Mobile Phone providers

Spipov

Hi all. need to pick some brains.

used to have 3 and enjoyed the data and flexi units, but realised that i was spending more than the 30 euro 30day sim plans as well as never going anywhere near 500mb of data (usually just for email, light browsing during the day).

as the constant 3g --->2g and not switching back to 3g was driving me nuts, and my wife was on vodafone, i ported to vodafone. it was incredible how seamless and quickly the iphone would get to 3g and stay around that, even if it went to 2g, though very rarely.

my wife has vodafone as she needs international webtexts.

We have now moved house, and find the vodafone coverage appalling. we are still in dublin city, but oh my god. its fine when i get to about 500m from the estate, but in the estate i would have maximum 2 bars of 2g, and in the house, well, i cant make calls. which is unacceptable.


we have come to the conclusion, bar dropping another 100 euros in a sure signal device (which brings its own problems), that we may need to switch providers.


however the international webtext thing is an issue. on a side note, i am hoping to get the new iphone when it comes out, and as yet have not decided if i will go 30 day contract and buy the phone outright, or get it on a contract (cheaper to get on contract, but again, depends on number of months contract, price per month, cost of phone and getting it unlocked for travels).


trying a few simcards i have found:

3 - 1bar 3G, poor 2g as it uses vodafone 2g - therefore useless to me.

Meteor / Emobile - no point even trying as there is no international webtext, and i couldnt get a meteor sim card to try.

o2 - 3 bars edge in the house, which is really good considering - 500 international webtexts. however, they dont have the best plans to be honest (not that vodafone were much better!)

Tesco - same as o2, 3 bars of edge. - i like their offers, except for only (do not flame me, she needs those, not me!) 50 international webtexts.
their customer care on boards seems all right, i am not happy with vodafone's customer service anyway, and 3 were not much better before.


what are people's thoughts on tesco mobile in general? i am going to need to use the mobile phone for work, so it needs to be reliable, and would o2 be a better option, given the international webtext requirement?i think she may be sending around 100, ill need to double check with her.


Thanks for giving thoughts. as vodafone are generally expensive anyway, i am not keen on dropping 100 euros on their service. i went onto pay as you go and was hoping to only need to use 25 euros per month, ive already spent 50, and i first moved on the 1st of july!

cookie1977

Great deals on Tesco mobile such as this one:
http://www.tescomobile.ie/half-price-unlimited-promotion.aspx

or looking at their general plans they seem ok although the data allowances drop considerably for the cheaper ones:
http://shop.tescomobile.ie/SIM-only-plans.aspx

As a bonus you do get tesco clubcard points

Spipov

thanks. i went with o2 for the moment anyway. the international text had to be a feature, therefore tesco's 50 werent enough. signal is slightly better to hold a conversation, however the phone does an awful lot of searching for network in the house.

will keep it going this month and decide next month if i need to move back to vodafone and try the suresignal.

o2 has pleased me a lot more than vodafone so far though, ill be perfectly honest. - community, customer care, offers, cashback etc.