Bye Bye O2

OneADay

My contract with o2 came to end in June this year. I decided to move on prior to them trying to offer me anything. I had been with them for 2 years (2 x 12 month contracts).

Essentially they sent me upgrade text 14 days prior to 30 days - I phone up and they tell me I have to wait till 30 days prior to end to get offered anything. I had gone through the same scenario the previous year and ended up paying more in the last year (same tariff as previous year but no cashback as I was direct to o2 last 12 months).

Anyway saw a cheap deal on t-mobile - and I decided to leave.
On plus side o2 do have good customer service in my experience. I was peeved though by the n95 8gig which they gave me for upgrade. The screen blew up internally cracking the front (honest Guv, even a dummy could see that but not o2) by itself and they refused to repair it unless I paid (I didnt).

And my primary reason for switching was the fact I could get cheaper deals by switching providers which I have always tried to do - rarely do I take an upgrade.

Lum

Just left O2 after 10 years. Wanted an N97 to replace my 9300i but O2 don't offer it. The rep I spoke to tried to sell me an iPhone which I didn't want and gave me the impression that their deal with Apple had something to do with it, then clammed right up when I asked "what, you're saying Apple won't let you sell the N97?". Take from that what you will.

Now on Orange, got the phone free from Carphone Warehouse with a decent tarrif that's slightly cheaper than O2's. Had almost no trouble with them over the PAC code. They said it'd take 2 days and I'd receive it by text message. In reality I recieved nothing and had to ring up and ask for it, but they gave it to me straight away. Ported the number to Orange with no problems except for a weird period where both phones gave out the same number as their caller ID, but I guess that kind of thing is to be expected.

Might go back to O2 when the Orange contract is up, probably on a sim-only deal, or maybe they'll have non-Apple smartphones available then.

WolfSong2000

fsrandom wrote: »

What do you think of there broadband, was there any problems at all? I've just asked for my MAC from Orange Home Broadband due to my connection being throttled to nothing during peak times and O2 seems to be the best package available in my area (£22 Access Pack 8MB Unlimited / No throttling), so I'm just trying to get some feedback about there service.

I have 02 broadband, but only through months of sheer bl**dy persistence on my part - o2 was cheapest provider and I *should* have got free broadband for a year (some birthday deal they were offering)...took me 3 months of chasing them up to get the broadband, and needless to say it wasn't free (O2 blame BT, BT blame O2, yada yada yada), but now it's up and running I can't fault it...I pay less than £10 per month for fast and reliable service, and am very happy with it now I have it. Just hated the fact it took so long chasing them up, and being *really* persistant (they kept telling me it wasn't available in my area, when I knew it was - my neighbours had it. lol).

Mobile phone wise I'm with orange...wanted to go with O2, but they couldn't match orange's offer...was told by a manager in another store to come see them when my contract was up with orange, but tbh, I'm not seeing anything phone wise (or tariff wise) with O2 that catches my eye.

nobby24

But you can have an Iphone 3Gs on a £35 a month contract and it's a better phone than the N97 especially for web-browsing.

Lum

"better" is subjective, for example the iPhone doesn't have a QWERTY keyboard and it has no ability (short of hacking it which probably voids your warranty) to run apps that aren't approved by Apple.
This is a serious issue since the mobile phone carriers lean on Apple to remove any apps that may affect their profits, for example they recently removed Google Voice from the iPhone store. It's still available for Symbian, Windows Mobile etc.

nobby24

It does have a qwerty keyboard and the apps are probably it's best feature. Since I got mine I think I spend longer on it than my laptop. Downloading games, music, videos and apps is brilliant and the quality is amazing.

Lum

I was under the impression that the iPhone used a virtual keyboard via the touchscreen rather than having a proper keyboard with actual buttons like the N97 has.

And yes the apps are good, but the fact that they have to be approved by Apple and they can pull ones they or the carriers don't like.

For example the app I've just written for the N97 that automates querying saynoto0870.com and then dialling the resulting number(s). Someone on their forums did a similar app for the iPhone and Apple refused to allow it because it means O2 make less money. There's no such restriction on the N97 because you can just run it unsigned.

There's other reasons not to like Apple too, such as the recent iPhone security vulnerability where someone could send a series of binary SMSes which the phone would happily assemble into a single program and then run it with full permissions on the phone, allowing the sender to do anything they like to/with your phone. All fancy phones have vulnerabilities but Apple took over a month (from being informed about this bug) to get a fix out.

T8RSP

For those of you who have recently bought the Nokia N97 - was it SIM Free/Unlocked and if so, who was it from?

Thanks :beer:

nobby24

Yes it is a virtual qwerty keyboard. The N97 keyboard looks very cumbersome.

The iphone security issue was fixed within 24 hours with os 3.0.1.

Lum

The n97 keyboard is fine.

The iPhone issue was fixed within 24 hours of the exploit being released publically. Apple had known about it for a month having been notified by the group who discovered it. They did nothing about it until said group announced that they were going public on a specific date, thus forcing Apple's hand.

I'll agree that web browsing using the default browser is pretty poor on the N97, but the free digia@web browser is much much better (better than Opera Mini too), well worth a look.

In any case, this thread isn't supposed to be about iPhone vs n97 (or any other phone) but just because the iPhone is the best choice of phone for you doesn't mean it's the best choice for everyone.

T8RSP: I got mine from Carphone Warehouse, they told me it was unlocked as standard but I've not tested it.