I have the misfortune to be an O2 customer and I live and work in Central London – to say the reception and service is poor would be a massive understatement. Dropped calls all over the place, and endless attempts needed to get a line in the first place.

I appreciate they are all crap and likely as bad as each other, but is there one that is less bad than O2?

Never had a problem with Virgin and there sim only deals are pretty hard to beat.

Vodafone are actually one of the worst (if not *the*).

O2 were better for me most of the time when I was in London.

Vodafone for actual phone calls, and 3 for general internet use, I work all over the country and since our company went from Voda to O2, I spend most of the day using my own phone to get a signal.

Vodafone are actually one of the worst (if not *the*).

I think Orange/EE can claim that title

Guess it depends where you live.

O2 are good for me in Devon and everyone I know on Vodafone grumbles and moans

Careful what you wish for, i moved the company phones from EE to voda earlier this year and it’s been nothing but administrative balls ups & crap service.

I’ve since put complaints in writing and I can’t believe some of what i’ve had to endure on the phone. Some of my favourites are:

“No, sir, we don’t have email you have to call us or write to us” OK, i”l put it in writing. They then call to tell me the letter I sent has been scanned in by their post team and emailed to them, but they can’t read it as the resolution is too low, and could I please email it to the email address they don’t have.

Then I get, “well, we’ve tried to contact you several times to discuss your service issues with you, but have been unable to get through so put the case on hold.” No sh*t sherlock, I wonder why that is!

I’ve had O2, Orange and Vodaphone in the past. Orange were by far the worst, just terrible on every level. Voda were ok but did not seem very interested in the customer. None of them have provided trouble free calling but for the simple reason that the customer service has always been good to excellent I stick with O2 now.

Seems the uk are incapable of running a good mobile phone network, Im with T-Mobile now EE and the service isn’t wonderful but neither are any of the others. The iPhone EE app is rubbish and constantly logs me out or crashes so it’s a bit of a hassle when I need to check my account without going on my laptop.

02 are very good in Devon, its what the police service and the search and rescue groups use. Ive had Voda, Orange and Virgin. Virgin run off Tmob/orange/EE, GiffGaff and Tesco run off 02, Talkmobile and some other networks off Voda and 3 is their own network. You should look into which frequencies are best for built up areas, certain frequencies work better through buildings, etc but also some have a wide spectrum of frequency since 4g came in.

I cant say for London, but in terms of dropped calls Orange was the worst by a considerable amount. Voda wasent bad generally but I found the billing was all over the place. I like the UK call centres with 02 and always generally helpful.

Signal is very limited by modern mobiles. Our work radios work off 02 and they pick up signal everywhere generally, whereas my Samsung S4 dosent have much in some rural areas.

I should add I worked for the Carphone warehouse for 3 years and 92 were the best from a customer perspective.

Vodafone for actual phone calls, and 3 for general internet use

This ^^

Everyone I know that has Orange/EE moans about it.

I use Vodafone for my phone and some internet usage and have a 20Gb/month mi-fi unit from Three for most of my mobile internet

Seems the uk are incapable of running a good mobile phone network

I was texting my girlfriend whilst I was 80/90% of the way up Kilimanjaro and I phoned my dad from the middle of the Serengeti to say I climbed it (waves willy), but I can’t make a call from my sofa.

edward2000 – Member

Seems the uk are incapable of running a good mobile phone network

I was texting my girlfriend whilst I was 80/90% of the way up Kilimanjaro and I phoned my dad from the middle of the Serengeti to say I climbed it (waves willy), but I can’t make a call from my sofa.

The level of service these companies provide is a disgrace IMO. In the Alps on the Franch / Swiss border, full signal no problem. I come back to the UK and struggle in Cities to even get 3G or 4G even when service providers indicate “excellent covereage”

Its partly how the networks operate their masts (or the outsourced companies that manage the masts) as most sites are rented for an astronomical fee. Im guessing most sites abroad are bought and owned.

Id imagine the networks are set up completely differently as well.

Get a free SIM from each provider, use SIM in places you spend most of your time and check how good the service is. It doesn’t really matter much how good/bad other folks’ service is as it can be totally different even just in your neighbour’s front room to your own.

rootmetrics test all networks for call, text and data performance (think thousands of calls, texts and mb of data rather than a few here and there).

Their report for London is here and shows EE 1st and Three 2nd overall. It’s worth noting that Three is now the least complained about of the main networks according to the latest Ofcom data.

I’ve been on Orange, Virgin (I think when it was still Tmobile) and am currently on Vodafone. I’ve had the best country-wide coverage with Vodafone.
As far as customer service goes I’ve no real complaints but then only deal with them every couple of years (SIM only). Also IME pretty much all large companies have their crap customer service moments so I’d find it hard to choose between any on that basis really.