Tello

KingS6

I'm weighing in with my Tello experience after now having had the chance to try them out.

Well when someones asks what Tello's coverage is like, what they should be asking is what Three UK's coverage is like in the areas they wish to use their device as they piggyback on this network. Both Three UK and Tello have coverage maps for people to check both their 3G and 4G coverage.

In the vast majority of the UK, Three have wound up their 2G coverage which used to piggyback on Orange's network and before that O2. However even if they still had a deal with what is now EE, it wouldn't help me in my circumstances as both Three and EE have poor coverage in this area. Vodafone and O2 are the fellows around here.

The coverage for me has been next to nonexistent. No service through my home except for one or two sport where I'm lucky to get one bar and a real miracle if two.

I thought this would be a negated by the WiFi calling available through the app. However I found the WiFi calling feature poor quality with a haphazard set up, especially having a small loudspeaker icon next to the end call button! The loudspeaker function is used a lot as I found the volume of the calls too quiet.

Another function is although you can copy and port your contacts into the app it requires you to rewrite them with the UK areas code first which is time consuming. You cannot edit this in the app itself. If you select the edit contact option in the app it will take you back your native contacts book on your device and you will have to alter all the numbers you wish to use there.

I also did not like how when you order a "free" sim I had to select a 30 day plan and pay for this upfront. I couldn't even top up a nominal amount. It would have been far better to get a sim card with no money loaded it and see the signal before committing a purchase.

The customer service has been spot on though and the pricing is competitive. Maybe even switch to o2 or Vodafone for their piggyback network. If they could sort out just these few issues they would get a solid 10 from me.

As it stands they get a generous 8 put of 10 from me.

gogol

I am posting an update of my experience with tello after being on their network for over 8 months.

Network:
It is as good as Three. So if 3 does not work in your areas neither will tello. I have had problems with the network in the countryside and rural areas. Within the city it has been stellar. Outages are very rare. I have faced one outage in my time with them. Their internet speeds are comparable to the best. I would have expected that though given 3 prides itself on a superior data network. Now this is my opinion - I think one reason for a good data experience is that tello does not offer an unlimited plan. That means heavy users are not on the network. The business merits of such a decision can be debated. However experientially its good for users and the network doesnt spend resources network managing constantly. I am all for higher, but capped, data allowances.

International Roaming:
For people not aware, tello has an app (its excellent - clean and neat interface with lots of functionality) which allows you to call any number in your contacts while you are travelling abroad. Your allowance and rates will be deducted just as if you were calling while in the UK. The only additional cost to you is data costs in your country of travel. This data will come from wifi, or from a local network of that country. Please remember your tello sim while abroad does not work so there is no question of international roaming on it. To give an example for more clarity - When I traveled to Singapore I popped out my tello sim and popped in a local sim. Then I opened the tello app on my phone and started calling my contacts in the UK from within the app. I was using up data on my local Singaporean sim, and my usual tello allowance same as if I had been calling while within the UK. The downside of using tello is (and I consider it to be a major downside) that you cannot receive incoming calls and not even sms while abroad (because your sim is simply non-functional). No incoming calls would be ok if I could receive an sms from the person trying to call me so that I could make efforts to call him back. Also calls can be forwarded if needed. Tello really really needs to upgrade their app to send and receive sms while abroad. I will come back to this point when I discuss their pricing.

Service:
I only encountered their service people once - in the beginning while porting my number in. My experience then is well described on this page earlier. People can draw their own conclusions. My feeling is not negative but neutral to slightly positive.

Pricing:
When I joined their PAYGO rates were comparable to Three - 3p/min, 3p/sms, 1p/MB. Honestly those are the best rates in the market and to give credit where it is due kudos to 3 and tello. However where they score superior to Three is in the area of their international paygo rates, which are some of the lowest amongst (not as low as some MVNOs like giffgaff, however the difference is in the fraction of pennies) providers. So I could just call nationally and internationally anytime from my paygo assured that I was not going to empty out my account balance or get hit with rip off rates because I forgot to enter 3 extra digits in front of my number.
However they have just this month increased their national rates. They have increased them to 5p/min, 5p/sms, 2p/MB. I do not think this was a customer friendly move. However to be fair, they still have one of the lowest paygo rates in the market.
The costs of monthly plans (akin to goodybags in giffgaff and addons in Three) have been hiked significantly from this month. The highest plan from tell - Unlimited calls Unlimited sms 3GB data - went from £13 to £20 now. However to be fair to them, the highest increases has been for heavy users. In a way they seem to have implemented their own version of progressive cost rises.

20 SMS at no cost:
This was one small offering from tello which I think was more significant than it initially looks. As a part of any monthly plan they offered 20 SMS at no cost. The next package was for 100sms and then unlimited both of which had to be paid for. This was unlike all these other operators which tout benefits like 1000 sms or unlimited sms to justify charging something extra. These are useless to a very large proportion of us (I am tempted to say 99% of us but I do not want to throw out unsubstantiated numbers) because no one uses sms anymore in the same way as before. Sometimes we need to send the odd sms and tello seemed to say "We understand that sms are out of fashion so we're not forcing them down your throat. We believe 20 a month is a reasonable number that you might have to use. Tell you what. Its on us!" I loved that attitude and it was a major reason for me to like them and recommend them beyond just a service provider. Its over now. In their new monthly prices they are charging £1 for the minimum 20 sms. I'd be interested to know the following statistic: How many people were buying monthly plans with the no charge 20 sms limit earlier. I sincerely hope tello reconsider this action and hope they go back to not charging for the minimum 20 sms package. Maybe they could halve it to 10 if they want to push some people to the higher package. Its a small gesture tello, but in my opinion it helped you stand out from the pack in a positive light.

Conclusion:
I am sticking with tello - for now. They still have the most competitive package out there. If you are willing to work with their limitations on network and roaming I think it is still a reasonable choice.