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Hi all - just looking for some feedback from UK members. Im out of contract on o2 now and interested in what people think of 'other' networks and their performance (especially data). I live north of London, will be moving on from Sim free HTC desire from cpwh. Kinda fancy vodafone over going with o2 again, not sure why! maybe because all this o2 advertising saying I can get a 12 month contract, yes I can, but I pay for the handset, thanks for the 8 years, £45 a month spend eh!!
Given a choice, what would you do and why??
Thanks in advance
birdbox said:
Hi all - just looking for some feedback from UK members. Im out of contract on o2 now and interested in what people think of 'other' networks and their performance (especially data). I live north of London, will be moving on from Sim free HTC desire from cpwh. Kinda fancy vodafone over going with o2 again, not sure why! maybe because all this o2 advertising saying I can get a 12 month contract, yes I can, but I pay for the handset, thanks for the 8 years, £45 a month spend eh!!
Given a choice, what would you do and why??
Thanks in advance
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If your looking for high speed data go for 3. If your looking the best overall reception go for tmobile/orange they now share their networks. Then again I suspect you wont have many connection issues with 3 if you live in London.
just my 2 cents
rocketpaul said:
If your looking for high speed data go for 3. If your looking the best overall reception go for tmobile/orange they now share their networks. Then again I suspect you wont have many connection issues with 3 if you live in London.
just my 2 cents
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im on orange the orange/tmob is a pain in the butt!!! i get constant drops in signal as the fone determines which is the better signal, drops from orange finds tmob( but only gives u 2g tmob!!!) the drops and goes back to orange) since all the crap ive been havin ive manually set my fone to stay on orange, too much hassle and tmob isnt good coverage where i live (north west)
StickyGeko said:
im on orange the orange/tmob is a pain in the butt!!! i get constant drops in signal as the fone determines which is the better signal, drops from orange finds tmob( but only gives u 2g tmob!!!) the drops and goes back to orange) since all the crap ive been havin ive manually set my fone to stay on orange, too much hassle and tmob isnt good coverage where i live (north west)
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Yeah, currently the T-mobile/Orange roaming is 2g only, hopefully though later this year they will bring out full 3g data roaming too, or even better join both networks under the same APN (which should prevent any problems with phones trying to jump between roaming and non-roaming).
Assuming il have my SGS for the next 18/24 months this prospect is one of the few things making me consider staying with T-Mobile.
cheers
Thanks guys, any one on vodafone to rate their data speeds?
I was in town this afternoon and dropped into the o2 shop, they had the advertising in the window, phone all powered up on display, went to the counter and asked if they had any in stock and after a few taps on the keyboard the assistant told me "no".....didnt offer any other info than "no"!! didnt offer up when they might have them, enquire to whether I wanted it sim free or new contract, just a "no" and went back to staring into the distance...one day I will meet a mobile phone salesperson who is actually bothered about their job and finding out what the person standing in front of them wants!
O2 PAYG £399 Network will be Giffgaff payg as it suits my needs .
jje
birdbox said:
Hi all - just looking for some feedback from UK members. Im out of contract on o2 now and interested in what people think of 'other' networks and their performance (especially data). I live north of London, will be moving on from Sim free HTC desire from cpwh. Kinda fancy vodafone over going with o2 again, not sure why! maybe because all this o2 advertising saying I can get a 12 month contract, yes I can, but I pay for the handset, thanks for the 8 years, £45 a month spend eh!!
Given a choice, what would you do and why??
Thanks in advance
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Click to collapse
Check out my recent thread, where I tested some of the UK networks for data transfer
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1054255
I just moved to Vodafone after being on o2 for the last 18 months. I have been with vodafone before, and round by me their coverage is the best by far.
As for data, your probs best going with 3 for their unlimted data plans, though I have heard their reception is pretty ropey. It all depends on whats best round where you live/work or spend most of your time.
