Moving from Vodafone - Should I pick O2 or Orange?
in [UK Mobile]
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From: Steve Terry on 6 Dec 2009 20:30 "Steve" <steve@....com> wrote in message news:hfggcp$oc0$1(a)adenine.netfront.net... > 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 > <snip top post> > > There are a large number of variables, which give advantages and disadvantages to either Google groups archives have covered this subject often Steve Terry -- Get a free Three 3pay Sim with �2 bonus after �10 top up http://freeagent.three.co.uk/stand/view/id/5276
From: Dennis Ferguson on 9 Dec 2009 04:03 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. 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
From: Steve Terry on 9 Dec 2009 19:59 "Dennis Ferguson" <dcferguson(a)pacbell.net> wrote in message news:slrnhhupuf.4h.dcferguson(a)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. > > Maybe not the building itself, but they contain entrance, ventilation 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 Steve Terry -- Get a free Three 3pay Sim with �2 bonus after �10 top up http://freeagent.three.co.uk/stand/view/id/5276
From: Andy Burns on 10 Dec 2009 05:15 On 10/12/09 10:02, Pete wrote: > 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.
From: Steve on 20 Dec 2009 11:33
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 :) "Andy Burns" <usenet.aug2009(a)adslpipe.co.uk> wrote in message news:v46dnfD1bvveV73WnZ2dnUVZ8thi4p2d(a)brightview.co.uk... > On 10/12/09 10:02, Pete wrote: > >> 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. |