likelihood of o2 expanding mobile coverage

I'm currently with Orange mobile phone contract which ends in June. Giffgaff seems like a good network to be with right now but as they use o2's network their is no 3g coverage in my area. What is the likelihood of o2 expanding their 3g coverage?

Slim to nil, unless you are on the fringe of 3G coverage at the mo. They might deploy UMTS900 to provide a larger footprint.

o2 r the worst 3g coverage in the uk. i would say the best 3g coverage is 3 and t-mobile

I'm on Orange at the moment and that has excellent coverage in my area. 3 seems to have good coverage all over the place too but from what i've heard people on 3 get decent speeds too. It just depends on who i can get the best deal out of when my contract ends.

If I was you I'd stick to Everything Everywhere. In basic terms they put up their masts in the same place as three, have separate 3G masts to three, they also have a large 2g coverage.

I second that ,

Tmobile and Orange are the best for coverage in the UK now, especially now they have consolidated their networks to be one large one.

Although im not sure on 3, they have very good coverage but have no 2g network and im not sure on the roaming agreement with everything everywhere.
1st choice - Tmobile for signal, and usually unlimited data,
2nd choice - orange, for signal and orange wednesdays
3rd choice - 3 for value and decent "3G" signal

I don't think there is any real mast building at the moment, however from our UK wide research O2 are the best for 2G coverage (Brighton to Glasgow) with Vodafone a close second. 3G coverage is very variable but in the south east Vodafone proved the most stable for us with Orange/T-mobile the fastest when you can get it (and are standing still) but useless on the move.

It really is dependent on where exactly you are, in my house we get on Tmobile, no Orange, no 3, 2G Vodafone and 3G O2.

In reply to a post by cmrayer:

I don't think there is any real mast building at the moment, however from our UK wide research O2 are the best for 2G coverage (Brighton to Glasgow) with Vodafone a close second. 3G coverage is very variable but in the south east Vodafone proved the most stable for us with Orange/T-mobile the fastest when you can get it (and are standing still) but useless on the move.

It really is dependent on where exactly you are, in my house we get on Tmobile, no Orange, no 3, 2G Vodafone and 3G O2.

Brighton to Glasgow? and what about the other 197 miles north of Glasgow? Because I can tell you that if you come up to Aberdeen you'll see that O2 are TERRIBLE (2G and 3G)

I use two phones on a day to day bases (one for work and one for me) My phone is on 3 and the work phone, O2. I get better 3G coverage on 3 than I do 2G coverage on O2.

Very rarely works properly, always cuts out, very slow oversubscribed data and shocking customer service. Why so many people stick with them is beyond me.

I pay £35/month to 3 for (virtually) unlimited everything. they never slow me down, no matter what i download (avg. ~5GB/month) and the speed is fantastic! My most recent speedtest on my iphone is 8.92mbps down, 4.14mbps up and a ping time of 77ms.

Not bad for a 3G network if you as me, a lot of LTE dosent touch that speed

And just to counter with further more anecdotal personal experience, go north of Aberdeen to Inverness or Thurso or across to Ullapool and you'll find Orange and T-Mobile virtually non-existent outside of towns

(And for the record I find O2's coverage perfectly fine in Aberdeen, hell their 3G coverage is better than 3's let alone 2G)

Edited by qasdfdsaq (Tue 29-May-12 00:25:32)

In reply to a post by qasdfdsaq:

And just to counter with further more anecdotal personal experience, go north of Aberdeen to Inverness or Thurso or across to Ullapool and you'll find Orange and T-Mobile virtually non-existent outside of towns

(And for the record I find O2's coverage perfectly fine in Aberdeen, hell their 3G coverage is better than 3's let alone 2G)

You are joking right?

I live right in the city centre of Aberdeeen, Union Street is about 100m away!

got two phone's here, one on 3 getting about 8mbps download speed and one on O2 that barely manages to get 1 bar on edge.

Problem with Three is they will not fill in there dead spots and around where i am 3 is overloaded (speeds less then 1-2mb and indoor coverage on avg is poor and the coverage maps are an lie you need to use t-mobile coverage map to get an rough correct coverage map for 3 due to a lot of the masts are an 50/50 share with t-mobile), with Three i norm find it works out side norm fine or open area, indoors just seems luck if you have an signal better then -100 (that makes the phone Unreliable on 3) or coverage at all when Phone is Not in the hand, THree Need more masts to handle the data load as well (3 could of done with LTE 1-2 years ago when they made the One Plan)

i use Orange main and giffgaff on my second network, overall around Cheshire never had an issue with Orange as there coverage is very good and seem to place there network masts Closer to each other so that 3g works indoors in most places and with T-mobile filling the very small holes, only issue with orange is Price plans are poor(compared to 3 and T-mobile) but Phone cover is the best

Overall t-mobile coverage is not that dense at all and they Mostly share there masts 50/50 share with 3UK (MBNL?) they need one right next to my house (or on the pub that's less then 150m from me so Three and t-mobile get better coverage) as i have 3 Three/t-mobile network masts that are Just out of range (10% or -100 or lower as long as you do not pick the phone up) T-mobile phones around where i am just use Orange signal all the time

O2 around in Warrington they are setting up New Pole Masts (the masts are concealed inside the top of the masts most people are none the wiser less bitching) so they normally do not have that many dead spots unless your on an motorway, O2 seem to be the Only network that are deploying more 3g Masts (more so the Pole masts 1-2 miles apart from each other)

Overall i say 3 worst 3G coverage in the uk (can't connect phone calls is the Main big issue with 3 that's with coverage or spotty indoor to no coverage at all), but its subjective all over the UK

vodafone, never used them, as there prices always to much but overall they have very good 2g coverage

Edited by leexgx (Sun 03-Jun-12 07:21:55)