Voip?

10_66

I have a Pay As You Go mobile phone as I don’t make many calls on my mobile, I use it mostly for texts. I live in an area with very poor mobile reception. Although I do have a land line phone at home, I’m fed up of not being able to rely on my mobile for calls and texts as I usually give this number out for contacting me. I was told by my Pay As You Go provider (O2, who has the strongest signal round here) that if I used VOIP it would mean I would be able to receive calls and texts more reliably. I have no idea how this works. I think, but am not sure, that I would have to have a Smartphone, and on contract (my current phone is just a plain old “make and receive a phone call type”). I don’t want to change my Internet Service Provider as I’m happy with them. What would it entail for me to get this sorted out, please?

grumbler

With VOIP in general you can't receive calls made to your O2 number.

You can with O2's own VOIP service that they call 'TU Go', but it is currently available to pay monthly customers only:

http://www.o2.co.uk/apps/tu-go
http://www.o2.co.uk/help/products-and-services/tu-go

Cheapest smartphones cost less than £20, e.g. on PAYG upgrades at CPW: http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/pay-as-you-go/deal-finder?PPAYUPG

esuhl

Maybe a silly question (as I've not tried myself), but couldn't you just install Skype on your phone... Then you could use VOIP to chat to anyone else using Skype...

(Or is that not possible with smartphones...?)

mmoore

Skype should work fine on a smartphone (Android at least, can't comment on others) - you can also get a number for a couple of quid a month so non-sykpe users can call you. You do of course need an internet connection.

Inner_Zone

Skype (a propriety service) would work on most flavour of smart phone with a Skype app or you could get a true VoIP service again apps are available for most types of smart phones. No VoIP or Skype service will improve your O2 text messages reception.

grumbler

Inner_Zone wrote: »

...No VoIP or Skype service will improve your O2 text messages reception.

O2 TU Go will.

It doesn't make much sense to use Skype on O2 PAYG.
After switching to sim-only pay monthly it makes much more sense to use TU Go than Skype etc.

IMO, only if the OP changes the provider to, say, giffgaff or Tesco, it makes sense to consider Skype.

Browntoa

I use TU at home as lousy O2 signal whereas wifi covers the whole house

System

The Three in touch app works over Wi-Fi and is available for all 3 customers with an iPhone or Android.

Three PAYG also has the benefit of being substantially cheaper than O2 PAYG - 3p per minute for calls, 2p per text and 1pm per MB.

10_66

I went into my local mobile phone shop and was telling them about my poor signal etc. I explained I was just after advice at this point, not to buy. The guy said that where I live is a "black hole" as far as mobile signal goes, and confirmed O2 has the strongest normal signal. However, he said that EE have a gizmo called a signal booster that they will provide you with that plugs into the WiFi thingy on the computer (he said his mother has one of these as she has poor signal too and it works successfully). I'd have to go on a contract (which I think he said is a 3 year contract), and the charge would be £14.99 a month. He said a Sony Xperia smartphone is what he'd recommend as he said it's more user friendly than iPhone or Nokia. Does anyone have any advice about this as an option. Sorry, I really don't know anything about this.

10_66

Heng_Leng wrote: »

The Three in touch app works over Wi-Fi and is available for all 3 customers with an iPhone or Android.

Three PAYG also has the benefit of being substantially cheaper than O2 PAYG - 3p per minute for calls, 2p per text and 1pm per MB.

With the Three in touch app, would I have to go on a monthly contract for that, please?

MikeWhite

10_66 wrote: »

With the Three in touch app, would I have to go on a monthly contract for that, please?

No, as above, it's available to all customers!