I think a lot of people give too much away about themselves and it leaves them open to ID theft. I know that won't happen just by revealing the area I live in per se but I do post a lot and am wary of revealing too much over time etc.

I do live in a block of flats though so I am assuming that living in a block of flats is what is causing me to get dodgy coveridge but even when I'm outside I do get inconsistent coveridge very close to where I live. I think with smartphones being so big that even a slight gap of ones mouth not being that close to the microphone can make it difficult for the person you're speaking to - to hear you properly.
Lyceum
18-07-2016
Originally Posted by Styker:
“I'm generally quite guarded on public forums/social media in general when it comes to revealing too much about ones own identity. I stray into some aspects if I really have to but in general I think a lot of people give too much away about themselves and it leaves them open to ID theft. I know that won't happen just by revealing the area I live in per se but I do post a lot and am wary of revealing too much over time etc.

I do live in a block of flats though so I am assuming that living in a block of flats is what is causing me to get dodgy coveridge but even when I'm outside I do get inconsistent coveridge very close to where I live. I think with smartphones being so big that even a slight gap of ones mouth not being that close to the microphone can make it difficult for the person you're speaking to - to hear you properly.”

That's fair enough.

But it makes it impossible for anyone to actually advise you because the signal strength changes based on location.

As I said, grab some free payg sims and see who is best. Then there's no guess work. You will know for sure.
Styker
18-07-2016
Originally Posted by Lyceum:
“That's fair enough.

But it makes it impossible for anyone to actually advise you because the signal strength changes based on location.

As I said, grab some free payg sims and see who is best. Then there's no guess work. You will know for sure.”

Well like I was getting at before, if people tell me whats been best for them in their own experiences it will give me a good insight. I think I only have a few days to do the switch, and I've lost that stupid pin that opens up the sim tray too. I think I'll have to pop down to the nearest mobile phone provider shops and go that way as online it seems there isn't a contact number with the company I'm interested in switching to.
corf
18-07-2016
EE or an EE MVNO (i.e. BT or Life among others) is my general recommendation.

Vodafone can be considered if you are inside the m25.
ryan125hst
18-07-2016
As the others have said, it varies massively depending on where you live, so the best bet is check out the online coverage maps and then get PAYG sims to check the signal for each network (EE, Three, Vodafone, O2- the others such as BT Mobile or Giff Gaff use the networks of those four).

In terms of coverage and performance:

EE- The best overall as they have a good 2G network for calls and texts and, while slow, usually you can get usable data over 2G to at least send an email or a Facebook message over EDGE. Their 3G is very good and they have the best 4G coverage with much of it double speed 4G and even 4G+, meaning lots of capacity and fast speed. I intend to move to EE when my contract runs out in the next couple of months.

Three- 3G coverage is more or less as good as EE's. Occasionally you can get 3G on Three and not on EE or vice versa, but it's rare from what I'm told- they are basically the same. However, they have no 2G coverage so if you want to call a lot you may find yourself without a signal in some places when other networks have a signal. This is thanks to the poorer coverage of 3G compared to 2G. Three are great for data though, although their 4G coverage isn't a patch on EE's. I'm with Three now and I am impressed with their network as a whole. It's just the lack of a 2G backup and poor 4G coverage that lets them down.

Vodafone- Good 2G coverage so great for calls and texts- maybe better than EE in places thanks to the use of a lower frequency (900 Mhz vs 1800 Mhz). In cities they have good 3G and 4G coverage, but they haven't invested in these technologies as much so, although things are improving, there are areas where Vodafone users are on 2G only and those on EE can get 3G or even 4G. They do have a good amount of 4G spectrum though so will probably be close to EE performance wise once all of their masts are upgraded.

O2- Just as with Vodafone, good 2G coverage thanks to lower frequency used but poorer 3G and 4G coverage and performance. Less 4G spectrum than Vodafone so lower capacity and speeds on 4G.

