Am I missing something?

Gilly

Gilly

Gilly

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So I rarely use my iphone other than playing games and as an ereader. My work smartphone is android and I use that more than I use my own, but I like to have both flavours to get the most coverage of compatibility, etc.

Anyway, my old phone is a 4S and has started dying. Power button, home button, etc. It's a shame as it's still everything I need, it's just tired.

Things have moved on since I got this one. I expected to see unlimited data everywhere as I did when I got this one, I thought it would have come down in price too. Now I see the likes of Tesco Mobile are offering phones on a cheap monthly basis, but then you have to pay for usage separately :confused:

I just want a newer iPhone (don't want 5C or 6+ but happy with a 5S or 6) for less than £40 a month on unlimited data, and it seems like I'm asking the earth!
 
You aren't missing anything. Most networks have awful data plans regardless of cost, it's only three they are really doing unlimited, but every network charges the iPhone tax so they're really quite expensive.

Networks offered unlimited data when they knew most people would use barely anything, now that a lot more people want and use a lot of data, they can't offer it because their networks haven't got the capacity.
 
I have no experience of 3. Are they any good in terms of reception, dropping calls, etc?
 
It depends entirely on where you are really. I'm on Vodafone at the moment she is had fairly consistent issues with call quality, texts and data at home.

I've been on three and they were much better, however as above it's down to where you live.
 
I suppose if they are about to enforce network sharing it's not the biggest deal anyway
 
I find three very good. They have a coverage map on their website, check out the areas you visit and see what the signal is like. The other option is to get a payg sim and use that for a few days.
 
spoffle said:
Got any more info on that? I don't think I've come across that.
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I believe it's only network sharing in blackspots, so even if you're getting a crappy signal, you'd remain on the same network. But no signal would swap you to a competitors network. I think this is still going through discussions though.
 
Would probably work out cheaper in the long run to buy the phone outright and then go for a sim only tariff. I was looking at tariffs the other day based on what I actually use rather than what I've previously ended up choosing due to the phone contract dictating it and I only need be paying £9 a month so I'll probably keep my current phone and switch to that when my contract expires.
 
I'll be moving to SIM only too. I got an Oppo Find 7 a little while back, and I was hoping to upgrade to a note 4 until I realised it wasn't much of an upgrade, if any at all so I'm just going sim only now.
 
Had an interesting conversation with EE yesterday where they said they were unable to even compete with never mind beat 3's offers. EE were £14 a month more expensive with a worse deal and I've been with them for years.

Their reason for this was the cost of running their network, and their excuse for not matching, or even competing with 3 is that they piggyback off EE's network.

Surely a reseller of the same network shouldn't be able to offer deals on said network cheaper than the provider :confused: The girl also said that the network would be so much better with EE than 3, I can't see how if 3 piggyback EE's network!?
 
3 don't piggyback on EE. They have their own 4G network. They do however use the Orange/EE/T-Mobile network for 2G when there's no 3G or 4G signal.

I have been a Three customer for about 4 years now and I rate them very highly. I get excellent reception pretty much everywhere in the country and the unlimited plan means that I don't need to worry when I'm in the car and streaming BBC Radio 5 or Spotify.
 
Both Three and EE use the same 3G network in most places via the company Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL) which is a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies.

They signed an agreement to share 4G as well, but currently don't as EE want to keep their advantage for as long as possible.

Three do not offer 2G data services. It used to roam onto the O2 and then Orange 2G networks, but this now doesn't happen. In some areas it will still roam to the Orange/EE network to allow voice/text, but it's getting less and less.
 
AlecR said:
She was trying to get you to join EE and not Three, she wasn't going to make Three sound good was she ;)
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She was lying. That's not a way to retain customers. Not only that but she straight accepted that they couldn't compete with people reselling their own product!
 
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