How many networks have you been with?

#1

We’re a self-selected bunch of early adoptors in this place, so I was wondering how many mobile networks we’ve all been with at some point or another?

I’ve racked my brains a little and I think Zevvle is my 8th 9th (not counting temporary SIMs I’ve picked up while abroad).

  1. Vodaphone
  2. Orange
  3. O₂
  4. giffgaff
  5. Three
  6. Lebara
  7. The People’s Operator (forgot about this one)
  8. SMARTY
  9. Zevvle
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#2

I tried one2one when it originally launched it’s service in Wales about 25 years ago but signal wasn’t great so moved to Orange postpay, was on that for quite a few years with line 2 and their voice controlled assistant (wildfire I think) then moved to genie unlimited texts (an o2 spin off) before I missed a payment and they moved me to o2 payg!

Have various main and secondary sim cards, giffgaff, o2 payg, moved a number from 1p mobile to HERE (today actually!).

Have a 3 mobile 200 MB free data sim, Voda, Vodafone Malta for pre EU Roam Like At Home DAYS.

Paul

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#3

Quite a collection. :sweat_smile: What did you think of 1p?

#4

Hmmm not too bad, service OK but customer service always seemed to need a poke or nudge after raising a case, I always seemed to be the one offering them solutions!!

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#5

I’ve been with (not necessarily in this order):

  1. BT Cellnet
  2. Vodafone
  3. O2
  4. Sainsbury’s Mobile
  5. Three
  6. GiffGaff
  7. 1P mobile
  8. The People’s Operator
  9. Plusnet Mobile
  10. Zevvle
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#6

Thinking back to my time with all of the companies on my list, I had an actively bad experience with a good 4 or 5 of them. Probably explains why I’ve switched so often.

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#7

I’ve only tried a few… in order,

  1. Orange
  2. O2
  3. Virgin Mobile; used them with a Sony Ericsson Walkman candy bar (can’t find the model), and I have fond memories of getting slightly addicted to QuadraPop (a tetris clone) with high-scores in the millions…
  4. Back to O2
  5. BT Mobile
  6. Zevvle

No points for guessing which inspired Zevvle… :flushed:

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#8
  1. Virgin Mobile
    Eh, I was young and using a Pay as you Go Nokia phone. I would top up at the supermarket with cash and a swipe card.
  2. O2
    Back when they did unlimited iPhone 3GS data for £10/month on Pay as you Go, my first experience with mobile data.
  3. giffgaff
    Back when they were first getting started! The promise was good but they hyper-grew and under-invested in technology. Then they had that season of downtime, price raises, and their dependence on the community working for “payback” meant that getting quality support that wasn’t copy paste from a power user was difficult.
  4. Three
    At the time giffgaff was exploding, I started to need international roaming and huge amounts of data again. I also started working at Monzo and could pass my own credit check for a contract. Stayed with them for a few years until 2019 where they started screwing me around with changing plans, raising prices, and poor support.
  5. EE
    Excellent network and I love almost everything about how the modern EE network is implemented but oh gods does anything to do with billing, support, or their stores suck. I could write a whole post about how stressful signing up with them was!
    I only stay with them today because of that speed, they are are only UK carrier to support all iPhone features, have international roaming as an option, supply native IPv6, support EAP-SIM for Tube WiFi without the splash screen, etc.

I’ll be using a Zevvle SIM in my iPad/laptop/etc., and staying around super interested in where this goes. :eyes:

