I live in Brighton (postcode BN2) and have been on O2 ever since I moved here about 12 years ago, I’ve had pretty much faultless coverage and service in that time.
I was on Vodafone for around 10 years and switched to O2 in May as they had some really good deals however I soon regretted switching as the coverage out and about seemed far worse on O2 than Vodafone. Even when my phone was showing full 4G signal strength I found Internet usage was really slow.
Fortunately O2 have a 30day money back guarantee meaning that you can switch out within the first month and not be tied to the full contract length but they messed that up too and took a single direct debit payment out of my bank account for the full twelve months line rental in one go after I had switched away from O2 in June.
I wouldn’t use them again.
.
At home I use WiFi calling to route cellular calls through my home WiFi so it doesn’t matter as much about your cellular signal strength at home. Unfortunately I don’t think that PlusNet currently support Wifi calling - you would need to switch to a different operator for this.
I moved to TalkMobile (not to be confused with TalkTalk) who offer WiFi calling and have some great deals.
When I had EE, the WiFi calling was forever causing problems on calls when I dandered around my place - I suspect without a robust WiFi coverage throughout your home you could suffer the same poor quality calls I experienced, quite often dropping calls completely.
I ended up with a SIM card included with my Virgin Media package on EE and this was switched over to O2 when the two businesses merged. So far I have had no reason to seek help from O2.
I recall historically, there were two types of mobile frequency - EE worked of the shorter wavelength and O2 used a longer frequency. This may be a thing of the past but certainly when visiting relatives in a particular area my EE signal very often completely dropped off, whilst others with O2 seemed unaffected. May also have been to do with proximity to their masts.
My phone is on WiFi most of the time so I’m not using much of my cellular data allowance. Than means I can get away with a 4GB tariff, and most months I only use less than 1GB.
Like me. WiFi calling used all the time on EE and use less than 1gb a month.
Vodafone customer care and UK service is poor.
O2 UK reception is poor.
EE UK service is the best and customer service is good, but can be a pain the get the right person sometimes.
We have found them excellent, many of the larger stores have human beings you can go in and speak to. Excellent value contracts which also don’t increase in price during the term.
My wife works in a moden school where the receiption is really poor. To test reception we obtained a few pay as you go sims and just popped them in to a spare phone to test the reception. The sims are normally free or a nominal fee and even without credit will accept an incoming call. Sufficient to test.
I live in a city and have used O2 for some time however I have also found their data to be incredibly slow in the city centre - no idea if this reflects network saturation with users or something else.
Every provider can be hit and miss if you’re not in a region with good coverage and I’ve also found 3 on PAYG to have poor data speeds. I often wonder if they throttle these deliberately.
I think Tesco mobile is also O2. Personally I’d probably plump for a PAYG SIM from one provider or another and just try it for a month to see how good it is.
ASDA mobile has been recommended - Vodafone from memory - I bought a few SIMs a few months ago but have yet to use them.
I go through at least 20gb per month, and I ‘gift’ data to my wife. My EE sim-only contract gives me 160gb per month, so is effectively unlimited. For what I’m paying, £30 for both sims per month, I’m not complaining. Good coverage at work and for most of the country. 5G is silly fast at times.
