RWG

ButtersUK

d123 said:

ButtersUK said:

Thank you also for the recommendation of 1p Mobile.  I obviously looked at other options including them and they were certainly a consideration (especially as they use EE which is the network I wish to use) - however as we speak 1p Mobile are charging £10 per month for unlimited calls & texts with 10GB data .... and I've just signed up to EE at a monthly cost of £9.50 with unlimited calls & texts and 25GB data. So no great saving there.

In view of this I welcome the thoughts of contributor d123 in regard to my having, apparently, made a poor MSE choice. 

Could you link to this £9.50 25GB contract as it doesn't appear on the EE website? EE shows a price of £23 a month.

With regard to the price, be aware that you will be liable for two increases during your contract if 24 months contract signed. This years increase was just under 15% of your monthly contract price.

You will also be speed capped on most cheap deals on EE, at or under 100Mbps.

1p Mobile is part of a £billion company, the customer service is very good and based in the UK.

In reply ........

Thank you for your response which I've taken note of.

I'm cognisant of the words .... Going direct to EE isn't really a good MSE choice these days, even if you didn't want RWG or Now you could have looked at 1p Mobile and stilled [sic] saved £££'s.

.... and am certainly not claiming to know the ins and outs of each and every network and MVNO but am still not sure that my transfer to EE pay monthly was such a bad move - but I may be proved wrong.

I am unable to provide a link to my plan as I don't think one exists. I contactetd EE in the first instance, by phone, and told the advisor I was (at the time) paying £6 per month to O2 for unlimited calls/texts and 4GB data.  I honestly can't remember the order of proceedings but at some point I believe I was put through to the "Retentions" department ... but please don't quote me as I could be mistaken.  Either way an advisor came back to me (after speaking to someone more senior, I guess) and offered me an "Essential" plan comprising unlimited calls/texts & 25GB with 2 yrs notice at a price of £9.80. He also arranged to send out an EE SIM so I could test the reception locally.  I went away to consider my options. The SIM arrived quickly and worked perfectly in the areas that had caused me issues with O2.  A few days later I rang again having decided to accept the offer and the advisor again went away to consult management and returned with a 2 yr contract with unlimited calls/texts & 25GB data at a price of £9.50.  I accepted and commenced the transfer procedure.

I was aware that 1p Mobile was £10 a month for unlimited calls/texts and their data quota, albeit lower, would have been fine but I was drawn by the excellent and efficient service I had received on the phone from EE staff and knew that I would be getting a decent signal from my local EE trannsmitters and was happier to be dealing direct with EE.

Regarding the likelihood of price rises in the contract during the next two years .... yes, I was aware but after balancing up the pros and cons decided I woul accept that and bear the increases as and when they occur and in two years time will reconsider - much may change in the next two years.  However, whilst fully accepting that 1p Mobile may well be in good financial stead  I further  consider the the possibility of EE going bankrupt and my losing both service AND my mobile phone number to be less that the likelihood of an MVNO going under.

I did happen to notice that I'm now granted access to VoLTE. whereas it  wasn't showing on my phone before with O2. I'll be honest and say I was ignorant of VoLTE for the previous years of my life and seemed to manage without it - but, hey, I've got it now!  

I still don't know what it is though.

Finally, yes the speed is capped to 100Mbps but as far as I can make out that's perfectly respectable and I can't see that as a negative. I'd have said that was nit-picking.

Today (Thurs. 27th) the port from O2 to EE took place exactly as they said it would and the reception difficulties in the geographical areas that were previously so poor with O2 were suddenly fully resolved following the swap to EE.

Final update:- Today (Fri. 28th) all is as we would have hoped for. Great  reception on EE and no traumas. I have been in touch with O2 via their overseas call centre and although the call quality isn't wonderful their staff are attentive and helpful and have done their best to respond to my protestations about reception of data and even sent message to say they've fixed the poor reception...... it remains to be seen when I visit previously difficult areas. If they do my Mrs. will stay on their Classic PAYG 321 plan. We shall see.  I fully admit the customer service staff were mainly excellent.  If reception remains poor she will very likely join 1p Mobile on one of their low user plans.

Thanks for the interest and opinions.

