o2 v GiffGaff v Tesco Mobile

dave111

Looking for a new simonly tariff and o2 Network has best reception for me.


I appreciate o2/giffgagg/tescomobile share the o2 network -- but is there any difference on data/call quality.
Do any operate traffic management etc.

Is there any other o2 MVNOs

Cheers

anotheruser

I didn't notice a difference in call quality from O2 to Tesco.
Not really every been throttled, but I've never really heard of that on mobile phones.

Tesco = clubcard points (currently triple until Match 2014), which may sway your view.

virgo17

There used to be speculation that a main carrier would give priority to their actual customers over the customers of an MNVO running on their network.

This is a very difficult thing to prove and from my use of Tesco Mobile I have never had any grounds to think it was any different to my days on O2.

Maybe, at busy times like New Year, own customers get priority but who knows. Certainly the emergency services have the ability to request GSM priority when using cell phones, so I guess it is technically possible.

NFH

The quality of the data connectivity will certainly be different between different MVNOs, but very unlikely for calls.

cookie365

The official word from giffgaff was that O2 give their contract customers priority for data, everyone else (Tesco, giffgaff, O2 payg) gets lower priority, but it makes no difference at all if the mast isn't oversubscribed.

Don't know if that's true or not though.

Certainly when I moved from O2 contract to giffgaff I didn't notice any change in call quality or data speed/availability.

ZhugeEX

That is correct. Here is my post from earlier.

ZhugeEX wrote: »

Giff Gaff & Tesco customers are given a lower priority than O2 customers.

There are 3 tiers to O2's service.

Tier 1- O2 Pay monthly + Business
Tier 2- O2 Pay as you go + Tesco Pay Monthly/pay as you go
Tier 3- Giff Gaff + Other MVNO's.

If you are connected to a mast that's not very busy you will most likely get the same performance on Giffgaff as you would on O2 as conditions are perfect, everyone has access to the mast and capacity isn't an issue so it will be mostly the same, Giffgaff only gets worse when there are a lot of people on the mast, this is where the priority thing I mentioned comes in, if the mast needs to offload people or slow them down MVNOs like Giffgaff go first, if conditions are perfect nobody gets offloaded or slowed down because there is enough space and it's just not necessary.

Please note that differences between the three networks will not be visible at all really. Just when say a lot of people are using data then giff gaff customers will be slowed down more than O2 customers. But you won't notice it unless you have 2 phones next to each other doing speed tests.

99.9% of the time there is no difference to notice at all.

jem16

ZhugeEX wrote: »

Just when say a lot of people are using data then giff gaff customers will be slowed down more than O2 customers. But you won't notice it unless you have 2 phones next to each other doing speed tests.

Exactly what my son and I did last night.

He is on Giffgaff and I'm on Tesco. Speedtest showed less than 1mb for him and 3.9mb for me.

Both of us using a Galaxy S3 - he has the LTE version and it was showing a 4G mobile connection. I don't have the LTE version and it was showing H+.

I'd choose Tesco on that showing. He's not bothered as he's only back in the UK on holiday. Canada has much better 4G coverage.

ZhugeEX

jem16 wrote: »

Exactly what my son and I did last night.

He is on Giffgaff and I'm on Tesco. Speedtest showed less than 1mb for him and 3.9mb for me.

Both of us using a Galaxy S3 - he has the LTE version and it was showing a 4G mobile connection. I don't have the LTE version and it was showing H+.

I'd choose Tesco on that showing. He's not bothered as he's only back in the UK on holiday. Canada has much better 4G coverage.

Just to note. The 4G coverage your son was seeing was actually a HSPA+ connection (So the same as your phone).

Because your sons phone is from Canada it'll display 4G instead of H+. Giff Gaff don't have 4G in the UK yet.

jem16

ZhugeEX wrote: »

Just to note. The 4G coverage your son was seeing was actually a HSPA+ connection (So the same as your phone).

Because your sons phone is from Canada it'll display 4G instead of H+. Giff Gaff don't have 4G in the UK yet.

No I knew that as far as 4G and Giffgaff were concerned. I was just surprised to see it showing that.

ZhugeEX

jem16 wrote: »

No I knew that as far as 4G and Giffgaff were concerned. I was just surprised to see it showing that.

Ah ok, sorry.