I also heard that o2 throttle the data speeds, whereas Voda and 3 dont.
birdbox said:
Hi all - just looking for some feedback from UK members. Im out of contract on o2 now and interested in what people think of 'other' networks and their performance (especially data). I live north of London, will be moving on from Sim free HTC desire from cpwh. Kinda fancy vodafone over going with o2 again, not sure why! maybe because all this o2 advertising saying I can get a 12 month contract, yes I can, but I pay for the handset, thanks for the 8 years, £45 a month spend eh!!
Given a choice, what would you do and why??
Thanks in advance
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Click to collapse
whats the dealio with 12mth contract? what did they offer you? ive just gone for 1200 mins 500mb with o2 for £42... (£5 off online deal)
im on orange and can get a cheaper deal for the same package £35 at p4u... but every1 i know who has bought thru them have bad stories so steering clear and orange near me has recently gone down the pan... would have gone to 3 as their signal and speeds are awesome from the payngo i tried... but was declined, yet o2 accepted straight away... hey ho
Shaady said:
I just moved to Vodafone after being on o2 for the last 18 months. I have been with vodafone before, and round by me their coverage is the best by far.
As for data, your probs best going with 3 for their unlimted data plans, though I have heard their reception is pretty ropey. It all depends on whats best round where you live/work or spend most of your time.
I also heard that o2 throttle the data speeds, whereas Voda and 3 dont.
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have voda released the sgs2 yet? aint seen it on voda other than cpw/mobs.co
Hi
My s2 is on contract with o2 and next month Im off on my honeymoon with the new Mrs Birdbox to California for 2 weeks
Was looking for some info on a few things really
Can I buy a unlimited (or high limit) sim for data while in the USA? I want to use the phone for Nav (I know the difference between GPS and GPRS!) and general google maps/tripadviser style exploring on foot/car.....I could cache the maps in lastest google maps I suppose but I havent tried that yet, any recommendations of a pre pay sim greatfully received and will I get Hsdpa or just gprs??
we are heading from San Francisco into Yosemite so wifi will be non existant - does anyone know about phone(cell!) service in the park??
We are then headed for Vegas - got the app for our hotel already ...we are then headed for Los Angeles...anyone recommend any good apps to play with on the way?? especially any map apps that download the map data to the phone
any other top tips (phone or not) for what will be trip of a lifetime would be great
thanks
BB
goto an at & t store, tell them you want a sim card for their new gophone package. its $50 a month for unlimited data, calls, text. However - it is not designed for androids. if android, they wanna charge you a **** ton extra.
basically just tell them you dont have your phone with you, and the one you do have is a really old nokia from england - not a smartphone but a feature phone.
tell them you want it for that.
then just put the sim in and away you go.
i'm from london and am living in usa right now, I just did that the other day with my unlocked s2 from uk.
Lol hes going on holiday why wood he want a contract? Im going on honeymoon to florida in sept so id like to no this also
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
its a package that is monthly and you can only do one month if you want... its like pay as you go...
unlimited mins, text (including international), and data for $50 is great even if he only goes there for 2 weeks.
Is HTC EVO 3D available in the UK? I can't find it on cariers website but ob websites such as buymobilephones.net I can...
Not available directly from the networks but places like Carphone Warehouse and buymobilephones.net etc are selling it on contract and sim free
Not sure if Orange has an equivalent, but I bought mine from Chitter Chatter, T-Mobile specialist, a few weeks back.
If your planning on buying one sim free, you can probably get it from there as they are meant to be unlocked. Double check first though.
Oh well, Orange is my current carrier in Slovakia. In the UK I will probably go with T-Mobile, because of their unlimited Internet, or maybe Three
I checked Chitter Chatter, found a deal. Is it the same one as this one?. Because I couldn't find any data on Chitter.
And I'm planning to buy the phone as a pay monthly deal.
As far as I know, the tariffs that Chitter Chatter have are the same as the T-Mobile direct tariffs, it's just that they sometimes get phones quicker than T-Mobile.
