UKC

If you had a choice of choosing 3 sim cards what networks/cards would you choose?

Not interested in cost, just coverage.

Have a contract with O2 so they are a certainty, other 2 will be a back up and be pay as you go sim cards.

Not sure who shares with whom/exactly what that means hence the question.

UK wide but mainly rural if that helps.

Thanks
Andy

In reply to Andy 976853:
So that's choose 3 out of 3 then because there are only 3 rural UK-wide and they are O2, Vodaphone and EE. I have had O2 and Voda for about a decade and have recently been experiementing with an EE PAYG data SIM.

EE have a decent proportion of the rural parts of their network and small towns on 3G+. Their 2G is 1800MHz which doesn't work so well in difficult terrain. Their online system appears good but often seems counter-intuitive and to offer confused information. App OK but same comments.

O2 have their 2G on 900MHz so that often works better than 2G EE cells and somehow O2 manage to operate a decent network with the lowest power output of of any provider if the, now out-of-date, Ofcom database is to be believed. Rarely using O2 3G so difficult to comment but much of their network development has been done jointly with Vodafone! Their online system has been consistently the rock solid best until recent changes.

Vodafone do not have coverage blanks as large as other providers. Their 2G is on 900MHz. They have a respectable amount of 3G+ network. When the phone tells you that Voda is working then it probably will actually work. Their online system is good in theory but was written by some pr1** who thinks everyone is using MSIE on fibre. Android app OK.

Sitefinder
http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/
will tell you the details of the network in most rural locations. It hasn't been updated for ages but then neither have the rural networks!

In reply to Jim Fraser:

O2 are shocking in rural Shropshire but best for Dartmoor. Ee are best of a bad lot in Shropshire but generally rubbish in Devon.

So variable

In reply to Jim Fraser:

Thanks Jim,

Sorted; current O2 contract + vodaphone and EE back up sims. You have probably saved me hours of research so thank you.

In reply to Andy 976853:

Have a look at Manx Telecom. When on the UK mainland it switches to roaming mode and will connect to whichever network it can find. Saves having to swap SIMS or carry multiple phones.

In reply to Andy 976853:

My antique Vodafone work phone seems to always have signal. Even in some if our local signal pits!

In reply to Andy 976853:


I'd get just one - a sim for any large network in France, Germany, Australia, the USA etc.

That would grant me roaming access to all the UK networks.

How dumb is that? If I go to France, I have better coverage there than any resident of France. If the holder of a French phone brings it here, they have better coverage than me.

FFS.

The sooner all the mobile phone companies get reduced to nothing but silent and instantly interchangeable, dumb vendors of mobile data the better. My phone should be able to hook in to any of the networks at its leisure, preferably following some rules *I* define that trade off the data price being offered by each network vs each other and vs the data rate I want.

Okay, so we would need to end the trichotemy between phone calls, SMS and "data" - a split that only seems to exist to necessitate myriad pricing plans with no correlation what-so-ever to the cost of service delivery - i.e. all a part of Operation "Shaft The Consumer."

The way the b*rds have the market stitched up here the only thing that's going to shake them out of the crap we have now is a future generation of low orbit satellites. They're coming with various people pouring in $Bns...

In reply to Andy 976853:
Most 3G+ phones have a facility for selecting 2G only. In rural areas this can be essential. If you keep it on 2G then there will usually be a signal you get your calls and text and the phone happily sits there on 2G not using much battery energy. Just switch back to 3G if you want to do web stuff. There are apps that make the switch easier.

If you leave it on 3G then in bad coverage areas (typical rural and small town situation) then the phone uses extra battery energy hunting for a 3G signal.

The Open Signal app (Geek land!) can tell you your signal status and what mast you are using and refresh your connection. No black magic and no miracles but sometimes phones get hung up on one particular mast and you have a rubbish connection for no apparent reason. A refresh can fix that.

In reply to randomsabreur:



Is there a non-rural part of Shropshire?

Where I live O2 claim to have excellent indoors/outdoors 2G+3G. In reality it's nonexistent because their mapping tool has failed to factor in the huge hills between their transmitter in the next village and my house in this one. Almost the entire village is an O2 and EE blackspot.

In reply to Philip:

You might know about this already but I recently found an app done by O2 called Tu Go which routes your calls/texts over wifi at your end rather than over the mobiles network (well it gets routed over both but if you've got no coverage the mobile network fails).

The person at the other end has no idea that it's going to your mobile over wifi, they don't have to use an app, it's just like a normal call to them.
It still comes out of your call allowance mind.

It's great for when you are at home with no mobile signal.