London mobile network comparison

So I used my Vodafone phone in the USA, and the charges seemed to be high so I phoned them up to clarify and they literally deceived me as to how much it was costing (they lied about my usage - I knew the cost) and now I'm faced with a really insane phone bill.

As such I'm extremely likely to move network after almost a decade on Vodafone. And it's very likely to happen within a week.

So my question, and I did search and could find nothing...

Ignoring handsets, deals, and considering we're all in London and spend most of the time here... what networks are the best?

What I really want to know is:

**What network are you on?

Do you ever find the data connection shitty on overground trains, in shops, at home or anywhere within the M25?

Do you ever find the voice quality to be sub-par?

Would you recommend your network, what's your story?**

O2 seems to work in most places although I have to be close to the window in this Euston office. Never bothered speed testing anything, seems ok. No comparisons though, sorry.

Im on three sim only after my contract ran out, spot on in london, it can be a bit crap on trains out of london (i travel down to dorset on the train a lot and it can be on and off on that) but its excellently priced for the amount of data i get through

Never had any problems with audio quality

^^^ Also not a comparison, but be ready for a fight with Vodafone.
When I first got an Android phone (HTC Magic), there was a big discussion about what 'fair usage' meant, and no-one from Vodafone would actually commit to when they would do overage charges.
This wasn't really good enough, so I returned my phone within the 14 day cooling off period, only to be charged the full £500 2 year contract termination fee.

Took me 6+ months of back and forth with management, then, depressingly, after making a claim through the small claims court, had my money back within 12 hours. They will do anything to keep your money :/

I'm on giffgaff, and other than when their data server got flooded there haven't been any issues for me

Currently on O2 which I'm happy with, the only thing I don't like is their data bundle on PAYG (works better for me because of free international minutes). Signal, speed and service is pretty good.

If I was to change networks it would be to giffgaff - free calls to other giffgaff users whilst using the O2 network which is reliable.

I'm on EE.
Its pretty good, sometimes loses signal in the most random of places though.
Service so far has been good on the phone/online, so pretty happy with that- though the telephone call center can be a little annoying- to get through all the menus...

And since I got 4G for the same price as it would've cost for a 3G bundle of the same spec- I've been shocked by how fast it is. It is amazing.
So.... pretty happy- they're also pretty good and straight forward with bills.

I've just defected from Orange to Giffgaff. As it's only been a week I can't comment on thew robustness of O2's network but the price is definitely right and with it being sim only there's no love lost if you try it out and for some reason want to swap to a different provider.

I don't have a mobile network to recommend but I would avoid Three like the plague.

Whilst I don't seem to have much in the way of problems/issues with signal/connectivity etc, their customer service is appalling. At one point, they were silent calling me up to 6 times a day trying to sell me stuff despite opting out of their marketing. They also out and out decieved me over overseas foreign calling costs.

Customer service is also outsourced to India, and whilst this works for some companies, Three have clearly bought the cheapest option available. Will be switching to SIM only when this contract ends.

^ this is true, it is cheap though

if they keep cold calling you ask to be put through to a manager as soon as they answer and just tell them you'll be making an official complaint if they call you again

i've gone from 5-15 times a week to nothing for months

Does this help?

Although the company is US based they do work over here, and you can check UK coverage on the 'check coverage' part of their site.

What network are you on? Three

Do you ever find the data connection shitty on overground trains, in shops, at home or anywhere within the M25? Never. I have full signal and HSDPA+ at home. Almost always have at least HSDPA and if not I will certainly have 3G, when I am out and about. On trains it is generally good, as I get farther out to the actual M25, I get HSDPA, more than HSDPA+.

Do you ever find the voice quality to be sub-par? I believe three use o2's GSM network and call quality has never been an issue - their GSM network seems to be very robust.

Would you recommend your network, what's your story? Without a doubt - they are the only network (as far as I am aware) that offer truly unlimited data. They stick to their word too. I once tethered over 20GB of data to my Nexus 7 in two weeks - not a word from their end. Not even a warning to say that my contract didn't include tethering. Their customer service has always been good for me too, despite assumptions from most non-three customers.

