iuddin90 Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Just wanted to know what network is good as my upgrade is soon and I'm with 3 UK, they're customer service is terrible but I pay £13 a month which was acceptable to put up with their staff. I'm thinking vodafone but monthly charges are like £30+, with upfront cost for iPhone 5. What are you guys on and roughly how much you pay? Contract or sim only? Help would be appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyZ Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 O2 £36 per month, 2 year contract, £50 for Galaxy SIII when brand new Best UK coverage also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Best UK coverage also When it works SamN 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyZ Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Pah its 99% reliable for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob- Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Youre in a minority then lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wash Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 I'm on an O2 contract, £36 a month for unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB data with a free Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and £150 cashback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenkus28 Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 ii would O2, my Missus has O2 sim only as we got the phone outright. 20 quid a month and vey reliable.I myself am on orange just cannot be bothered to change plus they have been good to me when i had some financial diffculties and could not pay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Getting an iphone is pointless unless you go on EE, as thats the only network that currently supports 4G none of the others will be compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iuddin90 Posted January 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 O2 £36 per month, 2 year contract, £50 for Galaxy SIII when brand new Best UK coverage also Yeah 02 has signal problems from time to time doesn't it? Found on Vodafone for £33 per month, with iPhone 5 for £50, 2yr contract. The thing is they give only 500mb of data! 3 give all you can eat which is truly unlimited. That's the other thing I liked about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Getting an iphone is pointless unless you go on EE, as thats the only network that currently supports 4G none of the others will be compatible. eh? 3G is fast enough and most of te time mine is on wifi, again quick enough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Vodafones signal is terrible. All our salesforce use Vodafone and we have no end of problems with them. We wont be renewing the contract when the time comes. How much disposable cash do you have at the moment? The cheapest way always is to buy the phone outright and then get a sim only deal. Just depends if you have £600 you can throw at the phone of i you'd rather pay £30 per month for 24 months. Network wise I can't recommend Giff Gaff or o2 highly enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyZ Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 I've only experienced a problem when the whole country is down and to my knowledge thats like twice in 8 or so years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bungers Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 I'm on three, whenever I've got signal (most of the time) it's full 3G. The mrs is on O2 & while she gets better coverage, it's hardly ever anything other than 2G coverage so pretty pointless in a smartphone. I bought a payg sim from each of the providers first and tested their signal coverage at the places I spend most of the time. Three came out on top & also offer cheap contracts with loads of data. I'll never go back to O2 so long as I have a smartphone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 3 network. £9.90 a month. Sim only. Customer service have been spot on when I've rung. All you can eat data as well in my plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamN Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Currently on O2 and have been for years but had quite a few problems with signal recently. Considering the change also when my contract is up, but not sure who to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mit Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 (edited) I have a SIM only tariff and always buy the phone outright. That's the cheapest way to do it. My SIM only happens to be on O2 but that's irrelevant as my tariff isn't available to new customers anymore. If you get a phone on contract, think of it as being the same as buying the phone with a credit card and then paying it off at whatever interest rate over 2 years. That's effectively what you're doing when you buy a phone on contract, only they give you glitzy marketing and all the providers are in on it, so everything you compare to works along the same lines. Echo what SamN said about signal problems lately. I've had worse reception on O2 than I've had on my ipad (which is on EE) Edited January 24, 2013 by mit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B0B Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 I am a cheapskate, I am on a PAYG with EE/Orange and my lovely wife lets me have every other one of her upgrades from her all singing and dancing EE/Orange contract Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iuddin90 Posted January 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 I found this: http://www.three-clearance.co.uk/apple-phones.html Basically customers buy a phone but return it within 14 days because they're not happy with either the phone or tarriff, so phone is brand new. You don'y pay any up-front cost for a handset but still pay the contract. I bought my iphone 4s upfront for £450 and took out a sim only with 3 for £13 per month. This is the only way to save overall if you have the lump sum to pay for handset sim free. The thing is I'm thinking to get the clearance deal from above and sell on the iphone that comes with it to make some cash flow as my sim only plan is nearly finishing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 eh? 3G is fast enough and most of te time mine is on wifi, again quick enough! Getting the bands back together The iPhone 5 is Apple's first phone to add support for 4G, which is also known as LTE. But the iPhone 5 only supports the 1,800MHz band -- which effectively means it's an EE-branded iPhone 5 right now. It'll work just dandy on all the other UK networks, but you'll only get 4G on EE. Future 4G networks built by rival operators O2 and Vodafone won't be compatible with this version of the iPhone 5 because they're going to run 4G networks in different spectrum bands (800MHz and 2.6GHz). More information HERE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djsb29 Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 I used to work in the Apple Store, and I used to advise on contracts.. Complete honest answer - They are all s**t. I've used most networks personally, and I am on Vodafone right now on my iPhone 5 and its okay.. its fast, I did a speed test last week and had 14meg down, and 4meg up.. which is better than some WiFi... but thats only when you get a solid 3G signal with Voda... if your commuting like I am, you wont find any mobile provider any good because your constantly on the move and you never get a good signal.. Over the years ive found O2 were best... They have the best widepsread signal, albeit not as fast as others... but very widepsread... but they have been a bit douchey recently with the iPhone releases so moved to Voda... Vodafone run the 999 services, so you know its a solid network... 3 are very good a quick when you get the signal EE - never tried, quit Apple before they rebranded but my personal experience of Orange is poor at best... T-mobile ive never tried Long story short - If you find a problem with 3, move to O2, youll find a problem with O2 and move to Orange, youll find a problem... Catch what im saying? Get a carrier Pigeon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Get a carrier Pigeon. That wont work either Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john.med Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 I reckon 3 is the best, for me. I want 3G and I want unlimited data. I've tried Voda, then O2, followed by Orange/EE. I think in my area (NW) EE has the best signal/3G coverage. O2 and Voda have good coverage. But o2's 3G coverage is poor and slow. Can't comment on Voda's current 3G offerings. 3 has slightly worse signal and 3G coverage than EE but 3 has 'all you can eat data' and is much faster dl/ul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
