Category: Networks / Carriers

EE named as best mobile provider 2019

Rootmetrics, a US based company founded back in 2008, has one sole purpose – to provide mobile network performance information. Today they have published the results for 2019 testing of the UK networks. By using a batch of store-purchased Samsung Galaxy S9  smartphones, the testing itself was conducted …

Virgin Mobile now delivers Fortnite PS4 bundle and big data boost

Fancy a brand new PS4 with exclusive Fortnite content? Well, if you get yourself a Sony Xperia 10 with 100GB of data on Virgin Mobile then you get a Fortnite Neo Versa PS4 bundle, worth £249.99. This gets you a Jet Black PS4 console (500GB), two matching DUALSHOCK …

A PROPER real-world 5G test

Whenever I look for 5G speed test, there’s usually YouTube videos showing blistering speeds. That’s expected, right? Well, yes. But I wanted to do some proper tests. How to do that? Well, first of all I’m not going to sit right next to a 5G mast. I’m also …

giffgaff hit by £1.4 million fine for overcharging customers

Getting hit by a fine from Ofcom is never good, but overcharging your customers and having to refund them? That’s a double whammy. O2-owned giffgaff have already had to refund £2.1 million, with around 2.6 million customers overcharged. It happened when customers bought a goodybag, which despite being …

OPPO Reno 5G arrives on EE

As expected, the rather cool OPPO Reno 5G has now made it’s way to the EE website in both ocean green and jet black. You get 256GB of on-board RAM, a healthy 4065mAh battery to keep things ticking along and, of course, that 5G capability. Other specs include …

Three to deliver 5G to all with no extra cost

Three is the latest network to unveil its plans for 5G services and there’s a lot for consumers to get excited about. The big headline is the fact that you’ll be able to enjoy the upcoming 5G network (provided you’ve got a compatible phone) for no additional cost. …

Vodafone 5G Roaming goes live, and it’s the same price as 4G

There’s 55 cities and towns across Europe where you can now get Vodafone 5G roaming. That’s more than any other network. So, if you’re off on your holiday and you have a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G or the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, you can roam for no extra …

O2 and Vodafone complete 5G network agreement

Here’s something we don’t normally get. A press release from two networks at the same time in a joint operation. Vodafone and O2 are teaming up to speed up the 5G roll-out by sharing sites across the UK. It means that they will be sharing 5G equipment such …

O2 announce 5G launch plans

The network that runs giffgaff, Sky Mobile and Tesco Mobile is to start rolling out 5G in October. As with the other 5G UK networks, they’ll be concentrating on areas that need the speed boost the most, with key areas of Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Slough and Leeds …

Don’t just renew your contract. Go SIM only.

You’ll see me writing about SIM only deals quite a bit here. My journey with SIM only started a few years ago, when I reached the end of my contract. I was, like many, fairly comfortable with renewing my contract after 24 months and getting a new phone. …

Vodafone 5G network – growing already.

I spent 16 long years of my life working in Stoke-on-Trent. It was definitely an experience. They love their tea and say things like, “I’m goin’ shop Duck” or “You wanna brew Duck?” Then there’s oatcakes.. oh my days, I could tell you about the oatcakes. You have …

Google Pixel 3a goes unlimited with Vodafone

Fancy getting yourself the Google Pixel, but don’t want to spend quite so much cash? Get yourself the Pixel 3a. We covered it here and it’s now available on Vodafone UK for £36 per month with no upfront cost. Powered by Android 9, it’s got a Qualcomm Snapdragon …

Vodafone UK launches the 5G GigaCube

Imagine if you found a home broadband provider who could offer you super-fast internet speeds for £30. Sounds good? For that you get 100GB of data to use and there’s no line rental or TV and calls package. No engineer, no waiting. This, then, is what Vodafone have …

Vodafone 5G – I feel the need, the need for speed.

Imagine you’re the marketing boss of a major network and you want someone to represent your company. Imagine that your network is about to launch a super-speedy new 5G technology which will fire data into phones faster than a bullet. Who would you choose? Usain Bolt? Well yes, …

Virgin Mobile SIM only deals. £9 for 6GB and more

Whilst sorting out this “little issue” with Three last night, I spotted this rather tasty SIM-only plan from Virgin. It delivers 6GB fo 4G data, 1500 minutes of calls and unlimited texts on a 12 month contract. A mere £9 for this. Boom! You’ll be sitting on the …

The big Vodafone announcement. Limits are history, baby!

With all these 5G launches happening, it’s easy for things to get lost in the fog somewhat. However, what Vodafone announced recently is really rather interesting. Instead of offering yet more packages with present limits, they’ve instead announced packages which let you grab as much data as you …

Three 5G. Twice as fast as others.

As we’ve mentioned before, Three have a rather big ace up their sleeve when it comes to 5G. During the spectrum auction they managed to obtain one contiguous 100MHz block to deliver what’s termed as “full 5G”. Not only that, but they also have a total of 140MHz …

BT Announce 5G launch plans

BT, who own EE, have announced their very own 5G service. It’ll of course use the EE masts and you’ll get the same coverage. Launching in the autumn, BT Plus customers will get the option to upgrade first. As with EE, the BT 5G network will be available …

Changing networks – Text to Switch Explained

Today marks the start of a new method of changing networks. For all too long people here in the UK have had to call the infamous “Retentions Team”. They will try lots of things to keep hold of you as a customer. Sometimes this process has a good …

giffgaff double the data for £20 and £25 goodybag customers

There’s some new goodybags available from giffgaff now, and the network – which runs on the O2 masts – are announcing that the £20 goodybag will now come with double data. Things kick off on July 3rd, so instead of 20GB, you’ll get 40GB on the £20 monthly …

Three 5G testing under way. Cloud network in place.

