Best network at the moment to use.

[Simps]

I tried signing up for this tonight. What. A. Nightmare.

/snip

Sigh.

I didn't get a phone, just the actual plan so it was just straight forward debit card payment which gets taken each month on a certain day.
I just went through the process of buying a Pixel 8 Pro and yes you do need a paypal account for monthly payments but not for "Pay in Full"

 

[CF93]

I didn't get a phone, just the actual plan so it was just straight forward debit card payment which gets taken each month on a certain day.
I just went through the process of buying a Pixel 8 Pro and yes you do need a paypal account for monthly payments but not for "Pay in Full"

Yeh I was going for monthly payments on the phone just to reduce my monthly bills, currently paying 44 a month for a galaxy s21 on EE but it only gives 4gig data and their best renewal even going through retentions for an s24 was 55 a month. Can get the s24+ with the 60 gig on Voxi for 32 a month all in. Don't have the cash right now to buy outright as I've got ongoing building work on my house and want to keep the money back for that.

 

[Kanpai]

Everyone sharing their own experience which is great but it all boils down to your location and areas you frequently visit. Then use coverage checker and test.

 

[Rroff]

And again tonight - wanted to check something in my account on Vodafone:

We'll be back soon
We're working hard to fix things, please try again later or have a look at our FAQs.

Getting very close to ditching them just over that alone.

 

[jpaul]

I finally managed to speak with someone at BT who could renew my deal at a more reasonable £6/month SIMO for 12 months, 4GB of data.

so that doesn't sound so cheap versus .V .. but maybe cashback claims are a pain

Info
60GBData (5G)
UnlimitedMinutes & Texts

Save £108 Cashback by redemption
Over 24 Months
£6.50Monthly Cost*£11.00 before cashback

I'm currently looking for wifi calling as in house reception is poor, and this will also be replacing a landline john lewis(plusnet) can no longer provide;

Voip seems to work fine from mobile w/zoiper, so wondering about making principal number a voip rented one (£1/month) ... only issue that would be a new number,
voip call costs abroad are peanuts compared to mobile options.

 

[jpaul]

ordered lebara's vodaphone variant

Lebara 15GB 5G data, Unlimited mins / text, 100 International mins to 42 countries - 30 Day Rolling - £1.49pm for 5 months​

they have 4g calling ,had also ordered a voxi sim but they are also vodaphone, and their rolling trial would cost £12/pm 60GB.

Indian O2 call centre guy, after referral/commission, tried to pursuade me that a £10/pm 10GB 12month contract, no wi-fi calling is better.

 

[jpaul]

go my lebara sim, to access vodaphone wifi-calling, made a comparison with a friend between call quality on iphone ..

old land-line & VOIP were noticeably better than wif-fi calling(volte) & 4G

not sure if the volte uses HD sound, had read this only works if you call someone on same network - anyone ?

the call log on the iphone that shows/interlaces both voip and cellular calls is neat, voip calls do have a small though compared to 4G with ulimited minutes.
couldn't yet find out how you get an objective measure of 4g signal strength on iphone, the *3001#12345#* doesn't seem to work.

 

[Christo]

For me Lyca Mobile is pretty great IF you can get one of their deals (IF).
Based on EE, provide esims, now offer Wifi calling (where previously they couldnt), and they are very cheap.
HOWEVER, customer service is very much lacking.

 

[neoboy]

Sprusu look like new kid on the block working off EE's network, my Lyca deal expires soon so might give them a whirl.

 

[lmfy2k]

Was with EE until couple of months ago, moved away as price was getting too much with the yearly increases, never had an issues with them, on hindsight, should have stuck with them!

Moved to Voxi, got a decent deal, have been with Voda many years ago and thought it was decent back then, what a mistake, ive had issues with coverage in my area with Voxi, indoor seems to have taken a big hit, home, out and about with work, supermakerts etc, getting next to no signal. whats app always trying to "connect", Voxi are vodafone so id expect the same Voda coverage, but seems its gone downhill in my area.

I was a customer site with a colleage and needed to hotspot to get on the internet, I had 0 reception indoors, iI had literally go outside, whilst colleague on EE on straight away. quite embarrassing.

So yesterday I thought id try 1p Mobile which uses full EE bands with no caps, has great reviews, offers all services as EE apart from eSim which is coming soon i believe.

What a breath of fresh air! back to having coverage indoors.

Lyca esim vs 1p Moibile test, same exact same location, same phone, same conditions, both on EE

Lyca


1p Mobile


looks like Lyca do cap their speeds.

