Moving from Vodafone - Should I pick O2 or Orange?
Steve
best part of 10 years.
Recently, the customer service has got much worse - especially from their
Egyptian call centre; bills are often calculated incorrectly; and various
other annoyances have made me want to switch to a different provider.
So...O2 or Orange.
Just wondered if anyone has any suggestions as to which one to pick.
Cost isn't really an issue. Orange seems to have a lot more phones
available at lower cost but O2 seems to have a better name to it??
What's the general coverage like from both networks? - the 7 phones go up
and down the country every day.
What's the customer service like?
Any opinions, ideas, suggestions or experiences greatly appreciated.
Steve Terry
news:hetonb$daj$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
> "Steve" <steve@....com> wrote:
>
>> So...O2 or Orange.
>>
>> Just wondered if anyone has any suggestions as to which one to pick.
>
> and, at one time, considered them the only network worth a damn. Now
> they've
> been assimilated by France Telecom, they've slipped a bit. Three are
> Hutchison, the people who originally launched Orange, and it's like going
> back in time to deal with them. Their coverage isn't the best (title still
> held by Orange IMH, subjective O), but it falls back to the Orange 1800MHz
> network when out of range of a 3G BTS. Minor detail is that you will need
> a
> 3G handset; Three don't allow use of PCS 1800 only.
>
>
For voice calls 3 have better coverage than any single network,
as they also roam on Orange 2G
Steve Terry
--
Get a free Three 3pay Sim with �2 bonus after �10 top up
http://freeagent.three.co.uk/stand/view/id/5276
Woody
news:hetnvc$5e5$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
If you have got used to the coverage of Vodafone and the slick
system operation, then O2 and Lemon will be a considerable
let-down.
Orange hangs on to the call per cell as far as it will go then
often finds the next cell has no resources available and drops
the call, so you get many more repeat calls with Orange. Their
coverage is also nothing like as good - there is a stretch of the
A1 and of the A19 in North Yorkshire with zero signal for several
miles. Vodafone on the other hand hands over very sweetly and
usually without a break.
You will find the Orange way of doing things - especially using
the answerphone - tedious and trying. It is aimed very much at
'hand holding' - there is no 'expert' mode like Vodafone.
O2 used to be dire. Agreed their 'off-the-main-road' coverage is
probably the best, but they also drop calls without reason.
Someone mentioned 3. I would agree with most of the comments but
warn of one thing. I don't know if it is still the case, but it
used to be that when the phone looses 3 and roams onto Orange (or
O2 as it was originally) the inclusive call time does not count -
you are charged. I'm sure someone will clarify that very quickly.
OK the Vodafone customer handling may not now be the best, but
you will find Orange or O2 no better, sometimes worse. Vodafone
coverage and operation is undoubtedly the best. If you are
concerned about costs, call and tell them you are leaving and
want to speak to their Retentions Dept - you'll be amazed what
you can blag out of them.
--
Woody
harrogate three at ntlworld dot com
Steve Terry
news:jrvQm.140059$Gz1....@newsfe25.ams2...
> "Steve" <steve@....com> wrote in message
> news:hetnvc$5e5$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
> Someone mentioned 3. I would agree with most of the comments but warn of
> one thing. I don't know if it is still the case, but it used to be that
> when the phone looses 3 and roams onto Orange (or O2 as it was originally)
> the inclusive call time does not count - you are charged. I'm sure someone
> will clarify that very quickly.
>
>
ago
Three is now the network it should have been, but thanks to the hangover
of years of poor billing and lousy network leading to an awful reputation,
many top deals with loads of phone subsidy are available
Steve Terry
news:heu0im$o88$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
> "Woody" <harro...@ntlworld.spam.com> wrote in message
> news:jrvQm.140059$Gz1....@newsfe25.ams2...
>> "Steve" <steve@....com> wrote in message
>> news:hetnvc$5e5$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
> <snip>
> of years of poor billing and lousy network leading to an awful reputation,
> many top deals with loads of phone subsidy are available
> Steve Terry
>
>
http://www2.quidco.com/3-mobile/
or e2save http://www2.quidco.com/e2save/ which as well as �45 quidco
cashback on contracts, have their own cashback deals
e.g a cheapo Nokia 2730 on Three up to �240 automatic cashback
http://quidco.e2save.com/3-contract-phone/Nokia+2730/28/2730
The phone subsidies Three are throwing at dealers is quite impressive
tony sayer
<steve@?.?.?.?.com> scribeth thus
>Currently got 7 phones on a Vodafone contract - been with Vodafone for the
>best part of 10 years.