Wouldn't want to advise you on the best tariff as it's down to personal usage. This site might also help though:
www.omio.com
Got my Evo 3D for free with an upgrade on T-Mobile through buymobilephones.net
I'm paying £35.75 a month over 18 months for flext 35 with unlimited data.
Hey guys,
I'm going to be travelling internationally this year and just purchased a VZ S4. I'll be buying pre paid SIMs in country (in this case Ireland). Can any one tell me of any gotchyas or what I'll expect?
Thanks
falcar said:
Hey guys,
I'm going to be travelling internationally this year and just purchased a VZ S4. I'll be buying pre paid SIMs in country (in this case Ireland). Can any one tell me of any gotchyas or what I'll expect?
Thanks
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do a search. this has been address multiple times under multiple threads. dont open a brand new thread on this.
but YES it can. It is GSM unlocked.
falcar said:
Hey guys,
I'm going to be travelling internationally this year and just purchased a VZ S4. I'll be buying pre paid SIMs in country (in this case Ireland). Can any one tell me of any gotchyas or what I'll expect?
Thanks
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Click to collapse
Instead of buying a prepaid SIM, consider getting VZ global plan $25 for 100MB. I will be travelling to Europe in July, few countries, and this is by far the cheapest option.
You can get a pre-paid SIM for like $30 and have a better plan and better service, when I was in Australia the signal sucked so I got a pre-paid SIM with 1500 minutes, 400mb data, unlimited texts, and unlimited data for social networks. Better deal than the Verizon plan.
Sent from my Galaxy S4
darek65 said:
Instead of buying a prepaid SIM, consider getting VZ global plan $25 for 100MB. I will be travelling to Europe in July, few countries, and this is by far the cheapest option.
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Man...inflation must have taken hold overnight...
darek65 said:
Instead of buying a prepaid SIM, consider getting VZ global plan $25 for 100MB. I will be travelling to Europe in July, few countries, and this is by far the cheapest option.
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Uhhh... what? You can get much better pre-paid SIM's for $25. 100MB will allow you to update a few apps, upload a few pictures, and navigate for a day. That $25 also doesn't include voice and SMS fees.
geoff5093 said:
Uhhh... what? You can get much better pre-paid SIM's for $25. 100MB will allow you to update a few apps, upload a few pictures, and navigate for a day. That $25 also doesn't include voice and SMS fees.
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Tell me where in Italy or France I can get anything cheaper. In France there is couple day waiting period.
I don't know about France, but in Germany, for 25 Euro, I got a prepaid SIM with 300MB data and a 10 euro credit for international calls at 0.09 euro per minute. SMS are 0.09 each (a bit expensive), but local calls (in germany) were included in the price of the SIM. I think there was a different pricing structure you could choose at 1 euro per day for unlimited data, charged each day that you use data but my german language skills are quite shaky, so I may have misunderstood. T-Mobile DE was/is the carrier.
MaxYoda
darek65 said:
Tell me where in Italy or France I can get anything cheaper. In France there is couple day waiting period.
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My wife was planning a trip abroad and we called Verizon to activate international service on Nexus 6P. The first person we talked to didn't know how to do it, so she connected us to the international department to activate the service. After nearly an hour, this guy said everything was setup for international service to work; however when she arrived first in Mexico, then South America, international calling was not working, so my wife called Verizon and was told that it was impossible for them to activate international calling on her phone, because it was not in their computer system. However, the computer system allows them to bill you for international service that doesn't exist. I have been a Verizon customer for 18 years; but now they treat their customers with pure contempt. So glad we bought new phones that aren't locked into a single carrier.
Can't wait to say "adios" for good to Big Red!
