[jameslad]

(Original post by yothi5)
Tesco for me. Anyone else?

tesco rocks!!

[eemooz]

(Original post by AdamskiUK)
How much was the phone?

99

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
run by O2 so you will get really good signal.

Depends where you live.
For me, it using O2's network is a bad thing.

Also, again for me, GiffGaff do not allow tethering. While Three do allow it.

(Original post by peasandqueues)
I heard that with Giffgaff you can't use tethering. Tethering is basically just using home wifi on your phone, right? Is this even an issue if the data usage is unlimited?! I don't understand why I've heard complaints regarding this...

Nope.
Tethering is using your phone as a modem to create a wifi hotspot for you to connect other devices to.

[y-y]

hey what happened to tesco mobile? don't hate

[LETSJaM]

Vodafone for me. Get (at least some) signal in majority of the country. Has the best and fastest abroad rates out of the big four (assuming T-mobile & Orange have merged) as I travel outside the UK a fair amount for my age.

<3 x

[LinzyLoo]

[QUOTE=WelshBluebird;37120359]Depends where you live.
For me, it using O2's network is a bad thing.

Also, again for me, GiffGaff do not allow tethering. While Three do allow it.

QUOTE]

Fair enough, I think it's safe to say that 02 coverage is generally better than most. I live in the countryside and Virgin and Vodafone are awful, while Orange/T-Mobile is OK but O2 is always perfect. Having been with all the major networks and doing a fair amount of travelling I always had a signal on O2 whereas other networks were dodgy in some areas.

Do you actually think it's work paying that much extra for tethering?
I pay £35 a month and I have it, but I never use it. I'd rather be on Giff Gaff for £10 a month. In fact I don't know anybody who uses tethering. It's the kind of thing you might need in an emergency, but what are the chances of you having both your laptop and your phone on you, and not being in a wifi zone, and needing something that only your laptop can provide. Smartphones can do most things anyway like tranfer money or email someone or find an important place. Plus it uses up your data so fast, you'd need to be on an unlimited data plan. And it drains your battery so fast, which wouldn't be very helpful in this hypothetical emergency.

Ok sorry I've gone on a bit of a rant here. I don't think it's a bad feature, it's a nice idea but realistically it's something you're hardly ever going to use so I wouldn't be put off an amazing deal just because it doesn't have it.

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
Fair enough, I think it's safe to say that 02 coverage is generally better than most.

Depends where you live.
At home for me, Vodafone and Orange are both better than O2.
At uni, every network is better than O2.
Perhaps I have just had bad experiences with them.

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
I live in the countryside and Virgin and Vodafone are awful, while Orange/T-Mobile is OK but O2 is always perfect.

Bit odd considering that Virgin run on Orange / T-mobiles network.

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
Having been with all the major networks and doing a fair amount of travelling I always had a signal on O2 whereas other networks were dodgy in some areas.

Whereas I have had a total difference experience going between home and uni often, and between home / uni and devon a lot.

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
Do you actually think it's work paying that much extra for tethering?

I am paying £25 a month.
If I was with GiffGaff I'd have either the £20 or the £25 goodybag because of the number of minutes I use.
So really, I am not paying that much more for it at all.

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
I pay £35 a month and I have it, but I never use it. I'd rather be on Giff Gaff for £10 a month.

If you use your phone that little, then fair enough. But I would very quickly use 250 minutes.

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
In fact I don't know anybody who uses tethering. It's the kind of thing you might need in an emergency, but what are the chances of you having both your laptop and your phone on you, and not being in a wifi zone, and needing something that only your laptop can provide.

I use it an awful lot.
Its great for when you are travelling. And when I moved into my house at uni this year it took 2 weeks to get the internet working, so being able to use my phone as a wifi hotspot was very handy. And my girlfriends internet in her halls is awful, so again using my phone as a wifi hotspot mean we can actually stream iPlayer and stuff (which is often dodgy on her halls internet).

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
Smartphones can do most things anyway like tranfer money or email someone or find an important place.

It isn't about what you NEED. It is about what you WANT.
In the above example, yeah of course I could stream iPlayer on my phone. But I really would rather watch stuff on my 13" laptop than my 3.5" phone.

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
Plus it uses up your data so fast, you'd need to be on an unlimited data plan.

Which I am.

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
And it drains your battery so fast, which wouldn't be very helpful in this hypothetical emergency.

Depends when you are using it. On some trains you get power points. Obviously in my gf's halls we have the mains power. Plus I have a portable battery pack for my phone anyway.

(Original post by LinzyLoo)
Ok sorry I've gone on a bit of a rant here. I don't think it's a bad feature, it's a nice idea but realistically it's something you're hardly ever going to use so I wouldn't be put off an amazing deal just because it doesn't have it.

Whereas because I use it so much, I would be put off. Plus as I said, because of the amount I use my phone, I wouldn't really be saving money by going with GiffGaff anyway. So it would kind of be pointless.

