iPhone 5, what network?

conor06

Im currently contract free, was with O2. Im looking to get the iPhone 5 but not too sure what network. I normally pay approx 60e per month. Just wondering what the best deal is at the moment, I understand that plans might chance with the new iPhone

petiha

Three. for €60 you'll probably get the iPhone for free, get all you can eat data (15 gigs of internet usage ), lot of minutes and texts... just wait 'till some official announcement. also, Meteor is pretty good for smartphones, too.

JoeA3

I have a similar question.
I'm out of contract with Vodafone. Current plan costs €45 a month, but from a quick look around, I think I can get a similar package (or much better) for €20 - €30 per month on the likes of Meteor / Tesco / 3. Even cheaper again if I opt for SIM only and just buy the phone direct off Apple, which I think I am leaning towards.

My only concern is - what is network coverage like with 3 / Meteor / Tesco, etc? I was with 02 a few years ago and I found them terrible! Vodafone miles better.

Also, I have a good data roaming deal on Vodafone - "free" roaming, it comes out of my monthly allowance. Very handy and I'd hate to lose that... do the other network operators crucify you if you data-roam while abroad?

petiha

JoeA3 wrote: »

I have a similar question.
I'm out of contract with Vodafone. Current plan costs €45 a month, but from a quick look around, I think I can get a similar package (or much better) for €20 - €30 per month on the likes of Meteor / Tesco / 3. Even cheaper again if I opt for SIM only and just buy the phone direct off Apple, which I think I am leaning towards.

My only concern is - what is network coverage like with 3 / Meteor / Tesco, etc? I was with 02 a few years ago and I found them terrible! Vodafone miles better.

Also, I have a good data roaming deal on Vodafone - "free" roaming, it comes out of my monthly allowance. Very handy and I'd hate to lose that... do the other network operators crucify you if you data-roam while abroad?

Well, the network coverage with Three is not bad, but not the best either. Vodafone is definately better than Three in that aspect. However, for me it works pretty good (I live in Cork, and I get full 3G network coverage most of the time ).

Roaming depends on what you mean by abroad. For example, UK has Three, so if you go to the UK you don't have to pay anything extra, but I don't know nothing about those countries that don't have Three...

Hope this helped a little bit...

Thomas from Presence

Three and data roaming on the continent are not a good match. It's a constant burn on me. If you do a lot of travel you'll need to factor in the cost of roaming for a fair comparison.

nebo

I'm with 3 at the moment on PAYG with an iPhone 4S. Topping up by €20 a month gets me unlimited Internet and texts, and free weekend calls. The coverage is grand and I even had a pretty painless experience with their customer service.
I've only been on it a few months, but I'd never go back to bill pay!

petiha

nebo wrote: »

I'm with 3 at the moment on PAYG with an iPhone 4S. Topping up by €20 a month gets me unlimited Internet and texts, and free weekend calls. The coverage is grand and I even had a pretty painless experience with their customer service.
I've only been on it a few months, but I'd never go back to bill pay!

I had the same exact experience with Three, so far.

jc84

quite happy with o2 at the minute however as soon as i upgrade i'll lose my unlimited data package, think i'll go with three as they have all you can eat data

Bazsutto

jc84 wrote: »

quite happy with o2 at the minute however as soon as i upgrade i'll lose my unlimited data package, think i'll go with three as they have all you can eat data

I Just cheched my plan. I also have unlimited data plan with O2 thinking I would lose it. But simulated a purchase of the iPhone 4s and there is now a new option while upgrading to Keep your existing plan (12 month renewal)

Dades

JoeA3 wrote: »

I have a similar question.
I'm out of contract with Vodafone. Current plan costs €45 a month, but from a quick look around, I think I can get a similar package (or much better) for €20 - €30 per month on the likes of Meteor / Tesco / 3. Even cheaper again if I opt for SIM only and just buy the phone direct off Apple, which I think I am leaning towards.

Make sure you're not going to bump up your bills if you lose the free VF to VF customers benefit. I'm on the same tariff as you but would get crucified if I left VF as 90% of my calls/texts are to other VF people.

JoeA3 wrote: »

Also, I have a good data roaming deal on Vodafone - "free" roaming, it comes out of my monthly allowance. Very handy and I'd hate to lose that... do the other network operators crucify you if you data-roam while abroad?

Unfortunately I think even staying with VF you would lose that in signing a new contract. I have it too, and was told I was lucky to still have it as contracts haven't included it for a long time.

naasrd

I switched to PAYG when my iphone 4 contract with 3 ended. The 20 euro AYCE data offer swung me. I might consider going back to Bill Pay is it's an actractive enough offer.

JoeA3

Dades wrote: »

Make sure you're not going to bump up your bills if you lose the free VF to VF customers benefit. I'm on the same tariff as you but would get crucified if I left VF as 90% of my calls/texts are to other VF people.

Unfortunately I think even staying with VF you would lose that in signing a new contract. I have it too, and was told I was lucky to still have it as contracts haven't included it for a long time.

Yeah, I'm surprised I still have this on my package and most people think its amazing that I'm roaming away on the phone when abroad, not worrying about the cost! It is very handy... but then again, I'm only abroad 3-4 times a year maybe.

As for free VF-VF, I'm finding that more and more of my regular contacts have moved to the other networks.