Pure contempt? You've gotta be kidding. It's clearly a technical issue with their system. If you're smart enough to buy a Nexus you should be smart enough to pick up a SIM when traveling anyway and not pay through the nose.
mdmogren said:
Pure contempt? You've gotta be kidding. It's clearly a technical issue with their system. If you're smart enough to buy a Nexus you should be smart enough to pick up a SIM when traveling anyway and not pay through the nose.
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She got a SIM from a local carrier a few days after arriving in her final destination country. Verizon's treatment of customers is utterly contemptible. If international service really can not be activated, then she should have been told that from the beginning. The international service expert from the international calling department simply lied; because he clearly did not know what else to do, or say. That is what I call "contempt".
VZW employees arent the brightest bulb. I would skip the. International service and just pick up a local carrier SIM card. In the UK, it will cost $40/month for 100MB, 100SMS, and 100 minutes meanwhile a local SIM at $25 will give me 3GB, and 500 local minutes and 1000 SMS or something. And if I went with a $40 SIM card, then it would of been like 7GB and double minutes and SMS.
PrevailNow said:
She got a SIM from a local carrier a few days after arriving in her final destination country. Verizon's treatment of customers is utterly contemptible. If international service really can not be activated, then she should have been told that from the beginning. The international service expert from the international calling department simply lied; because he clearly did not know what else to do, or say. That is what I call "contempt".
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entitled much? seriously the guys on the other end are limited to the tools and resources they have on hand. there's a high probability that they had not been asked to enable international roaming on this device (or at least the people who were part of this call) and they attempted to make do with what was available.
so they tried, they thought they had it working and it didn't. it sounds to me like the second go-around with the "impossible" conversation was worse than the first. at least they tried. i'm betting the second rep didn't even bother.
your wife did the right thing and in most cases, she would have had to do this with any other carrier anyway.
I would always opt to pick up a local sim card (language may be an issue, but they should activate it for you). When I went to Italy, I just got a local SIM, which is much cheaper, easier and you can get data with the plan.
if you had team mobile this wouldnt be an issue
In September i went to Spain, France and UK and worked just as here in states... not single problem.... as a matter of fact, i even got texts from TMo when crossing borders saying welcome to "X" country.
The fact he had this issues, clearly shows that the VZW wasnt willing to remediate the immediate issue this customer had while away. People tell u to pick a local sim card, but that is simply not the best option nowadays. If u get one at local airport is wayyyyyy too expensive. If you are there already, how can you get proper information on where to go get one besides there. Waste of time, money and resources.
Its like currency exchange.. people tell you to get it done locally, WRONG, it averages 30% fee on top of the current rate.
Fact remains, customer was proactive, was traveling on expectations that no issues should arise, and when the issue did presented itself, no real solution was provided. Switch to TMo or some other carrier.
chaco81 said:
if you had team mobile this wouldnt be an issue
In September i went to Spain, France and UK and worked just as here in states... not single problem.... as a matter of fact, i even got texts from TMo when crossing borders saying welcome to "X" country.
The fact he had this issues, clearly shows that the VZW wasnt willing to remediate the immediate issue this customer had while away. People tell u to pick a local sim card, but that is simply not the best option nowadays. If u get one at local airport is wayyyyyy too expensive. If you are there already, how can you get proper information on where to go get one besides there. Waste of time, money and resources.
Its like currency exchange.. people tell you to get it done locally, WRONG, it averages 30% fee on top of the current rate.
Fact remains, customer was proactive, was traveling on expectations that no issues should arise, and when the issue did presented itself, no real solution was provided. Switch to TMo or some other carrier.
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WHY YOU HAS MY PICTURE?! haha jk jk
The Stig 04 said:
WHY YOU HAS MY PICTURE?! haha jk jk
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you have mines, you are the 4th Stig!
lol
mdmogren said:
If you're smart enough to buy a Nexus you should be smart enough to pick up a SIM when traveling anyway and not pay through the nose.