Overall, EE is the best, but I have heard of places where the data speeds are less than 1 Mbps on EE and Three and 20-30 Mbps on O2 and Vodafone thanks to a 4G mast being nearby from those operators, so EE aren't always the best performing network. Likewise, people say EE aren't as good for calls but Rootmetrics has them as the best for call performance and my parents struggle to get a signal for voice on O2 at my grandparents yet EE seem fine.
tdenson
18-07-2016
Originally Posted by Styker:
“Well like I was getting at before, if people tell me whats been best for them in their own experiences it will give me a good insight. I think I only have a few days to do the switch, and I've lost that stupid pin that opens up the sim tray too. I think I'll have to pop down to the nearest mobile phone provider shops and go that way as online it seems there isn't a contact number with the company I'm interested in switching to.”

A perfectly good replacement for "that stupid pin" is a paper clip - surely you can find one of those ?
preecey
18-07-2016
EE is the best combined 2G/3G/4G network. Fact.

Three's 3G network is almost identical to EE's as they (in the most part) share each other's networks thanks to MBNL. They have limited 2G fallback (only in very rural areas that havent been 'MBNLd'). Three, however, have the smallest 4G network. Their 4G network is not shared with EE's.

Vodafone and O2 have the worst 3G networks, but they are working to improve this, thanks to Cornerstone. They have decent 2G networks.

I'm with Three because they have the best deals in my opinion. Their current six months half price promotion on SIM only contracts and handset contracts is excellent.

However, if EE did unlimited data and lowered their prices, I'd be with them instead.

Here in South Wales, EE is by far the best network. You can roam from as far west as Haverfordwest and as far east as Newport and you'll struggle to lose your 3G/4G reception!
lightspeed2398
18-07-2016
Originally Posted by Styker:
“I did realise that which is why I am asking in posters exeperiences who have they had best reception from. It seems all the networks are saying the coveridge in my area is good but in more than a decade of living at my current place the reception is not good when I am at home.

Also the excuses keep on changing too. When I used to have an old 2 g phone some years back, I was told by networks that I needed to upgrade to a 3G phone as the phone companies were now mainly using 3g and when I did upgrade they all seem to be using their network coveridge maps based on 2g infrastructure like and I was then told that 2g provides the voice phone call parts of coveridge and 3/4 g provide things like internet coveridge. So are they right, should I base my decision on how good network's 2g cover is?”

Well which network are you on at the moment I don't think you said (perhaps I'm wrong if so I apologise in advance) –*if you have bad signal on Three or EE I'd suggest trying Vodafone or o2 or vice versa.

Base it on 3 and 4G coverage for internet and 2G for voice. Either 3 or 4G work fine for basic internet usage (web pages, email etc). 2G does work but it's fairly slow.
KieranDS
21-07-2016
https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/sim-cards/...actLength=P12M

O2 are doing 25GB data, unlimited mins & texts for £25 a month.
philt74
21-07-2016
Comprehensive thread here:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hukd...offers-2481975
scampi1
27-07-2016
I've been with Tesco mobile for over 12 months now.

Not likely to change as usually where I live the reception is good and using O2 network it seems to be a good thing for me

Virgin on the other hand were terrible, they use EE and only 3G for their non business contracts. Ok the contract was cheaper but the amount of times I lost data and or voice calling was ridiculous.

The cheaper price and increased data allowance they offered as compensation / renewal didn't make up for the lack of any 4G data or the network outages so be warned if you are considering Virgin!

I have noticed a big difference in download speed going from HSDPA+ to 4G+ definitely
David_Flett1
27-07-2016
If you are a BT broadband customer then they offer a £5 discount on their plans and sim only plans and use the EE network. In answer to the original thread regarding coverage, I had experience with o2, Orange(EE) and Vodafone all across the country because I covered lots of meetings except fro Cornwall and South Devon. I found EE the best for coverage but ironically there was a blind spot for 5 miles between my home and office in North Hampshire but almost everywhere even in some of the rural areas I seldom lost signal. I do however get frustrated trying to get hold of my son at times on his o2 network and he lived just 10 minutes away, thankfully he's moved about a further 10 minutes east and everything is fine.
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