1 Like
#9
  1. O2
    This was back when I was working for them as the “tech guy” in store (I think they called it O2 Guru) so obviously I just went with them. I was actually quite surprised they didn’t have any extra perks for their staff, I was just paying retail price (ended up getting a business account because it ended up being cheaper for a high data allowance than the consumer one). It was okay but lacked WiFi calling (when EE was rolling it out) and customer service was just as you’d expect. I ended up leaving (both the job and the contract) because I was disgusted by their sales practices, though in hindsight it’s the standard in the industry and O2 is not the only one to blame here.
  2. My own, with Andrews & Arnold as the upstream carrier with their SIP2SIM service. Great, no-BS service, though very expensive for data. The flexibility (with regards to multiple numbers, since it’s just a SIP endpoint and it’s up to you to route the traffic as you want, whether it’s Twilio numbers or something else) was great but the bandwidth was meh given that I was constantly roaming (as a side-effect of their multiple-network SIM) and I guess some link was saturated somewhere because I was averaging 5mbps of download bandwidth.
  3. Virgin Mobile. Got a good deal on data because I was a Virgin broadband customer at the time but the bugs (like the data side of the network collapsing during peak hours and seeing “Unable to establish PDP context” on the phone) and the lack of call forwarding (so I couldn’t temporarily forward the number - my primary number - to a different SIM until they sort out those issues) made it a dealbreaker. Not a good experience at all but given the rules of the forum about trash-talking on other networks I won’t say anything else.
  4. EE. Very good speeds on Pay and Go (150Mbps download in Central London), unfortunately the lack of auto top-up when you run out of credit made it a dealbreaker. I just wanted them to take more money out of my card when I run out (without bundles or anything like that, just “shut up and take my money”).
  5. Vodafone. Decent speeds, not as good as EE but more than enough for what I needed. Actually had a brilliant CS experience with them when I was trying to top-up a very small amount (maybe 1£ or less) to be able to switch to the higher bundle and the CS advisor just credited it to me out of the blue without me asking for it. Unfortunately the lack of auto top-up was still a problem (again I just wanted something that gets out of my way and automatically takes out money out of my card if I run out).
  6. Zevvle. So far so good, though I personally disagree with the move to the “bundle” model but I’m on a grandfathered plan so it’s all good for me.
3 Likes
#10

Resurrecting an old thread, but saw this and realised I’ve been around a bit. Thought it was worth posting though as there are a few gems I’d almost forgotten existed.

In roughly chronological order, possibly mixed up in the middle, almost certainly missing some…and not double-counting when I’ve been back to the same network:

  1. one2one
  2. Virgin Mobile
  3. O2
  4. Vodafone
  5. Fresh Mobile (Carphone Warehouse’s first MVNO, IIRC)
  6. Dot Mobile (student-oriented MVNO, ran on Vodafone)
  7. Orange
  8. OVIVO (advertising supported - possible to use them for free if you didn’t use much… they went spectacularly bust)
  9. giffgaff
  10. Three
  11. Tesco Mobile
  12. T-Mobile
  13. EE
  14. Smarty
  15. VOXI (for data)
  16. The People’s Operator
  17. The Phone Co-op
  18. Ecotalk
  19. Zevvle

I have also played around with a FreedomPop SIM when they were still active (call quality was terrible), and have tried to join iD Mobile on two occasions but strangely never pass the credit check despite that never being an issue elsewhere.

Do I have a problem? :sweat_smile:

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#11

Not counting any MVNO like Zevvle, and not counting pay as you go:

I currently have service with:

  • Vodafone UK
  • O2 UK
  • 3 UK
  • T-Mobile USA (kind of, it’s a line on a friend’s account, I don’t pay the bill)

I have previously had service with:

  • Blackfoot Wireless and its successors (MTPCS dba Chinook Wireless and then Cellular One of Montana)
  • Alltel
  • Verizon Wireless
  • T-Mobile USA (counting separately, as back then it was my own account, not a line on a friend’s account)
  • AT&T

Now, if I add prepaid and MVNOs, the list is inherently incomplete but let’s start:

  • Zevvle
  • GiffGaff
  • VOXI
  • Smart (Philippines, not to confuse with Smarty)
  • Cricket Wireless
  • Tracfone/Straight Talk
  • EE
  • Orange Austria
  • O2 Germany
  • Vodafone Netherlands
  • Meteor Ireland
  • Orange Romania
  • TIM
  • FreedomPop UK
  • Google Project Fi
  • … and quite a few more I’m forgetting to count, I’m sure…
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