Vodafone hikes PAYG call costs Vodafone has left its Pay As You Go customers with a sour taste in their mouths after increasing the cost of calls by up to £1.50 a minute. From the middle of next month, Vodafone punters on the Simply price plan will be stung with a hike. Calls to any network, standard landline, or voicemail, will jump four pence to 25p per …
The prices that are going up are doing so because they can. The prices going down are doing so because they have to, thanks to the EU constantly putting pressure on mobile networks to lower their roaming fees.
But the EU's watchdogs have teeth as sharp as anyone else's, which is why the price drops are just 3p whilst the increases are up to £1.50.
Is there a network like that?
As an example of their contempt I was just thinking the other day that the 4G auction next year is all well and good but where I live, in Gloucestershire (not exactly London, I know, but no Cumbria either) the 3G revolution still hasn't happened! And that's using the operators own massaged coverage maps! Not a single one covers anywhere within ten miles of where I live with 3G.
WTF indeed.
I live in the Borders. In a village with only 300 houses.
I get 3G (and fast too) courtesy of Three.
O2 has a variable 2G signal that varies from crap to non-existent.
Vodafone has a variable 2G signal that varies from "oh that's it stay in that position - yup try making the call now" to "sod it - we will pay for one of those Voda Gateway jobbies"
the other 2 networks - don't exist at all.
We get a strong DAB, Freeview, Sky signal though - and 8mb broadband - so can;t complain too much.
Though..... mains gas would be good.
I'm on PAYG with O2 and if I top-up £10 or more each month they give me 300 free texts and "unlimited" data.
Since I don't go over either (doing about 200 texts and 400MB a month), I think I'm getting a pretty reasonable deal - even more so when I see 12 month SIM only contracts for almost double the price on other networks and they either include a measly amount of data or none at all.
Of course, you need to have an O2 signal in the first place - but everywhere I go in London seems to be okay.
I believe with Vodafone it is worth it.
They have easily the best (2G) coverage in the UK.
Lowest dropped call rate
Fastest 3G data of any other network
Commitment to improve their coverage in the few areas that fall outside their signal zone.
Afterall you have to pay for quality. And it seems that o2 is getting out of their January 1st price hikes by disguising it as the VAT increase. Vodafone is squaring their prices to o2's levels.
But who am I to talk? I'm with Three and they're cheap and they have brilliant 3G coverage where I live in rural Dorset so perhaps I just disproved my theory that you have to pay for quality. Vodafone is great though, for 2G and if you need absolute reliablity.
well almost, all my payg calls will go via another operator but I pay you £5.00 a month to use your friends service whereby I can call 4 numbers for free, so you will get £5.00 a month from me until in your grubby greediness, you decide to change this. Then it's goodbye for good, what I hope is that for your profiteering you are rewarded suitably by your customers leaving in droves, then it might be goodbye forever, I can't wait.
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