Got my Nexus 4 arriving today, but still haven’t quite decided which sim only deal to go for. Best value (for unlimited data packages) seems to be either 3 or giffgaff (which uses the O2 network yes?).

Which will give me the best service in terms of coverage and connection speeds?

Giffgaff is on O2 and gives up to 42Mbps (DC-HSPA+) which is the fastest the N4 supports. There is a coverage map in their site which should help she if you can get this.

I’m very happy with speeds and coverage, it’s decumbent far faster at downloads than my Desire in the same sim.

I switched to Three last September and have been VERY pleased. Coverage is better than O2 in the places I frequent and the Internet is both unlimited and waaaaaaaay faster on 3G than O2 ever were. I’d recommend them.

I am on GiffGaff in the Peterborough area. It’s ok, but sometimes friends with Voda/Orange seem to have better coverage.

Never been an issue, though.

In my experience, Three have faster/better coverage in urban areas and cities. They are rubbish in more rural areas, and this is why I ended up leaving them. O2 cover these locations better, and as Giffgaff use their network they would be my first choice.

Any views on Virgin? Just seen their £12 unlimited data deal.

I use Virgin and find it great. I was on 02 and suffered terrible reception here for years. I’ve now got a 3G signal in most of the places I need it. The downside is my battery life is now rubbish! I pay £12 (or £12.50) a month.

TS

I went through this process last year

Easiest thing is to buy a couple of £10 payg SIMs then see which network suits where you’ll actually use it

3 had the best deal and great coverage and speed everywhere except in our house so I ended up elsewhere

Virgin is Orange/Tmobile/EE isn’t it – which is the best? (overall)

Orange/t mobile/EE has the best network in terms of performance/coverage, esp for 3G. I think tariffs are all much of a muchness. All the same network… but you have to pay a bit more for 4g on EE

Vodafone for me

Talkmobile? They were cheap a couple of years ago when I wanted a sim only.

On the vodaphone network so great coverage.

http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/simple.html

They’ve changed things around a bit since I got mine.

decumbent far faster

Of course I meant definitely faster!

02 and Vodafone are at around 90% 3G coverage whilst the rest are at 98/99% – that last 8% represents an awful lot more masts to fill in the gaps. Root metrics have been doing detailed 3G coverage checks for a few months now and three has come top for voice and data – they will also have their ultrafast version of 3G in more places than O2 and voda have old 3G by the end of the year. Personally I’d go for three or EE as they have more masts in more places. I’ve just given my work Vodafone back as I got sick of only ever having 2g when out and about – the 3G coverage is very poor and it’s quite noticeable on motorways that you can go 20 or 30 miles with no 3G on their network. Like others have said, try a few pay as you go sims first, and get the actual sim through topcashback.co.uk to get £50 or so cash back.

I’ve just been quite surprised how much difference the phone makes to the speed. Just got a nexus 4 (suprise, suprise) and stuck the giffgaff sim from my old HTC in the Nexus.
The HTC would struggle to download a webpage without timing out, but with the nexus even BBC iplayer works ok.