Mobile Phone Service Providers

arclight

arclight

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Doug
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I am looking for some advice on changing my mobile phone service (Voice & SMS only - no Smartphones involved) provider.

I understand that there are only four mobile phone Host Networks - Vodaphone, EE, O2, and Three (used by a lot of Virtual networks).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...le_virtual_network_operators#Active_operators
At home several phones are active using Tesco and giff-gaff (O2 network). for Voice and SMS only. Signal strength is very low and indoor voice comms can be broken and generally poor.
If Asda sim cards (EE network) are put in the phones the received signal is much stronger and voice comms are perfectly clear.

Although EE appears to be the best choice I don't particularly want to sign up with Asda. I am inclined towards BT, who supply my internet, landline and TV.

Can someone please help me with this : Will the EE signal I get be of the same strong and clear quality no matter what host service provider I use.
(I realise that some of the providers out there may not be a good choice for reasons other than signal quality).

Thanks.
 
I moved from EE to Plusnet last month and no drop in signal at all, plusnet use the EE network
My daughter is on 02 and she has the same problem as you when she visits has to us my BB for wifi calling
 
Been with EE since I first got a mobile. At the time, their coverage was the best here and I have never had any problems with their service. Although I do have a smartphone, I don't have data included on my (PAYG) plan - I use it in WiFi (trusted) areas. Pretty much emergency use only, although I do do the organisation of a couple of golf groups via SMS.
 
If they use the same carrier then they use the same masts and the signal will be the same.
 
arclight said:
I am inclined towards BT, who supply my internet, landline and TV.
Click to expand...
I changed to BT recently, it costs me £8 / month, (I have Internet with them) sim only unlimited calls unlimited text and 2Gb data.
There was a bit of ahiccup recently when for a few days the texts wouldn't send, but it was about the same time as all the other issues.
It all seems OK now.
They use EE's masts.
 
Thanks folks, that helps. O2 has degraded at my locus. It had picked up after the recent problems, but has slipped again.
 
Steep said:
If they use the same carrier then they use the same masts and the signal will be the same.
Click to expand...

Not true when it comes to data. O2 give priority to:

O2 contract customers then
O2 prepay customers then
GiffGaff customers then
Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile then Lycamobile customers.

How it will be noticeable is in data download and upload speed at peak hours.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Not true when it comes to data. O2 give priority to:

O2 contract customers then
O2 prepay customers then
GiffGaff customers then
Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile then Lycamobile customers.

How it will be noticeable is in data download and upload speed at peak hours.
Click to expand...

Strange - I have noticed with Tesco that at peak times it can take 2 and sometimes 3 attempts to send a message.
 
arclight said:
Strange - I have noticed with Tesco that at peak times it can take 2 and sometimes 3 attempts to send a message.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Your message is a data packet, and as I mentioned, when the network is busy (as a Tesco Mobile subscriber) you are way down the list in terms of priority.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Indeed. Your message is a data packet, and as I mentioned, when the network is busy (as a Tesco Mobile subscriber) you are way down the list in terms of priority.
Click to expand...

I guess that goes some way to explaining why Tesco are cheap (y)
 
Steep said:
I think you misread the question, you may be quite correct in what you say but it's not relevant.
Click to expand...

You sure? He asked if the EE signal would be the same for each of the service providers. You answered that yes it would. I pointed out that in O2’s case the service provided does indeed vary between service providers. Now I don’t know for a fact if EE prioritise their customers, but if they do, then I think my response was relevant.
Anyway, not worth falling out over it is it.
 
You're confusing bandwidth throttling with signal strength though, the signal is the same across the board but what the network allows through and in what order will be up to them. Since Doug isn't interested in data I doubt he'd notice much difference either way.
 
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