T Mobile or O2?

[Polgara2]

Anyone got any good or bad experience of either of these? I am looking to get an iphone and have seen good deals with both of these for similar pricing. I am currently with virgin but for some reason they don't seem to do iphones.

Many thanks

[Polgara2]

Anyone?

[pigsinmud]

Buy it outright and use giff gaff? I'm just finishing with t mobile. They were fine - no experience of O2.

[niceguy2]

It's really six of one and half a dozen of the other. Some people will swear O2 coverage is best, others will say T-mobile.

I guess the advantage of T-Mobile is you can use any T-Mobile/Orange (or now EE) masts meaning in theory you should get better coverage.

That said I know around my area O2 seem the best. So it is quite area dependant. I suggest asking friends who live locally which they have and how they find coverage.

[BertieBotts]

I'd go with O2 or giffgaff as schilke says. GiffGaff uses O2's network so you get the benefit of good strong signal etc.

O2 never used to send me a quarter of the crap and "offers" that Orange do (Orange/t-mob are both EE now).

[Kittycatcat]

I'm tmob and my signal at home is rubbish. The customer service is excellent tho which is why I stayed. There's a website where you can check the signal in your area but I don't know what it's called I'm afraid.

[Chopchopbusybusy]

Depends. Where I live O2 coverage is really crap. Tmobile is the only available decent signal. I'm on orange so that's fine as it now shares with tmobile.
I ordered an iPhone 4s from tmobile several days ago for my DD. They didn't tell me when I ordered it that they have a huge backlog on all iPhones, so if you pick them be prepared for a wait!

[Polgara2]

Yes I am a bit worried about coverage tbh. Dds have bbs on O2 and orange neither of them has had any probs with signal. I am on virgin and had no probs 2 years ago when i got the phone but signal in my house is now very hit and miss!

I used to be on 3 when I had a Nokia smartphone, no problems at all until I changed to a htc wildfire and then could hardly get a signal anywhere and definitely not at home. That's why I changed to virgin. Not sure if the probs are the phone rather than the providers though?

Hmm anyone know what the website kittycatcat is referring to is?

[Kittycatcat]

Try this for t mob

www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/coverage/street-check/?WT.mc_id=ON_TM_Deep_streetcheck&WT.tsrc=OfflineDeeplink

If the link doesn't work google t mobile signal tester

[Kittycatcat]

Ha. Just tested myself. Very amused it says very good. It's not. Perhaps it isn't I phone!!

[BertieBotts]

If your DDs get good signal on Orange and O2 then I don't think coverage will be a problem for you. So customer service wise I'd recommend O2.

[Polgara2]

Thanks kittycatcat. I found the ofcom website with them all on. Interestingly enough O2 had the best coverage. Tmobile wasn't that good at all so that may help my decision. Although judging by your test maybe not!

[Oodsigma]

O2 good signal here and good service.i find them a bit expensive but can't compare to T mobile

[niceguy2]

Those checkers tend to be erm...optimistic. 3 said I would get a strong signal in my home. I got 1-2 bars max.

It's worth noting that Virgin Mobile use T-Mobile masts since they are a virtual operator (ie. they dont have their own kit).

[nannynick]

SiteFinder (Ofcom) will show you where the masts are, so from that you may get a feel for what coverage is in your area, though may be wise to find friends/neighbours with a phone on the network to establish the real coverage in a location, such as indoors at home (should you want to use the phone there for things like mobile data).

[Polgara2]

Yes I would have guessed they were saying better than they were! and that explains why my virgin isn't brilliant as tmobile coverage came up rubbish.

Looking at that sitefinder website there seems to be an O2 transmitter right by me.

Well no one is saying O2 is hell so far are they? May be swinging that way.

Thanks all

[PedroPonyLikesCrisps]

T mobile have great customer service and are still the only network which don't charge you for exceeding your data limit. That alone keeps me with them. Coverage in your particular area will of course be important, but I've lost count of the number of times over the last couple of years that I've seen Facebook covered in "anyone else on O2 got signal, mines been out for over an hour". They seem a little unstable to me.

[slalomsuki]

O2 definitely has better coverage where I live that EE and that's been confirmed by a colleague from work who lives close. We both moved from what was Orange to O2 and its vastly better.
I put ds on O2 rather than gif gaf as we get free O2 to O2 calls which are not part of our monthly allowance. It means we effectively speak for free.