3 mobile , their own airtime or are they piggybacked ?

Titchy · 11 Apr 2012 at 15:42

Hey guys , just a wee question here , i live way out in the sticks in northern Scotland , when choosing a mobile phone i'm pretty much limited to only Vodafone or 02 for reception , the others like orange and t-mobile are horrendous where i am.

I know a lot of companies piggy back from others which got me wondering about 3 mobile , do they use someone else's transmitters or do they have their own network ?

Cheers.

Ging3r · 11 Apr 2012 at 16:14

3 used to piggyback with orange i think for their 2g signal, but as far as I'm aware that's stopped and they run only their own transmitters now

Skilid · 11 Apr 2012 at 16:56

As far as I am aware, this is still the case. They piggy onto Orange.

Titchy · 11 Apr 2012 at 17:49

Ok, that rules them out , thanks guys .

EniGmA1981 · 11 Apr 2012 at 18:43

I'm on three and yes they do use Orange, but only when 'roaming' outside of their actual coverage area - if you have three coverage where you are then it's "three coverage" but if you loose signal to their network, then you'll be using the Orange network (and it's Orange only for 2G/E data access)

Titchy · 12 Apr 2012 at 10:56

Ok cheers for the advice , deffo means i can't take them sadly , they seem to have some decent deals sometimes.

Meatball · 12 Apr 2012 at 11:40

Three only use Orange 2G towers where their own 3G masts provide little or no coverage. Three have none of their own 2G masts.