^Not to mention that Three won't be charging any extra for their 4G network when it is released.

I switched from O2 to 3 as the data allowance from O2 is pathetic and as a bonus found that the connection is much better with 3. Whilst riding along with spotify, I rarely lose audio these days and it was pretty much constant with o2...

@Dom - do you have to sign up for a contract/enter credit agreement with GiffGaff or do you just have a sorta rolling month by month "agreement" - i.e. if you discover it isn't for you, you just stop paying with none of the hassle of ending a contract early?

Yep, you pay for the month ahead, so if you decide that's it, you just don't pay again.

Awesome. I can't believe you can get unlimited data, unlimited texts and 250 minutes for just £12. And nice to see that 0800 numbers called from a mobile are free!

goes off to check 3 contract

On balance I'd say they're all about the same... sometimes good, sometimes crappy.

Depends quite a bit on which areas you live, work, or visit often.

Try this: http://opensignal.com/

Or this: http://www.rootmetrics.com/uk/check-coverage/

I've just got an EE "4G" phone. It's a step up from 3G. More like WiFi than mobile. I've only had it couple days though, so can't really comment on coverage. Where it works, it's great -- the South Bank and in Peckham, for example.

But you need a new phone for 4G and it needs to be on the right band. There are new bands coming this year and new phones all the time, so you know... it's a lot more money than just swapping in a new SIM

Does this help?

Although the company is US based they do work over here, and you can check UK coverage on the 'check coverage' part of their site.

duh, didn't add the link....

http://www.rootmetrics.com/

I tried 3 for a while and just couldn't get coverage anywhere, called them all the time and they kept blaming my settings.

Moved to Giffgaff and its by far the best value, straight foward network, as it runs on the 02 network its also very reliable.

People,

The contract is up for renewal soon on my mobile. I'm not a big mobile user so I'm not overly fussed what I go for but having looked on the web, I have noticed that deals on '3' network appear to be generally cheaper than the others.

Call me a synic but you only get what you pay for so is '3' as good as the other networks ? Does anyone have any good/bad experiences ?

Is their after sales and/or customer service any good ?

Thanks.

Customer service?
A lot of simple things are automated menu items when you phone them.
I swear the frontline csa'a in India are randomly and sequentially appointed to 'Sales', 'Network', 'Technical' etc, as you can be passed around to equally unenlightened menu-quoters with a real problem.
Check with mates if they can get a signal where you live,
we have ended up with a (free) HomeBox that steals a connection from our landline broadband, after a complaint that escalated to OfCom as the 3 signal deteriorated over a couple of years:
No signal in doors, but faint signal from corner of front garden, due 3 claimed to 'trees growing & blocking the signal',
(all within west London a couple hundred metres from a Tube station).

Out & about no connection problems, phone or 'net.
(Never used the phone abroad for calls or 'net so no comment on roaming charges,
probably as prohibitive as the other service providers).

I'm with 3, usually pretty good, only reason i'm with them is the unlimited data and apparently this will be part of the 4g package, so happy days if that happens.

I'm with giffgaff and for £10 a month sim only I get unlimited data OR 1GB of data that I can use via a wifi spot on my laptop + unlimited texts + 500 minutes , signal coverage is good since they run over O2 apart from a couple of iffy network failures when they launched , top network though and for a little bit of help on the forum you can get the contract free

I'm with giffgaff as well, but have been pretty dissapointed by thier outages. They don't coincide with o2's outages either. Sometimes it's just voice calls, sometimes data services, sometimes both. Probably only once every 2 months, but usually at crucial times like Friday afternoon/evenings.

Thier payback scheme is alright though: i've earnt at least a quid just moaning on their messageboard about outages.

The last trio of outages were quite something. And I find it hard to believe that they were anything to do with o2, otherwise surely GIffGaff would have been screaming from the rooftops 'it wasn't me[us]'. And the fact that they sent out a newsletter right in the middle of it all that mentioned nothing at all :(

I moved to 3 and so far have had no issues at all