Which sim only contract?

I will be moving back to Ireland shortly after living abroad for ten years. I will be bringing an unlocked iPhone 5 with me.

I use between 150 to 180 minutes of calls per month, most to other mobiles. I send about 100 text messages a month. I use about 1G or slightly over 1G of data a month. The main thing for me is to have a fast and reliable 3G or 4G connection. So which mobile operators have a good reputation and which ones should I avoid?

I will be looking for a sim only contract for about 18 months as I intend of having my iPhone for three years before getting a new one.

Also are tethering options available/included are an added extra with Irish mobile operators?

Carpenter

48

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20 euro pm its on the 02 network and 3G only AFAIK

http://www.48months.ie/

Carpenter

Carpenter wrote: »

48

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20 euro pm its on the 02 network and 3G only AFAIK

http://www.48months.ie/

It says you need to be between 18 and 22 years old to join. No good for me unfortunately.

Carpenter

Deleted User wrote: »

It says you need to be between 18 and 22 years old to join. No good for me unfortunately.

They don't ask for proof I am on it 18 months now so is my wife and my 2 daughters 1 of them is 25 if you look around here you will see 48 come up a bit for all ages

hfallada

Go for 48 cheapest plan. 300 mobile mins, 50 landline mins and unlimited texts with 1 gb for €10 a month. They dont actually check ages at all.

Carpenter

Carpenter wrote: »

They don't ask for proof I am on it 18 months now so is my wife and my 2 daughters 1 of them is 25 if you look around here you will see 48 come up a bit for all ages

48 uses O2's network, what are their data speeds like and are they reliable?

Carpenter

I'm in Dublin and have no problems with them after all AFAIK the 02 network is the best we have (Mind you not all will agree)

daveyb2

is this a 1 month rolling contract or do you have have to renew membership every month?

DrChristianTroy

Thinking of moving to 48, seems great value....can anyone tell me if the data speeds are okay? I've seen a few places online of people having issues but dunno why this is seeing they're using the o2 network?

Bob24

DrChristianTroy wrote: »

Thinking of moving to 48, seems great value....can anyone tell me if the data speeds are okay? I've seen a few places online of people having issues but dunno why this is seeing they're using the o2 network?

I have no first-hand experience but I remember reading that data speeds are indeed slower on 48 than O2 (I was on Tesco Mobile before, which are also using O2, and the speeds where also slower than what I am now getting on O2).

This is because they are using the O2 network as in the cell towers and the infrastructure to bring what comes from the towers to a central data center; but once this data (or calls or texts) is centralised is when O2 is handing it to the alternate operator (Tesco or 48). The core telecom network which connects you to the internet or routes our calls to other phone companies is not the O2 network.

So basically you are guaranteed to have the same network coverage as O2 in terms of where you get signal, as well as having the same potential for data speeds. But if 48 or Tesco are under-investing in their internet connectivity or are capping your speed to limit your usage, this will be your bottleneck and while the O2 network can deliver faster speeds you won't be getting them. In theory it would also be possible for 48 or Tesco to deliver better service than O2 if O2 themselves had crappy internet connectivity from their core network and others had better one - but not really happening right now and O2 would be really stupid to let than happen :-)

Hope this makes sense!

PS: and to make things a bit more confusing while they behave a separate entities and do use separate core network infrastructure, I believe 48 is fully owned by O2 and Tesco Mobile is half owned by them (the other hald obviously being Tesco).

beauf

Data is much more expensive on O2.

Bob24

beauf wrote: »

Data is much more expensive on O2.

In most cases this is correct, but their current "Freedom Internet" offer on prepaid is not bad for heavy enough data users (10 euros taken off a minimum monthly top-up of 20 give you 7.5GB of data).

They'll get you will voice calls if you make a lot if them on that offer though.

beauf

Tesco and 48 seem to have more rounded offers, with a better balance of calls/texts and data.

MBSnr

TescoMobile wins for me over 48 due to their 1c per min international rates.
But if that is not important then I think the €10 option on 48 is the better deal (over TescoMobile). The data tops ups are cheaper for a start I believe. TM lets you tether. I can't say for 48.