>
>Recently, the customer service has got much worse - especially from their
>Egyptian call centre;
Eh?, Last few times I've spoke to them they sounded very much like
somewhere north of Watford;!..
>bills are often calculated incorrectly; and various
>other annoyances have made me want to switch to a different provider.
>So...O2 or Orange.
Frying pan -> fire IMHO...
>
>Just wondered if anyone has any suggestions as to which one to pick.
Stick with what you've got..Best of a bad lot..
>
>Cost isn't really an issue. Orange seems to have a lot more phones
>available at lower cost but O2 seems to have a better name to it??
>What's the general coverage like from both networks? - the 7 phones go up
>and down the country every day.
>What's the customer service like?
>
>Any opinions, ideas, suggestions or experiences greatly appreciated.
>
--
Tony Sayer
RCC
<to...@bancom.co.uk> writes
coverage issue (a valley in N Devon where I have a caravan, as it
happens). Overall I find the Vodafone customer service much better (or
to be accurate, "less bad").
--
Richard C
Steve
masts in my area and other areas in general. Yet when I actually look at
the signal bars on an Orange phone it's often poor compared to Voda or O2
despite their masts being several miles further away? Why is this?
Steve, you mentioned 3 has the best coverage. I'm assuming this is taking
3's 3G network as well as Orange's 2G network? The adverts I see around the
place seem to suggest that Orange have the largest 3G network. Therefore
Orange's 3G and 2G being more coverage than 3's 3G and Orange's 2G??
Thanks for the responses so far
Steve
"RCC" <richard@mapson_cowling1.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:IKsAE2Cd...@cowling1.demon.co.uk...
Steve Terry
> I've had a look at the sitefinder website and Orange seem to have a lot
> more masts in my area and other areas in general. Yet when I actually
> look at the signal bars on an Orange phone it's often poor compared to
> Voda or O2 despite their masts being several miles further away? Why is
> this?
>
assuming variables such as reflective paths aren't available which favour
1800MHz
>
> Steve, you mentioned 3 has the best coverage. I'm assuming this is taking
> 3's 3G network as well as Orange's 2G network? The adverts I see around
> the place seem to suggest that Orange have the largest 3G network.
> Therefore Orange's 3G and 2G being more coverage than 3's 3G and Orange's
> 2G??
>
> Thanks for the responses so far
> Steve
>
with their 2g BTSs
Three 3g and Oranges 2g sites not usually being co-sited provide much better
area overlap
e.g. When I visit Chiddingfold, North Chiddingfold doesn't have Three
coverage, but has fine Orange 2g, which gives me voice roaming on my
Three phone, the opposite coverage is true of South Chiddingfold.
There's nothing to stop other UK networks to have roaming agreements,
but as that would do nothing other than provide better coverage for their
customers it won't happen
Steve
noticed that Orange (and T-Mobile) seem to dissapear in a lot of
buildings/supermarkets whereas O2 and Voda are providing good coverage. Not
sure if that's just due to closest base station though. Over the last few
weeks I've been walking around with 3 phones looking at the different
coverage and this seems to be the case.
Steve
"Steve Terry" <gfou...@tesco.net> wrote in message
news:hfebpf$ld8$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Steve Terry
> Hmm. Does the 900Mhz signal pass through buildings easier also? I've
> also noticed that Orange (and T-Mobile) seem to dissapear in a lot of
> buildings/supermarkets whereas O2 and Voda are providing good coverage.
> Not sure if that's just due to closest base station though. Over the last
> few weeks I've been walking around with 3 phones looking at the different
> coverage and this seems to be the case. Steve
>
>
>
There are a large number of variables, which give advantages
and disadvantages to either
Google groups archives have covered this subject often
Dennis Ferguson
> Hmm. Does the 900Mhz signal pass through buildings easier also? I've also
> noticed that Orange (and T-Mobile) seem to dissapear in a lot of
> buildings/supermarkets whereas O2 and Voda are providing good coverage. Not
> sure if that's just due to closest base station though. Over the last few
> weeks I've been walking around with 3 phones looking at the different
> coverage and this seems to be the case.
No, most models think building penetration losses either don't change
with frequency or, in fact, decrease a bit with increasing frequency.
The issue of in-building coverage is mostly dominated by how much
signal you have outside the building before the penetration loss
occurs, and 900 MHz networks will often have more of that.
If there's a downside to 900 MHz (outside of really dense city
cores) it is that 1800 MHz GSM and 2100 MHz UMTS can usually
share antennas (the panels are usually 1700-2200 MHz) and cell
spacing while 900 MHz GSM and 2100 MHz UMTS need separate antennas
and 3G probably needs more cells, so adding 3G service to an existing
1800 MHz network is usually cheaper. I'd guess this is why Vodafone
and (particularly) O2 seem to have sparser 3G coverage.
