So so so, do i switch from T-Mobile to o2?

[LeperousDust]

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/478584/its-back-02-12-month-sim-contract-8/

£11.xx a month 800 mins 1600 texts and unlimited internet, can't complain.

Essentially atm i'm getting 600 mins unlimited texts and internet with T-mobile for £20 a month which is the same deal basically as o2 but i can't get quidco.

I have a feeling T-Mobile probably have better coverage and quality than o2 though, since i can pretty max out my hsdpa connection in most places round Edinburgh, and i've read that o2 don't even provide a decent speed of service yet.

Also are T-mobile not meant to be joining forces with orange sometime soon, would this not make a marked difference in everything. I don't want to sign up to 12 months tomorrow and find out i've missed the boat :p :D

I plan on keeping my phone for now and possibly buying sim free when i next get the chance so free pixies, ps3's phones don't sway me since theyre never really a deal to begin with.

[Haly]

Strangely enough I was just reading about that offer! Quite tempted as I want to switch to a Simplicity contract anyhow although my contract isn't up till next month sometime. Was just pondering whether I could afford two months of line rental to go out at the moment or not.

Doesn't really help you with your decision though :p In my case I have terrible signal in the house unless I use vodafone or o2 so it's a no brainer for me!

[LeperousDust]

I think signal wise o2 are decent enough, in fact i know people on o2 get signal at work whereas i dont with T-mob. But i'm almost certain when i have signal (which is most of the time) mine is stronger and if i'm browsing; faster.

[LeperousDust]

And another thought, since i obviously want to keep my number, how do i go about porting *and* using quidco without a load of associated mess. Any chances i could get my contract and then port afterwards? *wishful thinking*

[Haly]

Yeah that should be fine iirc. Get the PAC off T-Mobile, order the O2 sim, when the O2 sim arrives, phone them up and give them the PAC, voila :D

Think someone on the HUKD site has done similar.

[Burble]

Switching to O2? Put it this way, as soon as I can ditch O2 and go back to a network with a reliable voice and data network I'll do it. Have a quick read of this (http://www.boat-drinks.co.uk/showpost.php?p=318479&postcount=734).

The most recent problem I had was on Thursday when calls to my number either went to voicemail or got a 'number does not exist' message. After being on hold to O2 for 25 minutes I was helpfully told that there was a problem but they didn't know if it was localised to where I was or how long it would take to be fixed.

When it does work I find the O2 HSDPA network coverage to be pretty awful and not exactly rapid.

[divine]

Yeah that should be fine iirc. Get the PAC off T-Mobile, order the O2 sim, when the O2 sim arrives, phone them up and give them the PAC, voila :D

Think someone on the HUKD site has done similar.

Asked a guy in store about this the other day - if you order online, you will take delivery of your SIM etc. and once you're up and running, call CS and give them the PAC code and they will move the number over.

Takes about a month or so he said, so you'll have a month of a different number or two contracts.

To get it changed over instantly you need to do it in store or by phone (in which case you get half the number of texts, and no quidco and I think possibly on the £20 contract no choice of bolt on, you just get the O2 to O2 one)

[Haly]

Ahh glad I was mostly on the right track :) Been 3 years now since I sold phones so stuff changes so fast!

Burble: You really have been suffering O2 wise. I've fortunately not really had a problem. Got hit slightly by the net connection problems but only for short periods of time and once or twice at most. Otherwise touch wood, they've been flawless for the past 17 months :) Still that's the thing with stuff like this, so many wildly different stories of praise and woe!

[divine]

I was thinking of getting that SIMplicity contract anyway, however now is really not a good time to be messing around for a month with different numbers as i'm sending off job apps and CVs, all of which have my current number on, so I was planning on waiting a bit :(

Would knock a fiver off my net bill too, or looking at it another way, give me a £6 contract for 12 months effectively atm...

[LeperousDust]

Switching to O2? Put it this way, as soon as I can ditch O2 and go back to a network with a reliable voice and data network I'll do it. Have a quick read of this (http://www.boat-drinks.co.uk/showpost.php?p=318479&postcount=734).

The most recent problem I had was on Thursday when calls to my number either went to voicemail or got a 'number does not exist' message. After being on hold to O2 for 25 minutes I was helpfully told that there was a problem but they didn't know if it was localised to where I was or how long it would take to be fixed.

When it does work I find the O2 HSDPA network coverage to be pretty awful and not exactly rapid.

This *is* what i was worried about :( I can't quite make my mind up about the gamble invoved, then again i woud be paying twice the amount with t-mobile, and both my parentals are on o2 and are seemingly contactable, but they woudnt have a clue when it comes to quality or mobile internet.

Asked a guy in store about this the other day - if you order online, you will take delivery of your SIM etc. and once you're up and running, call CS and give them the PAC code and they will move the number over.

Takes about a month or so he said, so you'll have a month of a different number or two contracts.

To get it changed over instantly you need to do it in store or by phone (in which case you get half the number of texts, and no quidco and I think possibly on the £20 contract no choice of bolt on, you just get the O2 to O2 one)

I seeeeee, if i go for it i may end up recieving it and going into the store and seeing what i can squeeze from them. But i do assume its going to be much more of an ass than tmobiles CS. Especially when the shop and online refuse to acknowledge each other! :(

[divine]

The instant in store thing is if you have the code when you sign up. I asked this also and even if you did it via the store or phone having already got the contract it still takes a month.

Basically for instant changeover you need the code when you initially sign up but signing up online has no facility to accommodate this, hence in store or phone being quicker.

edit - looking on O2's site, they state 2 days (http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/srvs/cgi-bin/webcgi.exe?New,KB=Companion,question=ref%28user%29 :str%28Mobile%29,CASE=12343). I wonder if the bloke in store was trying to make an online seem worse than it was to me so i'd buy in store instead... hmmm.

[LeperousDust]

Yeah i think he might have been having you on, because online and in store are essentially different companies and they do their best not to help each other... I'm still not convinced on call quality nor internet speed, gonna talk with people in work tonight and see if i can play and sway myself.

[Mark]

Port to O2 takes about two days - in my case it took three, maybe four. Certainly not even close to a month.

Voice quality on my old phone on O2 wasn't great, but it seemed OK on the iPhone. When I fired up the web for the first time on Thursday on the iPhone I got an error saying it couldn't connect, but it worked anyway. :huh:

My only complaint so far has been that it sometimes seems to take two attempts to do account-related things (I did the port to the iPhone online, but it didn't take, so I had to do it again via CS).

I did Quidco as part of the port too - worked fine. Get PAC, sign up for new deal (via Quidco), wait for SIM to arrive, give PAC to O2. The only company I know this doesn't work with is Vodafone.

[LeperousDust]

Right wel its done bought it the other day arrives in a few days depending on how bad the post messes around, i get 14 days to cancel for whatever reason i want, and i can port over fairly quickly whenever i want. Seems a bloody good deal to turn down :)