Tesco Mobile coverage

[Anonymous]

I have had O2 at my current address off and on since 1987 (when it was Cellnet, with a huge Nokia transportable). I have always, even in 1987, had a reasonable O2 signal at my house. I had 12 months away from O2 until earlier this month, with BT SIM only, tempted by a very cheap deal but after a few months I came to remember the horrible service they provided when they used to be my phone and ISP supplier. The EE signal they used was definitely degraded, as I also have a French pay monthly Orange mobile on an identical iPhone SE. It gets a better EE signal at my house than the BT one does. I swapped the SIMs over, as both phones are unlocked, to check it was not the phone and it was not. I therefore decided to change to Tesco using the O2 network. The signal I am getting now at my house is disappointing, rarely more than one bar and often no service at all. Again I changed the phones over to check it was not a phone issue and it wasn't. I do therefore, wonder if there is some truth in the rumour that these secondary network sellers get a degraded signal or do not have access to all the masts. I rather wish I had bought direct from O2 but Tesco offered a SIM only bundle which suited better. 

[MI5]

MVNO’s buy bandwidth from the main networks so will always be limited to what they have paid for.
Tesco, however, don’t usually suffer with this as they a a joint venture with O2.
It could be some other factor affecting your signal.
Anyway, the main priority should be signal quality with cost a secondary consideration. There’s no point having a great deal if you can’t use the allowances.
We always advise checking with PAYG sims before making a contractual commitment.

[a_hcir]

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@MI5 wrote:
MVNO’s buy bandwidth from the main networks so will always be limited to what they have paid for.
Tesco, however, don’t usually suffer with this as they a a joint venture with O2.

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I can confirm this.  My other half is with Tesco and she generally gets as-good or better signal than mine (sadly have to admit it - Apple leads the way in mobile antenna technology - she always manages to get a slightly better signal than any of the Android devices I've rocked over the past few years :-))

[MI5]

My Lumia beats them all on signal strength.