Wait though, because it’s not all about 5G. Three are also boosting their 4G, with 3G spectrum now being refarmed for 4G. They’re upgrading the 4G antenna masts on thousands of sites, with Croydon recently seeing new antennas and a reallocation of 10MHz of 3G spectrum (leaving 5Mhz …

BBC iPlayer and YouTube now added to the EE Video Data Pass

Heard about the Video Data Pass? On EE it basically means that you can watch as much video as you like from selected providers without it impacting your allowances. We covered it and the other Smart Plans in detail back in May but now there’s some even better …

Sure, you’ve tried a VPN, but have you tried a proxy?

There’s plenty of reasons to hide your identity online. Now, we’ve covered VPN’s – they hide your IP, and give you an IP of a datacentre or a local point of presence in a country elsewhere. Providers like Surfshark and others are there for you if you ever …

Vodafone 5G – Mobile gaming on test

The new, faster 5G network will, when combined with connected gaming, create a whole new world of mobile games. Vodafone have tested their 5G network in Birmingham with Gaming Expert, “Syndicate” and has been checking out some of the cloud-based games from Hatch. The new, faster 5G network …

Sky Mobile adds free unlimited data for all customers this weekend

Last year in the UK we experienced an absolutely stunning summer. This year, however, it’s done nothing but rain. Sky Mobile customers can at least drown their sorrows this weekend (June 15th and 16th) because the network is giving away unlimited mobile data. Sky Mobile customers can stream …

Three announces 5G launch date, complete with loads of spectrum.

It’s the “Need for speed” according to Three, and they’ve announced that their 5G network will arrive in August. By then there’ll be just London, but things look to be spinning up very quickly, with 25 towns and cities going live by the end of this year. Using …

No, really. That IS the new BT logo

I was actually emailed by a number of people after we ran the BT logo story. Some thought it was a joke. No people. It’s very, very real. Costing (apparently) almost £1 million, it’s been ridiculed on social media as you can see above, but – after £50 …

VOXI add more data to plans

New and existing VOXI customers have now had more data added to their plans. The network runs on (and is part of the) Vodafone network and they’ve boosted the £10 package from 6GB to 8GB, the £15 package has gone up from 15GB to 20GB and let’s not …

Compared – 4G vs 5G

There’s no doubt about it, 5G is going to make an amazing difference to your data speeds. The throughput is astonishing and we’ve seen examples of entire movies being downloaded in seconds. There is, though, two very important changes that 5G will cause. The first, rather obviously, is …

EE – Down for whatever

If you’re an EE customer then you could be having problems making and receiving calls right now. Problems appear to have started at 8 this morning and have progressively got worse as the day has gone on. EE have just added this update to Twitter… https://twitter.com/EE/status/1130811180723970048 …which has …

Following years of work, here’s the new BT logo. Err..

They say that less is more, but this is possibly taking things to the extreme. This simple logo is to be the new branding for telecommunications giant BT. Work started back in 2016 on this one, which appears to be not much better than my own logo design …

Network operators to provide end-of-contract alerts

It’s something we don’t like you guys doing. Paying too much for a phone or a mobile contract is just wrong. So, if you sign up for a contract, ensure that you move at the end of the deal, because continuing to pay is just bonkers. The reason? …

Virgin Mobile service restored after sizeable outage

Yesterday many customers of the MVNO, which runs on EE masts, found themselves unable to use the network fully. Problems seemed to be pretty wide-ranging, and included making calls, sending text messages and using mobile data. The network took to social media late last night too blame a …

Vodafone 5G to go live on July 3rd

No additional cost and 5G roaming into four European countries, it’s all to come on Vodafone and they’re the network to announce a go-live date. The company will be switching on the new 5G service for all their customer on July 3rd, which is just over 7 weeks …

Three to range OnePlus handsets

Next week will see the launch of the new OnePlus 7 Pro. It’s already slipped out and you’ll be able to play with the thing yourself at a range of pop-up events. However, today we’re hearing that Three UK will be picking up the “OnePlus premium smartphones” very …

The Vodafone Connected motorhome

Over the years we’ve had a couple of mobile HQ’s. In Barcelona we’ve reported from a boat and also from this rather epic camper. Now Vodafone are getting in on the act, adding lots of the their clever connected technology into a motorhome. Vodafone employee Dirk Ellenbeck created …

Huawei P30 Lite now available at Vodafone

If you want a lot of phone for not much cash, the new P30 Lite could well be on your radar. We’ve covered it last month and you can buy the handset direct from places like Argos or Amazon for £329.95. You can also get it from O2, …

New EE Smart Plans launched. Here’s the deets!

Say hello to the new EE Smart Plans. They’re a new range of packages which are both flexible and personal. You can choose from swappable benefits, including the EE Video Pass, EE Music Pass, access to the BT Sport app and Extended roaming. Don’t know what the EE …