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Comment by colesantiago | Hacker News Reader

I'm currently on 3 UK and considering switching, who should I switch to?

What are your requirements? I'd suggest grabbing a pre-paid SIM from each of the major networks and see which gives you the best signal and speeds in the locations you frequent, but this may seem excessive to most.

I signed up to a 2 year 5G deal with EE shortly before moving out of London, now the signal and speed are junk and I'm stuck in a 2 year deal.

Given the absurd amount our "contracted" price increases by each year (my monthly payment went up ~15% on a SIM-only plan thanks to RPI or whatever excuse they use) I'd be tempted to go with someone like GiffGaff or similar next (they're an MVNO on O2 network) and just get monthly goody bags, then you can ditch them the minute you've had enough and want to get better service/signal/data etc.

GiffGaff have been great. I've used them for years with basically 0 faults. not encounter any stupid policies or reasons to need to contact support everything is just so easy. signal could be a bit better in small british towns (the city is fine, 5g is fast when it works) but not so bad that i'd ever consider switching away + they increased my data allowance twice without increasing the price. did a brief stint with vodafone, as i got staff discount. it was shit. not because of the actual phone service but because it's so difficult to do anything admin related with them and if you think you'll just go into a store to do admin think again. the stores can't do anything other that sell you stuff. STAY AWAY

I've been paying for Giff Gaff for two family members for several years so I've been a customer indirectly. It's been nice to keep getting emails from them saying they're increasing allowances without changing the price and I've not had any complaints about the signal and service from the family.

Vodafone are on my blacklist, I had a few bad experiences with them years ago, over a decade ago now I think about it, and vowed to never use them again.

Does anyone else keep a personal blacklist of companies you won't buy from / do business with? I feel like I should write it down some day.

giffgaff. SIM only, reasonable prices, works well, never had any coverage issues anywhere other than remote bits of the peak district. Been with them for 5 years now. It's basically O2 without the risk of being upsold to constantly or ripped off.

Recently I used their 100G option as my main internet connection for a couple of months because OpenReach ballsed up a house move. Was completely usable all day.

If you are a light user (in the UK) then 1p Mobile is excellent value. I've no links with them (apart from being a happy customer). They use the EE network, so coverage is good. Costs are 1p/minute calls, 1p/text message, and 1p/MB data, and you must top up by at least £10 every 120 days. Unused credits rollover to the next period. They have also introduced a newer scheme: £36 per year for unlimited talk and texts, and up to 250MB data/month. Again, I think that unused credit rolls over (i haven't used this option, so check the details).

Yes, I use 1p Mobile too - moved from Three after they abandoned their 123 plan.

Have used it for about 10 months and been very happy with it!

(Like the parent, no links with them, and very light user.)

IMO it's dependent on your location as network performance can vary wildly. Might be worth getting a PAYG SIM from EE and Vodafone/O2 (they share networks) to test speed, signal strength etc.

If you are on a contract I would wait until next April when the yearly inflaton price hikes are announced.

FWIW I am paying Vodafone £7 pcm after cashback for 200 GB 5G data, unlimited minutes and texts.

Pretty sure Vodafone and O2 are different. Maybe there's some sharing going on, but I've found Vodafone to be much better than O2.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRDzWoNG0jo

https://pedroc.co.uk/content/vodafone-o2-beacon-1-and-2

In London, the network sharing agreement was unwound due to capacity issues.

O2 is the only provider that still has reasonable plans with global roaming included, if that's important to you.

Grab a PAYG SIM card and test out each provider's network before you go through the pain of porting. We switched and found the signal to be literally unusable near our house, so we're back on Three. And O2 incorrectly charged us a £200 early termination fee when we switched away. Took a few months of hassling to get that resolved.

If you're going to get SIMs for testing make sure you get them via the website, not in store. You have an automatic right of return for 14 days for things bought online. Something like that.

If you use a fair bit of social media, Voxi is not a bad shout - its Vodafone network - and they seem to bump up the data allowance at random points (So they double it for the same price kinda thing) as well as the unlimited social use (on certain sites)

I can second GiffGaff, had no issues and their coverage is far better than Three in London at least

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