[-steph-]

It does depend on where you live but for me I've been so unlucky, I have had horrible signal with orange but moved to 02 and it was great. Just now need to have the new iphone and that would be great.

[cakefish]

I'm with Tesco (which use O2 network) as it seems to offer the best value for money. Well no surprise there really!

I pay extra a month for a 1GB data allowance but regret that now. Mobile networks are just too slow to be worth even attempting to watch any video or download anything. This is both in my rural village home and the city in which I go to uni to. We have some serious catching up to do with other countries. America are on 4G when the majority of us haven't even got 3G yet!

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by cakefish)
Mobile networks are just too slow to be worth even attempting to watch any video or download anything.

Totally disagree.
5Mbps is hardly slow at all (what I can get from Three with good signal). And granted, most of the time I don't get that, but usually I get at least 2Mbps. More than enough to stream video and download stuff.
I watch stuff on iPlayer, TVcatchup or Sky Go all the time over 3G).

(Original post by cakefish)
America are on 4G when the majority of us haven't even got 3G yet!

1 - Only a few areas in the US have 4G.
2 - Most of the UK does have 3G.

[Danen]

(Original post by WelshBluebird)



1 - Only a few areas in the US have 4G.
2 - Most of the UK does have 3G.

Apart from wales, northern ireland and scotland. much of the uk doesnt even have 2g

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by Danen)
Apart from wales, northern ireland and scotland. much of the uk doesnt even have 2g

You are confusing "much of the UK" with the majority.
The majority of the country does have 2G, and indeed does have 3G.
That is not to say that people don't have 3G or 2G in their area, but most places do have it.

[cakefish]

(Original post by WelshBluebird)
Totally disagree.
5Mbps is hardly slow at all (what I can get from Three with good signal). And granted, most of the time I don't get that, but usually I get at least 2Mbps. More than enough to stream video and download stuff.
I watch stuff on iPlayer, TVcatchup or Sky Go all the time over 3G).

1 - Only a few areas in the US have 4G.
2 - Most of the UK does have 3G.

Rural England disagrees with you. 5MB/s? We don't even get anywhere near that in home broadband speeds where I live (Somerset, near Bath). I certainly never get 3G in my village home. Even in Plymouth where I go to uni, there's not universal 3G coverage - patchy at best. Nope, I will have to say from my own experience that the UK's 3G coverage is currently lacking - even in cities!

Probably should mention I'm on the O2 network. Maybe the others are better.

[Nightufury]

If everyone uses 3 then we can all call each other using the 3000 free 3-3 minutes.

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by cakefish)
Rural England disagrees with you. 5MB/s? We don't even get anywhere near that in home broadband speeds where I live (Somerset, near Bath). I certainly never get 3G in my village home. Even in Plymouth where I go to uni, there's not universal 3G coverage - patchy at best. Nope, I will have to say from my own experience that the UK's 3G coverage is currently lacking - even in cities!

Probably should mention I'm on the O2 network. Maybe the others are better.

Once again, I am not saying ALL of the UK gets 3G coverage or 5Mbps speeds.
But certainly the MAJORITY of the UK does get 3G coverage (I think the figures are now somewhere around 70-80%). And where you can get good signal, 5Mbps is certainly possible (which was in reply to 3G networks being slow - they are not slow at all).

In any case, 4G should help this a bit. One reason why 3G coverage can be iffy is because it uses a higher frequency (2100Mhz). 4G will be rolled out on 800Mhz in some areas, which is a much lower frequency and so will mean better coverage.

[Danen]

(Original post by WelshBluebird)
You are confusing "much of the UK" with the majority.
.

Explain.

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by Danen)

Explain.

The word "much" doesn't imply any actual number. Just a significant amount.
The word "majority" means 51% or more.

So you can have the majority of the country (as I said I think the numbers are 70% ish) have 3G access, but still have much of the country (pretty much a third of the country would quality as "much") not have 3G access.

[Danen]

(Original post by WelshBluebird)
The word "much" doesn't imply any actual number. Just a significant amount.
The word "majority" means 51% or more.

So you can have the majority of the country (as I said I think the numbers are 70% ish) have 3G access, but still have much of the country (pretty much a third of the country would quality as "much") not have 3G access.

Im not denying this, i merely stated Much of the uk does not even have 2g coverage. especially compared to continental europe.

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by Danen)
Im not denying this, i merely stated Much of the uk does not even have 2g coverage. especially compared to continental europe.

And I wasn't saying that wasn't the case
Your initial post was in reply to me saying most of the uk (aka more than 51%) has 3G.

[AdvStudy]

I've been with 3, O2 and Vodafone. I changed to Vodafone about 4 years ago and I haven't regretted it once. Always have reception and whenever I had a problem I found their customer service to be top notch!