 

[lmfy2k]

Sprusu look like new kid on the block working off EE's network, my Lyca deal expires soon so might give them a whirl.

did you move to them? if so, hows it been? lots of bad reviews about OTP codes not working and lots of missed calls, id stay away personally.

 

[Reuben klang]

Was with EE until couple of months ago, moved away as price was getting too much with the yearly increases, never had an issues with them, on hindsight, should have stuck with them!

I’m hearing more and more people IRL saying this as well.

Moved to Voxi, got a decent deal, have been with Voda many years ago and thought it was decent back then, what a mistake, ive had issues with coverage in my area with Voxi, indoor seems to have taken a big hit, home, out and about with work, supermakerts etc, getting next to no signal. whats app always trying to "connect", Voxi are vodafone so id expect the same Voda coverage, but seems its gone downhill in my area.

I was a customer site with a colleage and needed to hotspot to get on the internet, I had 0 reception indoors, iI had literally go outside, whilst colleague on EE on straight away. quite embarrassing.

So yesterday I thought id try 1p Mobile which uses full EE bands with no caps, has great reviews, offers all services as EE apart from eSim which is coming soon i believe.

What a breath of fresh air! back to having coverage indoors.

Lyca esim vs 1p Moibile test, same exact same location, same phone, same conditions, both on EE

Lyca

1p Mobile

looks like Lyca do cap their speeds.

Interesting you say that as a few of the people at work whove moved over from EE to the cheaper ones because it’s just the same as they’re using the same network so it won’t make any difference

They seem to be hit and miss and one thing that’s really doing their heads in is the phone calls, they never seem to ring. Takes 2 goes sometimes for me to phone them before it rings, they just get the message saying missed phone call.

I guess it’s one of those where the grass isn’t always greener. I don’t think it’s now a fair now to simply say X is £10 for 10gb whereas Y is £5 for 20gb, it’s not really giving us the full picture.

 

[Rroff]

I was a customer site with a colleage and needed to hotspot to get on the internet, I had 0 reception indoors, iI had literally go outside, whilst colleague on EE on straight away. quite embarrassing.

Had a similar experience recently, been in Exeter for training and part of the course requires using a portal on your phone to log progress, nearly everyone else on providers other than Vodafone, me on Vodafone holding everything up as the signal kept dropping out to Edge and taking like 5 attempts to load a page, kind of embarrassing. I think they've been a bit premature in killing off their 3G network as I was getting OK performance there before with a bit of fallback to 3G.

 

[neoboy]

did you move to them? if so, hows it been? lots of bad reviews about OTP codes not working and lots of missed calls, id stay away personally.

Had a look at reviews and will give them a miss, just do Lebara and then switch back to Lyca for another 3 month deal.

 

[jrwagh333]

Just need a speed test outside my house on Three Mobile and his just over 900mbps download on 5G

 

[Broken Hope]

Does anyone happen to have an EE perks code I could have? You can get them if you work for the NHS?

 

[jpaul]

Become a bit sceptical about lebara wifi calling - no noticeable call quality improvement in the house versus 4g in the garden, and both are inferior to making a voip call,
(which itself is poorer than landline )

the iphone says wifi calling is possible but you do not know if it is being used, turning off wi-fi does not degrade the call quality, so either wifi is not being used
(channel traffic problem ???) or wi-fi calling's supposed HD isn't all that - if you could turn off 4G and still use wifi you could perhaps distinguish.

 

[Orcvader]

Become a bit sceptical about lebara wifi calling - no noticeable call quality improvement in the house versus 4g in the garden, and both are inferior to making a voip call,
(which itself is poorer than landline )

the iphone says wifi calling is possible but you do not know if it is being used, turning off wi-fi does not degrade the call quality, so either wifi is not being used
(channel traffic problem ???) or wi-fi calling's supposed HD isn't all that - if you could turn off 4G and still use wifi you could perhaps distinguish.

Don't forget the other person will need to be on 4G/WiFi calling too. If they're on 2G calling then the entire call will be limited to that.

 

[jpaul]

Don't forget the other person will need to be on 4G/WiFi calling too.

I haven't tested, but found no strong evidence to substantiate that, although I mentioned possible need to be on same network too, it earlier post

it doesn't really excuse that voip from iphone->landline seem far superior, but - not as cheap as 4g phone minutes

I confirmed wifi calling is genuinely being used by using airplane mode and enabling wifi, disabling apples iphone noise reduction had no impact;
afaik we are still waiting for car hands free/bt to support same 'hd' quality as wifi calling too, another weak link.

 

[Orcvader]

Google's Phone app on Android at least makes it clear if a call is HD, and if your phone is using WiFi calling:

The ones with HD next to them, I do know they are on networks that properly support HD voice.