Dennis Ferguson
Steve Terry
news:slrnhhupuf.4...@akit-ferguson.com...
> On 2009-12-06, Steve <steve@> wrote:
>> Hmm. Does the 900Mhz signal pass through buildings easier also? I've
>> also
>> noticed that Orange (and T-Mobile) seem to dissapear in a lot of
>> buildings/supermarkets whereas O2 and Voda are providing good coverage.
>> Not
>> sure if that's just due to closest base station though. Over the last
>> few
>> weeks I've been walking around with 3 phones looking at the different
>> coverage and this seems to be the case.
>
> No, most models think building penetration losses either don't change
> with frequency or, in fact, decrease a bit with increasing frequency.
> The issue of in-building coverage is mostly dominated by how much
> signal you have outside the building before the penetration loss
> occurs, and 900 MHz networks will often have more of that.
>
>
and window openings, which tend to offer more scope to higher
frequencies than lower.
and you can't assume that there will be more signal at lower frequencies
entering the building, in fact as there are more 1800, and 2.1g BTS,
the odds are any building will be closer to one of those than a 900MHz one,
and even a higher frequency BTS further away may get the advantage
of a better reflective path as higher frequencies reflect better off of
conductive surfaces
That's under normal atmospheric conditions, if there's a tropospheric
or temperature inversion lift on, frequencies affected start from high
to low
The number of variables involved are enormous
Andy Burns
> Orange will offer you a bunch of additional services, such as Line2/Alternate Line
> Service (two phone lines on one simcard)
Not on personal accounts an more, only business accounts.
Steve
My son has an O2 contract (still in my name) and I called up to query 2
things:
1 was to see if Conference Calling was available to which they said no - is
this correct??
2 was to increase his tariff to include more minutes. Instead of being
helpful they were rude and said that I couldn't have Unlimited O2-O2 calls
and the Web bolt on free (both were added free by retentions on the last
upgrade). The person demanded I picked one to remove there and then. In
the end I spoke to a supervisor who said I could keep the 2 bolt-ons. Bad
experience there.
Anyway, this put me off O2 and I now have an Orange business contract with 8
phones. So far things have been pretty good. Answer Fax is a great little
feature for us and Conference Calling etc. work, unlike on O2.
The only thing I've been irritated at was that when in Ireland last week the
Meteor network was unavailable, despite being listed as having a roaming
agreement on the Orange website. Maybe Orange cutting down on costs
there...hmm. Apart from that everything's been great - happy Orange
customer :)
"Andy Burns" <usenet....@adslpipe.co.uk> wrote in message
news:v46dnfD1bvveV73W...@brightview.co.uk...
Woody
> Thanks for the responses everyone.
>
> My son has an O2 contract (still in my name) and I called up to
> query 2 things:
> 1 was to see if Conference Calling was available to which they
> said no - is this correct??
> 2 was to increase his tariff to include more minutes. Instead
> of being helpful they were rude and said that I couldn't have
> Unlimited O2-O2 calls and the Web bolt on free (both were added
> free by retentions on the last upgrade). The person demanded I
> picked one to remove there and then. In the end I spoke to a
> supervisor who said I could keep the 2 bolt-ons. Bad
> experience there.
>
> Anyway, this put me off O2 and I now have an Orange business
> contract with 8 phones. So far things have been pretty good.
> Answer Fax is a great little feature for us and Conference
> Calling etc. work, unlike on O2.
>
> The only thing I've been irritated at was that when in Ireland
> last week the Meteor network was unavailable, despite being
> listed as having a roaming agreement on the Orange website.
> Maybe Orange cutting down on costs there...hmm. Apart from
> that everything's been great - happy Orange customer :)
>
What a strange person - a happy Lemon customer?
Quick someone, wrap him in cotton wool and take a photo of him.
You may never see another!
Steve Terry
> "Steve" <steve@....com> wrote in message
> news:hgljka$2cgb$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
>> Thanks for the responses everyone.
>> Anyway, this put me off O2 and I now have an Orange business contract
>> with 8 phones. So far things have been pretty good. Answer Fax is a
>> great little feature for us and Conference Calling etc. work, unlike on
>> O2
>
>
>
> Quick someone, wrap him in cotton wool and take a photo of him. You may
> never see another!
>
He must think Orange Answer fax is great cos he doesn't remember Wildfire
Fax ;-(
Jon Pitts
>>
>
>
> If you have got used to the coverage of Vodafone and the slick system
> operation, then O2 and Lemon will be a considerable let-down.
