Unlimited data / Three & 02 / 4G

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I know that this has been done to death but I still cant quite beleave that 02 are restricting data.

I have been with 02 from from the days of BT Celnet and love the phone service and do not want to move to someone else.

I used to have unlimited data with them as a bolt on and it worked very well but now I am restricted to 1GB a month.

My way around it was to take the phone upgrade offered a few months ago (a very nice Samsung Galaxy Note) and then go and buy a PAYG sim from Three, I top up £15 per month and get unlimited data and am going through just under 8GB a month as I watch iPlayer during lunch, use Google Maps as my Sat Nav, Google currents as my news reader and have all my email, facebook & twitter stuff on the phone.

I still have my HTC HD2 phone running on 02 and only use it for phone and text only.

To my mind this is just silly, I need to carry two phones with me, I would happly pay the £15 per month to 02 for unlimited data so I could carry just one phone (it would be the note ).

I will not have a contract with three or transfer my number due to some of the horror stories I have read but I cant quite beleave that 02 are still restricting my new use like this while offering smart phones that eat up data like there is no tomorw.

I wonder if 02 will still limit everyone to 1GB when they get 4G up and running?

Ian

[Anonymous]

@ Darrengf,

I am more than willing to pay what is a reasonable price for the data I would like to use. O2 don't even offer me that option.

[Anonymous]

The following is based on information read about over the last couple of years, and is my opinion only.

The spare radio frequencies being auctioned next year were the old analogue tv signal frequencies that were only freed up fully in 2011/early 2012.  Until digital tv came in, there were no spare radio frequencies where any new services could be launched.

Ofcom have been in charge of setting the timescale for the auction process.  The networks have had little/no input into this and can't force it to be done any earlier.

So essentially the networks have had to make do with the frequency spaces they have.  This is fine for 3, who are very much under-capacity with having less users than the other major networks. 

Its also fine for EE (orange/tmobile) as their merger caused them to have some spare capacity they could use for 4G services (with Ofcom's consent).  Not so great for Vodafone/O2 who have so many customers that theres no real "spare" capacity. 

To manage their capacity O2 started capping data use, as the expoential increase in data traffic, especially in London, had the potential to stretch network capacity to breaking point.  O2 essentially had to fight against the rising data traffic to protect it's network.

Whether the restrictional basis changes after the auction is anyone's guess.

[Anonymous]

to the person saying Three have 10 customers.

They have almost 10 million customers now, O2 may have 22.3 million customers but more than 50% of those customers on O2 have 2G only handsets so it works out the same.

O2 need to get their act together otherwise they will lose customers.

Its also funny how people here said all you can eat data will stop, well they announced all you can eat 4G and 4G free of charge for all customers too so what does everyone have to say about that, i wish i would just cancel this O2 service. rubbish

[Anonymous]

And it's why I'm probably leaving, virgin offer unlimited everything on a sim 30 day rolling contract for £15 O2 offered it with 2gig cap on data for a lot more

[perksie]

As long as you can get the coverage you need, it's always best to choose the best deal you can.