Advice needed on which network provider

puremule

I'm looking to get as far away from meteor as I possibly can and have been looking at Vodafone or 3. I'll be going as bill pay just for info. Any opinions would be great.

Random

you need to give us more information. you need to tell us how much you spend on credit, whether you call, text, data and how much. whether you use your phone abroad a lot. what networks you call / text more often. do you want a new phone too?

come on, give us some more information.

why are you excluding o2?

puremule

Random wrote: »

you need to give us more information. you need to tell us how much you spend on credit, whether you call, text, data and how much. whether you use your phone abroad a lot. what networks you call / text more often. do you want a new phone too?

come on, give us some more information.

why are you excluding o2?

OK sorry for the lack of info. I'm on the talk max plan with meteor at the moment which is unlimited calls and texts and 2gb download. I use the phone for calls mostly and also email and internet. Useage abroad is fairly minimal. Most of my calls would be to meteor numbers and yes I would be looking to also get a new handset e.g sony ericsson smart phone. Nothing against O2 just didnt think of them

angel01

How much are you looking to pay per month?

puremule

I'm paying €85 per month at the moment for the talk max plan. Anything under that would be great, but I'm more so looking for quality of service,coverage etc. Customer service with Meteor I have found to be well below standard. Quick example is that when you upgrade your handset it's up to the customer to call Meteor's UK based handset insurers and inform them that you have changed handset. This was the case with me that after paying insurance for over four years I wanted to make my first claim and was told the phone that I wanted to claim for had never been insured. It was my handset from four years ago. Meteor's response was " why don't you just buy a pre payed handset":eek:After four years insurance payments you would think there would be some loophole or a little loyalty towards customers:mad:

angel01

O2 Smartphone Advance 150 is :

O2 Advance 150 + 2GB Data Other Charges - 40 Euro

• Data Included 2GB
• Additional Data 2c per MB
• MMS included 10
• Voicemail Free
• Additional Calls 27c

• Additional Text 11c
• Additional Extra Free O2 talk & text
• Text to international numbers 25c
• Additional MMS 25c

O2 Advance 350 + 2GB Data Other Charges - 60 Euro

• Data Included 2GB
• Additional Data 2c per MB
• MMS included 15
• Voicemail 15c
• Additional Calls 27c

• Additional Text 11c
• Additional Extra 1 Free Extra

O2 Advance 550 + 2GB Data Other Charges - 80 Euro

• Data Included 2GB
• Additional Data 2c per MB
• MMS included 25
• Voicemail 15c
• Additional Calls 22c

• Text to international numbers 25c
• Additional MMS 25c

A lot of the Sony Ericsson phones will not be considered smartphones with O2. The only one considered to be one is the Xperia X10, take a look here for non smartphones plans:

http://www.o2online.ie/shop/plans/

crotalus667

I have an O2 phone at the moment and the signal dies all the time (North County Dublin) 3 have been very bad with a famaily member , but then VF are the most expensive

puremule

Cheers. Kind of just need some customer reviews I suppose. Jesus we're mscrewed over in this country. They'll all tell you they're fantastic

crotalus667

puremule wrote: »

Cheers. Kind of just need some customer reviews I suppose. Jesus we're mscrewed over in this country. They'll all tell you they're fantastic

I have to say I have allways found vodaphone great (i have only ever had pre pay with them )

angel01

I think O2 have the best customer support especially with their forums, I have good coverage, data is improving and I think they are pretty good.

3 have shocking customer support so bear that in mind if you move to them.

Vodafone are a little on the expensive side..

Ah-Watch

3 Customer Care is appalling, I despise them. Price plans are good though. I think 02 has the best customer service but they are very sneaky-they now dont let you upgrade within your contract, regardless of your spend, you must first buy out of your contract before they'll allow you upgrade. Their free add on's though are good. Vodafone is my preferred network, I never have issues coverage wise at all. Best coverage around, I dont remember the last time I couldn't hear anyone when I was on the phone... Price plans are a bit meh though.400 mins and 400 texts for €69? add a €10 add on for your emails?

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Solair

For Smart phone usage I would recommend O2 over Vodafone for one simple reason : EDGE !

While Vodafone has an excellent 3G network, it lacks the in-between technology known as EDGE (2.75G).

EDGE is basically an enhanced version of GPRS and it offers speeds which are fast enough to allow a smart phone to do most things i.e. browsing, email etc. While it's not as fast as 3G, the experience is tolerable.

Using a smart phone over a GPRS connection is like trying to browse youtube on a dial-up modem. It's painful at best and usually almost impossible.

3G currently uses 2100mhz which, unfortunately, does not penetrate buildings as well as 2G which generally uses 900mhz. The result is that you can lose 3G coverage indoors.

If you're on O2 (or Meteor) you will usually pick up EDGE in those circumstances and you can continue to use your handset pretty much as normal, albeit with slightly slower data connection.

On Vodafone, you will drop straight back to GPRS and your phone will be pretty much only good for texting and phone calls. You might just about get away with Twitter!

Vodafone seems to have a policy of ignoring EDGE, so there will be no improvement in this until UMTS 900 launches in Ireland i.e. 3G using the old 2G frequencies. This isn't likely anytime this year.

3 suffers from similar problems as it's basically a 3G only network that uses national roaming on Vodafone when you're not in their coverage areas.
Again, there is no EDGE coverage at all and you may even lose GPRS in some areas in my experience.

All-in-all, from a technical perspective, O2 is the way to go for smart phones.

In terms of customer care, I have used Vodafone, O2, Three and Meteor:

Vodafone and O2 both have excellent customer care in my experience of them. They can get busy at times, but they offer great customer care online via forums etc too.

Meteor's is mediocre although it's still better than 3 !

3 Customer care is just abysmal. It's all outsourced to 3rd party providers in India. While they are polite and as helpful as they can be, they have very limited access to the technical side of the network and are usually unable to provide much support other than to tell you to reboot your phone. As far as I know, Three's Irish network is actually operated by BT Ireland on their behalf, so the interaction between customer care and the network is between two 3rd parties!