Best Network in London?

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9 Aug 2010
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710
Hello,

What is the best network in London for calls and fast Internet speeds? Can you tell what network will be the best for 4G when looking at the auctions and seeing what the networks bought?

I've tried EE and people who call me are constantly going to voicemail, when it does work they can barely hear me and cuts off quickly.. I thought this was the biggest network in the UK?

I'm considering 3 but how will their 4g speed/coverage compare with the others? Won't it get slower in time due to them offering it for free?

Cheers
 
EE/Orange/T-mobile suck big time for me.. 02/giffgaff etc are OK for reception and network speeds.. three never tried on my own but everyone else at my house have Three and I've heard no complains :)
 
I'm on EE (via Orange) and yes in London (St. Pauls area) the service is crap to put is politely. o2 would be my choice unless Vodafone’s 4G is properly up and running by then, but for the next while (I'd give it a year) most 4G services will be poor.

Fish
 
That's odd. I found O2 to be shocking here, EE is best for me. I have a business voda contract, that's OK. Out East (Bow) I see ~40mbit on 4G with EE. I rarely see less than 10mbit. Three are ok ... only ever used that sim in my iPad, that's now on voda.
 
Which part of London are you in OP? It varies everywhere, from my experience with every network there are blindspots everywhere. My brother is a student around the O2, and the 3 signal is poor there, where as I'm on GiffGaff (which uses the O2 network) and it's fine. Moving to around Stratford, 3 is the better, faster network. Around Chinatown, all the networks seems ok. This is with 3G though, I don't know anyone with a 4G tariff :p.
 
Truth be told I don't think any of the networks are that good over London.

Vodafone 3G is heavily oversubscribed, on a week day in the City or Canary Wharf, you'll struggle to get any data.

EE has the Voicemail problem as you say above, and their 4G is now getting oversubcribed such that it's pretty much as slow as 3G. Also you'll stuggle to get 4G in many places such as Oxford Street which is ridiclous.

Three 3G was alright, but again wasn't "that" quick due to numbers. You also have a few deadspots where you don't get any coverage.

Vodafone 4G seems to be the best alternative at the moment based on speed tests I've seen, but time will tell how well it holds up as subscriber numbers grow.

No experience of o2 in London, but histroically they have always been the worst network for data.
 
Depends how fast Three roll it out, they don't seem to have quite as agressive rollout as the others so if it remains limited coverage then the other networks can keep their prices high.

In terms of data I think Three will eventually give up unlimited data and move onto a tiered model like the others unfortunately. The networks have realised that data is the key driver now, not calls / texts so they offer unlimited of these meaning the only way to segregate higher and lower paying customers is by data bundles. The other option we might see that EE have mentioned I believe is different tiers of 4G speed depending on what you pay.
 
Im in south east london, work near tower bridge.

O2 is ok for me, the call reception is always pretty tip top, rarely lose connection. But i very, very, very rarely every get a 3G connection. I have an S3 and i've seen the 3G symbol maybe 5 times? I've had it over a year.
 
Depends how fast Three roll it out, they don't seem to have quite as agressive rollout as the others so if it remains limited coverage then the other networks can keep their prices high.

In terms of data I think Three will eventually give up unlimited data and move onto a tiered model like the others unfortunately. The networks have realised that data is the key driver now, not calls / texts so they offer unlimited of these meaning the only way to segregate higher and lower paying customers is by data bundles. The other option we might see that EE have mentioned I believe is different tiers of 4G speed depending on what you pay.

Would old customers be able to keep their unlimited plans in this case?
 
I've been generally quite pleased with Vodafone 4G in London. No-one's going to accuse it of being "excellent everywhere", but it nevertheless does seem to be a decent coverage in most open spaces and a lot of the indoors within the West End/City. And the best benefit of 4G, of course, is that you avoid the crowdedness of the 3G spectrum... for now.
 
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