Networks

Crazy Climber · 2 Jun 2011 at 14:10

My contract with Orange is coming towards an end and I'm lookin for some advice...

I'll be looking to get some form of smart phone with wi-fi and a few bells and whistles (first one i'll have owned...)
Now as I've been with orange since forever, I could probably bargin with them and get quite a good deal...

However I have heard some stories that even with Wifi you still cannot connect to a lot of free wifi hotspots and verious other issues the network has with smart phones...

I have no experience of this, or other networks so would like some advice on which network would be the best to go for.

My budget would be the lower end of the tariff scale (£20-£25 max) but for that I also don't want the world and the moon on a stick (you get what you pay for at the end of the day) but I do know there are some bargins to be had if you look in the right places!

So any advice you have, please share!

rogueblade · 2 Jun 2011 at 23:06

Move away from Orange. I pay £25 a month for my Desire HD (18 month contract) with T-Mobile. But I wouldn't recommend T-Mobile either...
Probably O2 or Vodafone

Crazy Climber · 2 Jun 2011 at 23:12

Yea a mate of mine was on T mobile, it was the standing joke that there was no point trying to get hold of him cos he'd never have signal.

Mind if I ask if there's any particular reason to move away form orange? As I said, not got the foggiest about the different networks etc other then the time I was with 3 they were so bad in every respect (other than price) I sail I'll never go back!

BigAndy87 · 2 Jun 2011 at 23:21

tmobile and orange are same company, and share basic signal so over all coverage is better than use to be.
tesco do quite good deals they run off o2 signal so worth giving them a look

Robbo · 2 Jun 2011 at 23:41

There is no such thing as a 'best' network. Only you can find out how good the signals are for your area accurately.

Deal-wise they are all relatively similar, and you always get a better deal from third party websites like www.mobiles.co.uk unless you somehow manage to wangle a big discount.

Myshra · 3 Jun 2011 at 08:45

£20-25 will net you any phone you like bar an iPhone by abusing quidco / topcashback and a site like mobiles.co.uk with redemption deals.

Orange and T-M only share 2G currently, 3G later this year.

fleming222 · 3 Jun 2011 at 10:49

I would go with o2, but with the orange and t-mobile merge they become more tempting.
In terms of signal, network speed and customer service o2 seems to be the stand out network.