>
> Orange hangs on to the call per cell as far as it will go then often finds
> the next cell has no resources available and drops the call, so you get
> many more repeat calls with Orange.
At the risk of opening an old thread...
As a technical statement, I'd be very interested in your evidence for this.
Regards
Jon.
Woody
news:kN-dnR7H5O5HkqPW...@giganews.com...
Put it like this. On Vodafone I could drive from here (Harrogate)
to York in conversation without a single drop. Then we moved to
Orange and the same conversation would drop out an require a
redial four times, every time at the same place within a few
hundred yards or so - the first being at the bottom of our road.
Signal strengths are good throughout.
Steve Terry
>
>
I presume that's with an Orange 2g only phone?
If you had tried the same course with an Orange 3g/2g phone,
i suspect you would have had much better results?
With Orange concentration on 3g BTS's i wouldn't recommend
an Orange 2g only phone anymore
My main phone is an unlocked ex 3 network Nokia 6120c
with an Orange 3g contract sim.
It spends more time on Orange 3g than 2g.
I'm happy with Orange 3g/2g coverage.
I also have a Orange OVP Virgin in a 2g Nokia 6130i,
coverage is acceptable but nothing like having proper combined
JL
sites are co-sited with their 2G ones. By that logic surely there isn't
that much of an advantage of having Orange 2G/3G compared with 2G alone?
JL
"Steve Terry" <gfou...@tesco.net> wrote in message
news:hho73k$de5$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---
Bob Jones
I find it ammusing that Steve seems to bash Orange at ever opportunity
but sill uses them for his main and a secondary phone. :P
Steve Terry
news:hhq263$21ec$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
> Steve, you recently mentioned in another thread that most of Orange's 3G
> sites are co-sited with their 2G ones. By that logic surely there isn't
> that much of an advantage of having Orange 2G/3G compared with 2G alone?
> JL
>
>
Except there are (or soon will be) more Orange 3g BTS than 2g,
and even though they are co sited, they aren't necessarily set up
for the same coverage or directions
Steve Terry
news:hhq2e5$21q3$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
> On 03/01/2010 12:22, JL wrote
>> news:hho73k$de5$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>>> "Woody" <harro...@ntlworld.spam.com> wrote in message
>>> news:W7q%m.24513$Qp7....@newsfe25.ams2...
>>>> "Jon Pitts" <use...@pitts50.co.uk> wrote in message
>>>> news:kN-dnR7H5O5HkqPW...@giganews.com...
>>>>>
>>>>> "Woody" <harro...@ntlworld.spam.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:jrvQm.140059$Gz1....@newsfe25.ams2...
>
> sill uses them for his main and a secondary phone. :P
>
>
giving me 400mins, 300text, and unlimited landlines for what should work
out at around 3quid a month.
Which only goes to show how fecked up FT Orange is to have to throw
such phone subsidies at their dealers
My second phone is Three 3PAY, in a phone previously
on Three M&M 300 6 month contract.
3Pay now offers me a better deal for my Three calls than contract
Jimbo on the netbook ...
baldelectrician
Voda seem to declare better coverage, but there was no end of
problems- dropping calls, poor reception in a fair few local villages
etc- places I had no problem with Orange
The phone reguarly lost the network and would need a manual roam to
lock it back to Vodafarce
Went back to orange and all is better.
Firstly as a business customer, latterly renewing as a personal
customer (better deal)
Found Voda after sales service inept and inadequate-- had a business
contract but had to send phone away for repair.
With Orange care I call up and geta new (or refurbished) handset same
day (if calling in before 930am, or following day, Phone is couriered
to any UK address I want
Asked Voda why they didn;t do that- they used to, but it cost too much
All in all - Orange better than some, but could do better (like bring
back Wildfire and everyphone)
Jon Pitts
> "JL" <newsa...@mail2web.com> wrote in message
> news:hhq263$21ec$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
>> Steve, you recently mentioned in another thread that most of Orange's 3G
>> sites are co-sited with their 2G ones. By that logic surely there isn't
>> that much of an advantage of having Orange 2G/3G compared with 2G alone?
>> JL
>>
> <snip top post>
>>
> Except there are (or soon will be) more Orange 3g BTS than 2g,
> and even though they are co sited, they aren't necessarily set up
> for the same coverage or directions
>
Steve,
Could you be so kind as to enlighten me as to when this concentration on 3G
BTS started? It certainly isn't the reality of the Orange UK network at the
moment!!
Regards
Jon.
Jon Pitts
This sounds like a problem with inter-cell adjacencies missing somewhere.
Please contact me off-forum and I'd be happy to check the specifics of this
example. "In theory" it should be fairly simple to resolve if - as you say -
coverage levels are good..
Regards
Jon.