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bradley_nigel

ButtersUK said:

I did happen to notice that I'm now granted access to VoLTE. whereas it  wasn't showing on my phone before with O2. I'll be honest and say I was ignorant of VoLTE for the previous years of my life and seemed to manage without it - but, hey, I've got it now!   

I still don't know what it is though.

In reply:
VoLTE is “Voice over LTE”, where LTE is effectively 4G.  So putting all this together, you are now getting your voice calls transmitted over a 4G connection.

Without VoLTE, whenever you make a voice call through your phone (not via an app like Facetime which will use VOIP, Voice over IP), your phone will automatically switch from a 4G connection to a 3G connection, and when the call ends you will switch back to 4G.  3G has a separate voice channel.

Will you notice any difference for the voice call? It’s hard to say, some people claim the call clarity is better. Probably you would notice a difference if you were streaming videos or some other high data rate service at the same time as the voice call you may notice some improvement to those, because you will stay on 4G, not switch to 3G, so the videos, data will still use a higher data rate connection.

The operators will definitely see a difference, VoLTE is far more efficient to the network than 3G, 2G and VOIP voice calls, so there will be more capacity, so I guess in some ways that will benefit their customers too, less data used by voice traffic means more for other services.

Probably the most value will be in value added apps that can hook into VoLTE, so for example your doorbell can call you, or you can call your fridge when shopping in the supermarket and ask what you need and how much room is available!

Mostly though, in my opinion, it is marketing spin, something you need to make voice calls, definitely useful for a phone for most people, but give it a fancy name that few people understand.

Will be interesting to hear if people think their voice call quality has improved with VoLTE, I’d love to be corrected.

ProDave

bradley_nigel said:

ButtersUK said:

I did happen to notice that I'm now granted access to VoLTE. whereas it  wasn't showing on my phone before with O2. I'll be honest and say I was ignorant of VoLTE for the previous years of my life and seemed to manage without it - but, hey, I've got it now!   

I still don't know what it is though.

In reply:
VoLTE is “Voice over LTE”, where LTE is effectively 4G.  So putting all this together, you are now getting your voice calls transmitted over a 4G connection.

Without VoLTE, whenever you make a voice call through your phone (not via an app like Facetime which will use VOIP, Voice over IP), your phone will automatically switch from a 4G connection to a 3G connection, and when the call ends you will switch back to 4G.  3G has a separate voice channel.

Will you notice any difference for the voice call? It’s hard to say, some people claim the call clarity is better. Probably you would notice a difference if you were streaming videos or some other high data rate service at the same time as the voice call you may notice some improvement to those, because you will stay on 4G, not switch to 3G, so the videos, data will still use a higher data rate connection.

The operators will definitely see a difference, VoLTE is far more efficient to the network than 3G, 2G and VOIP voice calls, so there will be more capacity, so I guess in some ways that will benefit their customers too, less data used by voice traffic means more for other services.

Probably the most value will be in value added apps that can hook into VoLTE, so for example your doorbell can call you, or you can call your fridge when shopping in the supermarket and ask what you need and how much room is available!

Mostly though, in my opinion, it is marketing spin, something you need to make voice calls, definitely useful for a phone for most people, but give it a fancy name that few people understand.

Will be interesting to hear if people think their voice call quality has improved with VoLTE, I’d love to be corrected.

The main advantage of VOLTE is not VOLTE in it's own right, but it is the gateway that allows wifi calling, and in many cases (certainly here) having VOLTE enabled gives access to another radio frequency band from the transmitter.  And it just happens that here, out in the sticks, the band that carries VOLTE is the only one we can receive.  So presently, until RWG fulfil their intention of enabling VOLTE and wifi calling, my RWG phone is useless at home.

ButtersUK

Extremely instructive, ta very much. 
I remain perfectly happy with the new EE connection (with Volte) 

Am getting some communications from O2 whereby their systems are asking for early termination fees but a call to them seems to have straightened things out and it's all on record that they have waived all the penalty fees and I admit they're OK and have been helpful. O2 data reception in my area of TQ12 - TQ13 is dreadful with o2 whereas EE is great so I remain pleased with the swap away from o2.

I'm sure 1p Mobile would have been fine too but in two years time I'll be able to reflect on whether going  direct to EE was a good idea or not.

Having been totally ignored by RWG I declare they are the last company on earth I would give any money to. 

Thanks for replies