Nimbus

My contract with 3 is coming to an end and I'm going to look at joining another network as I've found their coverage to be pretty poor in my area. I sometimes get no signal at home, and it can be patchy in the surrounding countryside. Can anyone recommend a decent network that has better coverage?

Cheers

PhilWrx100

Got to be o2 fella. I've found it to be better than most in the countryside. Have a look on various sites for coverage, may help you decide
Phil

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

It's very location specific, but EE, O2 and Vodafone tend to have the best coverage.

I've just switched to Ovivo (on the Vodafone network). A one-off payment of £20 and you get 150 mins, 250 texts & 500MB data with no further payments needed. You get an unintrusive ad when you mobile browse but it's worth it for me.

EE & O2 tend to be poor in my village whereas Vodafone has a strong signal.

Tidgy

seems to be dependant on signal, vodaphone and o2 have always been good for me, orange is ****e!

boxst

I just swapped to O2 purely because of their Tu Go product. This allows your take / make calls over wifi.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Vodafone, full stop! but by the sounds of it you could be in a poor coverage area, best way to tell is ask some other locals what they are on and how the coverage is, can also depend on the phone your using, if i'm going out in the countryside I take a 10yr old nokia 7110 with me, if there's a signal to be had my old clunker will get it, modern smart phones a shoit in poor coverage areas.

I even have an old Motorola transportable with a magnetic arial that goes on the roof of my jeep for proper expeditions, anyone remember those.

jonc

I went the other way, signal was cr@p Vodafone, now on Three and is much better in my area. 3G is faster too.

ScoobyJawa

Vodafone where I live is poo, EE not much better. 3 is the best but their cust service is naff!

Ant

I've always preferred o2

Justme103

iTrader: (2)

Best thing to do is use a coverage checker for your area.

I have just changed from O2 to three simply because I got a better tarrif.

Coverage is exactly the same

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

T-Mobile/EE and 02 are the best I have used in all my years of phone contracts 3 and Vodafone are the worst voda being the one I would never ever go to again as they are appauling.

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

I switched from 3 to vodafone and found the general cover much better

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

If i could get out of my Vodafone contract i would, the coverage in a lot of areas has been poor to say the least. Its not much kop where i live plus recently i went to Hertfordshire and i couldn't get any coverage whatsoever, on the status bar it was mostly saying E but quite a few times it would just be blank with a warning message saying no coverage.

Norman Dog

iTrader: (1)

I've been with Vodafone, O2 and Three, always found Three the fastest 3G signal.

Probably depends which area you're in.

P1Fanatic

Find out who has masts nearest you and get trial sim or free payg to see what works best with your phone. No point asking others as you will get many different answers.

Another who moved from O2 to 3 and love their data speeds - made O2 look like 64k dialup.

pflowers

In my experience vodafone is the worst, on a recent journey from Ammanford to Swindon on the M4, we only had a 3G signal for about 10mins of the journey yet my 3 phone was strong all the way. Depends on where you live.

An0n0m0us

I've been with o2 for years always believing they were the best. I've just changed to Virgin Mobile which uses T-Mobile and Orange and the coverage for me is so much better than o2 ever was. Where I walk my dogs in the countryside I couldn't even pick up gprs on o2, today I checked my Virgin sim and had full H+ signal in the middle of the Kent countryside something o2 can only dream of. I did a speed test on my phone and got faster speeds than my previous broadband supplier before I went fibre optic £15 a month 30 day rolling contract for unlimited calls, texts and data. O2 can get stuffed for that sort of deal and coverage.

Where I live Vodafone and 3 don't even have any coverage.

Nimbus

Thanks guys. I've done some checking and it looks like O2 and Vodafone have the worst coverage in my area. T-Mobile and Orange are the same (read that they run on the same network as EE), so it looks like it's going to be either of these. Just need to find some good deals in the next couple of months and make sure I can transfer my number OK.

Cheers

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

Nimbus

I'd tread carefully with Vodafone, they may be ok in the area where you live but from my experience their nationwide coverage is suspect to say the least. Ive done several long train journeys and stayed in quite a few places where ive had virtually no signal, from my experience with Vodafone its going to be really hit and miss once you leave your own area as to whether you get any kind of signal.

ScoobyJawa

I was in Central London (banks of the Thames) in the Founders Arms, I had an iPhone with T-Mobile/Orange/EE with full speed 3G data running lovely. His exact same phone on Vodafone couldn't pick up a data connection at all!! In central London!!!

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

This is what I did. Ordered free SIM's from Vodafone, Three, Virgin, T-Mobile & Orange (was already on O2) to see which was best where I needed it most. Vodafone won, but I didn't want to use them direct so used Ovivo.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

Ditto in central London, i just don't know how Vodafone can get away with such poor coverage and be allowed to happily take £30+ off you a month.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Rob what I always found with Vodafone was that if you were playing on the web it would let you load 2 pages but slowly then the third page would never get reception and I have tried the sim in quite a few parts of the country with similar results. Thank god I only took a 12 month contract

Scoobydoo Ste

iTrader: (3)

I'm with virgin mobile and the signal indoors is shockingly bad

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

Unfortunately Steve i'm on a 24mth contract with approx 17mths to go.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

That's got to hurt They told me they would give me a box so I could get a better signal at home but I didn't want it at home I wanted it when I was out hence owning a "mobile"

pflowers

They told me the same when I moaned about their service, they really are thick!

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

The mind boggles, based on what ive seen of this company so far i'm just a bit surprised they didn't offer you a box to carry under your arm for when your out and about to boost your mobile signal.