Help with EE SIM...
 

Not sure if this is a right place for this but...

I'm looking to get my hands on two EE SIMs. I know I can get them once I arrive, but I need to have a UK number before I get there.

I believe EE sends them by mail for free but obviously I need a UK address. Would someone be willing to receive them for me, then forward them to me in the States. I, of course, will compensate you for the troubles (and postage).

Does it have to be EE? A lot of people prefer GiffGaff, for cheaper rates, and that's who I normally tell visiting friends from overseas to go with.

You might even find someone who'd post you some sims for free, as giffgaff users get a referral bonus!

(I use EE, because I'm on a short-lived but amazing price plan, but their billing and customer services are both pretty bad so I wouldn't recommend them otherwise)

Ah... Few years ago I didn't have a good experience with GiffGaff in a few places in Somerset. It looked like GiffGaff was getting depriotized when there was congestion. I clearly remember seeing a bunch of 3G networks (including O2), but GiffGaff could only connect to 2G network in the same spot.

Who is generally considered to have the most reliable network these days?

Don't go with EE. We use them for our company mobile phones and we all struggle with reception issues...and that's in central London!!!! O2 and Vodaphone work fine but in exactly the same spots, EE has no/limited reception. Very frustrating!

I'd also avoid 3 as they're very easy to sign up with for PAYG etc but their customer service is appalling, and they will quite happily screw you if you give them the chance.

I agree with the above - terrible reception. I have EE on my iphone 6 (had actually the same issues with an iphone 5 before) and I can stand in my office, directly by the window i.e. with the phone pretty much looking at the sky in the middle of the City of London and calls break every time.

This also happens in other areas of London for some strange reason. I am on a contract with them so not much I can do I guess. So be aware of this if you do choose EE.

So what carrier would you recommend then?

You won't get a definitive answer to this question! I've had a bad experience with EE and will never use them again. Ive been a happy Three customer for over 2 years now - their signal can sometimes be patchy outside of the major cities but as a Londoner it meets my needs perfectly.

For £15 you can get a PAYG SIM which will give you unlimited data, 300 mins and 3000 texts.

T-Mobile used to have a great customer service team and it beat the stuffing out of the Indian call centre that Orange used. T-Mobile also offers a great deal on the BIS BlackBerry service at £3.33 a month if you pay for £20 for 6months up front. Then they merged to form EE and according to one employee they got rid of the good bits of T-Mobile (like the UK call centre) and Orange because they were looking to save as much money as possible.

I'm with Three because they are so cheap on PAYG (321 deal) especially if you don't make many calls or use much data, I top up at most £10 every two months. I had discussions with O2, Vodafone and EE and none of them were able to match Three and this combined with non expiring credit 4G at the same prices and feel at home made it a no brainer. All the other networks offered rubbish rates unless you bought an add on which only lasted 30days which was more than I would be/was paying on Three.

To my mind Three offer the best balance of value and coverage. I have Vodafone for work, and I have good 3G and 4G in the cities but go out a ways and you'll be suffering with EDGE or GPRS, which often means you get no usable data. I can't say how many times my phone has full signal with a GPRS connection, and I can't do email/iMessage/maps or anything, while my iPad will have one bar of Three 3G signal and it works fine. For all our personal lines we use Three PAYG, and that takes all the stupid billing and bad customer services out of the equation. Three also have 4G service for the same price as their 3G plans, which is nice. I'm a happy Three customer and would recommend them.

One thing about EE is that they have WiFi calling, which can help with poor signal, and they have visual voicemail, which if you use your phone a lot is really nice...

Yeah I don't know why they're plugging this as a new thing when I was able to do this on my BlackBerry years ago with UMA. I assume it's just the first time it's been available on Apple's iPhone.

Perhaps it's new, perhaps it's not, but Vodafone, Three and O2 don't have it. :) Plus, BlackBerry might have a Cure Cancer feature and nobody would know since it's BlackBerry... ;):D Ok ok I jest.

I spent a very unhappy two years with EE - terrible reception and even worse customer service. I'm now with 3 which has good reception and, to date, has not required any customer service. My wife is with O2. Outside London it is often the case that one or the other, but not both, of us has service. In Cornwall recently 3 had two bars and O2 none. In Sussex it was the other way round.

I've got to assume that giffgaff being cheaper is for a very small selection of users, even visitors. If someone's just using calls/texts, then other providers were always cheaper, if it's for data, then while it may have been, it's not been for a year since I left them for 3 like most other people that use a lot of data did. If you don't use a lot of data, then you can probably find someone that provides the data you need cheaper and better than giffgaff do.

I think this is all subjective - I have EE and Vodafone and 99/100 EE will be faster and better even when they both say 4G. This is across the UK given I travel a fair amount.

Where EE falls over is when it does lose reception it kind of just stops everything whereas the Voda will tend to revert to GPRS and you can still get on a webpage.

When I had 3 they were terrible for me in terms of reception anywhere outside an urban area.

So if I need to rely on receiption and data use in the fields in Somerset, what would be my best bet? Giffgaff (and therefore O2 I assume) has failed me miserably in the past. GPRS just isn't usable.
All show coverage where I need coverage, but how is the quality of said coverage?