another OT; mobiles and 4G
Turbo Mini Forums

my mobile is out of contract at the moment; now I was never that enamoured with the handset (nokia E7) but it has worked ok up until the last few days when the BT started playing up in the car. I've tested it with other handsets and come to the conclusion its the phone that is the problem.

Now I've been looking at handsets, tariffs, sim only deals etc. this morning and am now fried. I use the phone for business so the majority of the time its calls and email. I don't generally surf about on the web too much. The one gripe I did have with the Nokia was the downloading of emails with attachments which could be very slow.

Obviously, the news is all about 4G but is it worth it for me? I know plenty of people with 'better' handsets who have not had the same issues with downloading messages so I'm not convinced 3G is my issue.

We've got 10 phone contracts at the moment and kept them all with the same supplier as it used to give us preferential free or low rate calls between each other but the new contracts on other networks now pretty much allow the same so I'm not so tied as I used to be.


So, currently with Vodafone, I'm looking at EE or Virgin. Virgin don't seem to mention 4G so I'm assuming its not available on their network but sim only unlimited is £15/month. doing the calcs, this would give me approx. £800 to spend on a handset in comparison to the 24month contract I was on with Vodafone!

any thoughts on the virgin network?
any thoughts on a handset that talks/ syncs with my outlook on the pc? (I will not buy an Iphone!)

any other suggestions welcome

cheers
Rob

EE is pretty much the only 4G supplier at the moment.
However, vodaphone and O2 have promised that by the end of 2015 98% of the uk will have 4G coverage.

Why no iPhone Rob?
Why no O2 in that mix?

www.apsbikes.co.uk

EE coverage is better since orange and t-mobile joined up. O2 probably bit better but I have to say the wife is not impressed with Vodaphone. She has replaced here Blackberry work phone with Iphone 5 and its worse than ever yet on her own 5 on O2 coverage is fine.
Nothing on 4G yet though

i dont really see the point in 4g personally....well not yet anyway.

one thing that cracked me up when all this mumbo jumbo was released was the AMAZING download speeds. However as was pointed out lets take EE's best value deal.

4G, £41, Data 2gb that's 2 movies maybe 1.5 depending after that your down to paying for your data. Also you can stream youtube in HD, while also good i would imagine would eat through ones data too.

Then you have the "when your at home" 90% of people use there wifi so is it needed then?

Do you feel that 3G is really that slow when loading web pages and forums etc? You could go for the 10gb data but thats 49.99 a month... maybe im just a tight ass as my bill at the mo is about £12 a month for 1gb data, 1200 mins any network & unlimited texts. Never go over it.

In short while i like the idea of 4G i would wait till it has a more mature infrastructure. If the cost difference is nil and they are about the same, you having nothing to lose unless 4G rinses the battery faster than 3G; i've no idea btw.

The only way in which i am impressed with 4G and similar in the US is i watch a fair amount of gamers whom stream. Many of these use "4G" to skype through there phone to there PC (@home) while out doing ther day to day activities. I'm impressed with that.

Anyway thats my thoughts

Edited by t@z on 4th Sep, 2013.

http://blog.vodafone.co.uk/2012/11/20/bett...-joint-venture/

This is coming within the next 18 months.

Also look at phones like the Black Berry Z10, Windows Phones (Nokia 925 is good), Samsung S4, HTC One.

Pick the one which you like the most and go with that, they all do pretty much the same thing, once you figure out how to work em! (I have all these through work, apart from the S4 (got an S3 but it works the same).

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

Don't pay for an S4, get the s3. I can't see any great advantage to my s4 over wifeys s3. I also cant see the need for 4g, 3g on t mobile is fine for me.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

4G network will overcome supply need for broadband where hardline installations are still not available for broadband. I think David Cameron recons the use of 4G dongles will allow the UK to exit from the national debt

Also with 3g you also get 'h' which is basically 3.9g, which makes 4g even more of a con!
I'm with 3 and have a phone, unlimited data, unlimited texts and I think 5 or 6 hundred minutes for £30 a month.

Plan (Essential SIM)
http://store.virginmedia.com/virgin-media-...onthly-sim.html

Phone :)
https://play.google.com/store/devices/detai...us_4_16gb&hl=en

Cheers Taz; I was looking at the VIP sim to be honest; for all the extra cost, I thought it was worth it.

never considered the nexus handset; its not listed on the compatibility sheet for my handsfree kit but the older model is so likelihood is it will be fine

I'm too am with 3. Very pleased with the network. Unlimited data, calls, texts and tethering £40/month. I get download speeds up 16Mbps which is fantastic. I use my phone for any big downloads (my landline broadband only gets 1.8Mbps).

Also they said that when their 4G comes into play I get it free of charge, still unlimited!

On the other hand their customer service is piss poor. But i only have to speak to them once a year.

1275 N/A Sprite, 998 T2 Turbo Mayfair
1275 EFi Turbo

3 were awful with my broadband contract, they billed me for 3 months after I cancelled and then said I was in the wrong until yesterday when I got a letter to say I was actually in credit with them. Even spoke to some pretty high up people about it and they all said I had paid what I was supposed to. They also keep trying to just sell you things even when you say no about 20 times! But their coverage was pretty good.
I am currently on EE, work discount swayed me but now I totally regret it. I haven't had a bill under £35 since having it when it's only supposed to be £25 (HTC XL, 1GB interwebs, 600mins, unlimited texts) a month. They tried selling me a 4G package even though it's not in this area until next year. But coverage is quite good although my Mam was with them for a while (she's with giffgaf now or something which is supposed to be super cheap!) and she said since joining with tmobile they had gone worse.
I have also been with Vodafone and never had any problem with them the whole 4 years, I really regret leaving them. Always had good coverage and no problems!

They don't die, they just get faster!

anyone on virgin mobile?

Yup, i'm on the £12 deal. I originally changed from Orange mostly to save money but also signal wasn't that great in my house. Needless to say Virgin use the same signal as Orange as i get the same signal, fail on my part however i cant moan to paying £12 instead of £40.