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Local SIMs are overrated. In some countries the red tape to get a local SIM is not trivial and can be a big hassle. You also have to figure out what the best deals are, stores to go and all that. Also, if you are in the country for just a couple of days it's just too much work. The way to go is crearly that your home carrier offered reasonable roaming charges, which is starting to happen.
I've used Project Fi while roaming internationally with the 6P and it's amazing to do country hopping without even thinking about this stuff. You just turn your phone wherever you are, and it works.
I left Verizon due to the horrible customer service. I'm a person, not a rock in your boot that you step on all day long. It's like pulling teeth with them.
Every call is a struggle. They're literally the Comcast of the mobile phone world. I dreaded having to call big red. Like you have to mentally prepare yourself for whatever's about to happen.
Now I'm with T-Mobile and they have great customer service. I just have 1 dead spot on the way to work. Front start to finish I'm without service for about 8 seconds flat. Besides that? No real difference. Besides the lower bill, and all the fun stuff that T-Mobile does for customers now.
RHChan84 said:
VZW employees arent the brightest bulb. I would skip the. International service and just pick up a local carrier SIM card. In the UK, it will cost $40/month for 100MB, 100SMS, and 100 minutes meanwhile a local SIM at $25 will give me 3GB, and 500 local minutes and 1000 SMS or something. And if I went with a $40 SIM card, then it would of been like 7GB and double minutes and SMS.
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Exactly. The UK is great and so is Japan. I was shocked at the 4G data speeds in the UK on EE. Sim cost like $20-$30 for 3gb of data and fast data at that. We get ripped a new one on cell service here. I think Canada gets ripped even more.
bartolo5 said:
Local SIMs are overrated. In some countries the red tape to get a local SIM is not trivial and can be a big hassle. You also have to figure out what the best deals are, stores to go and all that. Also, if you are in the country for just a couple of days it's just too much work. The way to go is crearly that your home carrier offered reasonable roaming charges, which is starting to happen.
I've used Project Fi while roaming internationally with the 6P and it's amazing to do country hopping without even thinking about this stuff. You just turn your phone wherever you are, and it works.
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Project Fi or T-mobile look nice for international, however, I strongly disagree with your statement that Local SIMs are overrated. IIRC speeds are capped at 256kbps which is fine for e-mail and light browsing but that is slooooowww.
I have gotten local SIMs in Argentina, Spain, Japan, and the UK in the recent past and I am so happy I did. Speeds were fantastic and it was cheaper if not the same price as Fi would have been.
The only upsides to Fi are if you are country hopping and/or only overseas for a day or so.
Doing research on who is the best carrier for the price in X country takes a minute or two.
EE speedtest in the UK attached.
But I do wish it was supposed for VZW and the 6P since I do quick trips like Mexico where I'm not going to venture off go look for a SIM for two days. And it's a company meeting so I will be busy those days.
joderme said:
Exactly. The UK is great and so is Japan. I was shocked at the 4G data speeds in the UK on EE. Sim cost like $20-$30 for 3gb of data and fast data at that. We get ripped a new one on cell service here. I think Canada gets ripped even more.
Project Fi or T-mobile look nice for international, however, I strongly disagree with your statement that Local SIMs are overrated. IIRC speeds are capped at 256kbps which is fine for e-mail and light browsing but that is slooooowww.
I have gotten local SIMs in Argentina, Spain, Japan, and the UK in the recent past and I am so happy I did. Speeds were fantastic and it was cheaper if not the same price as Fi would have been.
The only upsides to Fi are if you are country hopping and/or only overseas for a day or so.
Doing research on who is the best carrier for the price in X country takes a minute or two.
EE speedtest in the UK attached.
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Don't get me wrong, I go the local SIM route often, but only if I'm going to stay more than 5 days in a place. I do country hopping often, 2-3 days and moving on, and it's just not worth the hassle for me. 256kbps is slow indeed, but better than nothing. The verizon deal of $10/day and use your data looks good to me in those scenarios where you are just going to be a few days in a country although their country list at the moment is fairly limited.