Piliger

I'm with 48. €10pm for unlimited calls and unlimited texts to any mobile network plus 20 minutes landline calls. Sweeeeeet.

petiha

Piliger wrote: »

I'm with 48. €10pm for unlimited calls and unlimited texts to any mobile network plus 20 minutes landline calls. Sweeeeeet.

How is the network coverage for 48? Their plans are really tempting, and I'm considering switching to them...

Piliger

petiha wrote: »

How is the network coverage for 48? Their plans are really tempting, and I'm considering switching to them...

From what I know ... like a lot of networks it depends where you are. But they do use the O2 network so .... and I never have a data problem myself. But do your own research before you decide. I 95% use wifi so the data thing doesn't bother me at all.

I did have some trouble pre July/August period in Ranelagh. Slight trouble. In my bedroom my iPhone would lose the 48 network regularly ... though it was never a problem during a call.
Then remember that big O2 outage ? well when that was fixed, my problem disappeared completely.
Along with that, because of the losing network issue, the battery was leaking away. After the outage was fixed my batter went from lasting 2/3 of a day to almost 2 days. Coverage really affects battery life a lot more than people think.

IE2012

conor06 wrote: »

Im currently contract free, was with O2. Im looking to get the iPhone 5 but not too sure what network. I normally pay approx 60e per month. Just wondering what the best deal is at the moment, I understand that plans might chance with the new iPhone

On Vodafone myway complete plus price plan Skype and VoIP are blocked
Unless you pay €20.33 extra per month which is bad form

IE2012

Dades wrote: »

Make sure you're not going to bump up your bills if you lose the free VF to VF customers benefit. I'm on the same tariff as you but would get crucified if I left VF as 90% of my calls/texts are to other VF people.

Unfortunately I think even staying with VF you would lose that in signing a new contract. I have it too, and was told I was lucky to still have it as contracts haven't included it for a long time.

Yes but Vodafone block Skype on iPhone plans and charge extra if you wish to use Skype

petiha

petiha wrote: »

Well, the network coverage with Three is not bad, but not the best either. Vodafone is definately better than Three in that aspect. However, for me it works pretty good (I live in Cork, and I get full 3G network coverage most of

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0713/breaking17.html

3 and Vodafone share same network

Qualitymark

Isn't 48 basically o2 but without data?

guil

TheEntrepreneur wrote: »

petiha wrote: »

Well, the network coverage with Three is not bad, but not the best either. Vodafone is definately better than Three in that aspect. However, for me it works pretty good (I live in Cork, and I get full 3G network coverage most of

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0713/breaking17.html

3 and Vodafone share same network

That's not entirely true. Three use vodafones edge/grps network where there is no 3G connection

quad_red

Why have no Irish networks released costs/plans for the new iPhone?

petiha

quad_red wrote: »

Why have no Irish networks released costs/plans for the new iPhone?

They will... probably/hopefully on Friday!

Jev/N

guil wrote: »

That's not entirely true. Three use vodafones edge/grps network where there is no 3G connection

However, it has been reported they're planning to fully share their infrastructure

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0713/breaking17.html

Piliger

Qualitymark wrote: »

Isn't 48 basically o2 but without data?

Well what package on O2 gives unlimited calls and texts to all networks for 10pm ? And even with O2 you have to have a data package right ?

You can pay extra with 48 to get constant data access, but I prefer their 'snack' system where you txt them for an instant 30 minutes data for 15c.

JoeA3

Dades wrote: »

Make sure you're not going to bump up your bills if you lose the free VF to VF customers benefit. I'm on the same tariff as you but would get crucified if I left VF as 90% of my calls/texts are to other VF people.

Unfortunately I think even staying with VF you would lose that in signing a new contract. I have it too, and was told I was lucky to still have it as contracts haven't included it for a long time.

I've heard today that the VF free data roaming is finishing on Oct 22nd. I guess that makes the moving networks dillema much easier now!

IE2012

probably better getting a sim free one from apple, and getting a better deal on the monthly plan, also easier to move if a better offer appears with a different network.

Dades

JoeA3 wrote: »

I've heard today that the VF free data roaming is finishing on Oct 22nd. I guess that makes the moving networks dillema much easier now!

Yeah, I got that text from VF as well. Don't have to bemoan signing a new contract and losing the roaming benefit now at least.

Coopster91

Hey everyone,

I'm getting an iP5 for my birthday but in an unconventional way.

My uncle is a Vodafone Business customer and can get me the iPhone a lot cheaper than if I bought it pre-pay. (I'm not nor will ever be a Bill-Pay customer!) So the phone is locked to the Vodafone network okay?..

What I want to know is, can I just bring the iPhone into any Vodafone store and ask for a pre-pay nano-sim and work away on Pre-Pay? Or will the Vodafone people be like ''Hey, where did you get this iPhone, it belongs to a BillPay customer??'' as in will they know that its a Bill Pay phone and refuse to set me up just by looking at it, or the serial number?...

Am I over-thinking this?!

Any info would be helpful!!

PS- This is my first Boards.ie post - hurray!

Qualitymark

Probably easiest if d'uncle gets d'SIM for you, though I haven't heard of any problems.

guil

No there won't be a problem. You could go into vf now and get a nano sim

molly09

what about going with emobile?