Mobile Broadband - 3 or Vodafone?

Snakeeyes21

mandij30 wrote: »

Stay well clear of Three, there coverage is bad enough even for there mobile phones. Always losing signal. And it was even worse with there broadband.

My advice would be to Use T mobile, I am using that now, and the coverage is good, and always have signal strength, I think it may be a little more expensive then Three, but then you only get what you pay for

three and T-mobile joined forces to boost their mobile broadband coverage.
to say T-mobile is alot better than 3 is such a sweeping statement given the fact their mobile broadband networks are joined at the hip.
you really do get what you pay for, with T-mobile you get ripped off, 3 have the same coverage and higher download limits for cheaper

liam8282

1st Orange
2nd 3
3rd Vodafone
4th T-Mobile
5th O2

If that is the order of networks 3G coverage maps as of January 2009, why if 3 & T Mobile have joined forces, are 3 & T Mobile not in the same position in the table?

People on this thread have posted that 3 joined T Mobile to improve their coverage, so surely that would imply that T Mobile has more coverage and 3 has connected to this to improve their signal?

Drew210385

Well I think I figured out why the Vodafone PAYG Mobile stick wouldn't work for me. Because I have a Mac.. It goes on in it's splurge about Windows and PC's but doesn't actually mention Mac's anywhere. Strange in this day and age ..really..?

Snakeeyes21

liam8282 wrote: »

1st Orange
2nd 3
3rd Vodafone
4th T-Mobile
5th O2

If that is the order of networks 3G coverage maps as of January 2009, why if 3 & T Mobile have joined forces, are 3 & T Mobile not in the same position in the table?

People on this thread have posted that 3 joined T Mobile to improve their coverage, so surely that would imply that T Mobile has more coverage and 3 has connected to this to improve their signal?

Id say those positions are incorrect, look at the ones on cnet
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029453,49302921-3,00.htm
they show 3 as the top dog.
orange 2nd, t-mobile 3rd, vodafone 4th. O2 last (haha iphone users)
the only reason i can think of that 3 and t-mobile is so different is 3 may give priority connections to 3 customers. Making t-mobile fall just behind orange

ACDeag

Snakeeyes21 wrote: »

Id say those positions are incorrect, look at the ones on cnet
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029453,49302921-3,00.htm
they show 3 as the top dog.
orange 2nd, t-mobile 3rd, vodafone 4th. O2 last (haha iphone users)
the only reason i can think of that 3 and t-mobile is so different is 3 may give priority connections to 3 customers. Making t-mobile fall just behind orange

I am not sure that they are fully integrated yet, there maybe some 3 only base stations and T-Mobile only base stations. Each network has a portion of the spectrum that they are licensed to use. 3's portion is bigger than all the other networks as they were granted more as the new entrant, so they are less affected by congestion etc. 3 and T-Mobile will still be using their own portions just that they will be transmitted from the same base stations.

greyster

3 and TM wont have integrated until next year.

Also remember this is the 3G network, not 2G. You won't be using the 3G network to make voice calls. TM have their own 2G network and 3 piggy backs on someone else (orange i think).

I think the whole chart thing is a little flawed as it shows places that have 'good coverage.' What speed you get is a completely different story and not painted on the chart. T-Mobile or o2 which are at the bottom of the coverage list could quite easily be the 'fastest mobile broadband provider' in a given town. To me the chart only has a limited value. TM and Vodafone have several campaigns claiming they are the fastest provider, but they don't have the best coverage. All this kind of information should be postcode specific, a map at this level doesn't help anyone really.