[Hands0n]

Okay, I'll admit it, sensational headlining just to draw attetion :D I could not possibly be termed a 3G Activist by any stretch of the proverbial. But I am increasingly impressed with O2 I have to say.

Anyone who has read my thoughts on O2 in the past will know that I have not been a fan of theirs since the acquisition by Telefonica. Perhaps they had lost their way as a latter day Cellnet and it has taken all of this time for the Spanish owners to make their improvements. And I do get the strongest of feelings that these are quite good improvements, and that they are worthy of mention.

For me, mobile life back on O2 started with my acquisition of the iPhone (2G) a while after it came out in 2007, I was in no rush at all. Coming to O2 filled me with a certain dread given my experiences back then of their 3G in my local area. It was dire then, it remains so today. But with a 2G iPhone it did not matter as their 2G signal was reasonably well covered here.

It was soon after buying back in to O2 that I have begun to notice their web portal's improvements. The site has become very easy to navigate and the account management is superb, all of the information that you would need to manage your mobile account is there to hand. Whats more is that the site seems to be always available, unlike a certain other operator that uses red branding everywhere and begins with the letter "V". Immediately on logging in the account's highlights are all there to see, latest billed amount, contract expiry date and links in to the billing detail.

Looking around their on-line store is also interesting - the range of handsets is quite comprehensive, and with a range that is wide enough to satisfy most tastes. Even their PAYG selection is of a decent breadth and price range, something for everyone.

I am also quite taken with their Simplicity tariffs (http://shop.o2.co.uk/sim-only-simplicity) that bridge between PAYG and Contract with their 30-day lifespan. The value increases remarkably with the more you spend - the £20 for 600 mins and 1,000 texts is very good value especially as it includes a free Bolt On of your choice.

For PAYG there is a bewildering array of offers and Bolt Ons available. By default each PAYG SIM comes activated to the Favourite Place (http://shop.o2.co.uk/tariffs/PAY_AND_GO/benefits/Favourite_Place#Favourite_Place) tariff. This gives you a number of free minutes, in addition to the £10 value, to call UK Landlines and other O2 mobiles as follows:-

Key benefits:

Top-up £10 and get 500 free minutes to O2 mobiles and standard UK landlines from your chosen postcode
Top-up £15 and get 1000 free minutes to O2 mobiles and standard UK landlines from your chosen postcode
Top-up £30 and get unlimited minutes to O2 mobiles and standard UK landlines from your chosen postcode

When calling from outside of your postcode normal O2 call charges apply which are currently as follows:


UK standard fixed lines and O2 mobiles4 25p/min for the first 3 mins then 5p/min for the rest of day
Other UK network mobiles 25p per minute


In addition to Bolt-Ons there are also O2 Rewards that you should opt-in to. These provide additional minutes value to your future top-ups based upon previous spends.

And so as I mooch around the O2 portal I keep finding bits and pieces of interest. Their tariffs are compelling, bringing back memories of how they once were at the very front of the pack, if not actually leading it. Perhaps this is the infamous "champ to chump" cycle in action. In any event, it is nice to see O2 getting back into things.

My big hope is that, given the current financial climate, O2 are able to fund some infrastructure build to improve their 3G coverage, or partner up with another operator to help fill in the gaps. Their network is okay on 2G, it is so-so on 3G and it needs to get up to speed with its coverage.

Well done O2, lets see some more please ...

[B]Hot Offer in Store
Our Getti found this neat offer from O2 that is currently running very discretely. I take no credit for this at all, nice find sir :)

The O2 Motorola Z10 (http://shop.o2.co.uk/mobile_phone/Motorola/Z10) handset is currently on offer in-store only at half the advertised price of £146.79. This is a full-featured 3G/HSPA UIQ slider handset with 3Megapixel camera and stuff. Including a mandatory £10 top-up the at the counter price is £83.39. The handset is locked to the O2 network, but if you want it unlocked the code can be bought from the Internet for between £10 and £15. I've actually picked one up as a spare/plaything/traveller where I might not want to risk a more valuable phone.

Possibly best of all - the Z10 comes with the Bourne trilogy on a 1GB Transflash card :D These are .mo files (Mobiclip (http://www.mobiclip.com/index.php) video) that can only be played on the pre-installed Mobiclip player.

[gorilla]

While I can to some extent agree with your post, it is the holes in their network that irk me. Not since my first contract with 3 have I experienced a dropped call, and I now drop a call at least once a week. I know this is the iphone trying to hold onto a 3g signal, and I also know that I can force the iphone into gsm mode, but why should I have to?

Good value they may well be, but as 3 customers so often point out, value doesn't bring performance.

[Hands0n]

Good value they may well be, but as 3 customers so often point out, value doesn't bring performance.

Absolutely 101% there with you on that one :) It is a little sad that O2 have been the last to build out their 3G coverage, and they even drew significant OFCOM criticism a while back.

I would not be too ready to liken them to 3 :eek: Although they have a distinct danger of getting themselves into that very same space. O2's PAYG and later contract propositions are compelling and as 3GSU has often said they have a loyal following. Their brand reputation is strong even in the face of their network coverage - this echoes what I have recently said about 3 who's brand reputation is all but ruined. Even in the face of inadequate network coverage O2 are able to capitalise on the brand reputation and sell into a very crowded market and still turn in a profit. They appear to have a good grip on their churn too, which is crucially important to their survival.

I'm not ready to be an O2 fanboy :D But I do think they are turning around some of the criticisms that have been levelled at them in recent years.

[gorilla]

I'm just having a think about who O2's customers are. They are probably popular with "young" people or those who text a lot. I say this because weren't they the first network to really offer good text deals? They are also or were one of the cheaper networks so that is always popular with cash strapped customers. They don't have a large 3g network, so wont be popular with data users, so I presume not many businesses will use them.

I wouldn't say their CS are any better than the rest. The big + is that they are british, so most people can understand them. When I phoned to complain about the 3g reception on the iphone, I was told to turn the phone off and on again.

[miffed]

One thing o2 CS do seem to have nailed is the 'calling back' thing , if an o2 rep says he will call you back , he does without fail , this is something that I have not experienced from any other network
I am very pleased with any CS encounters I have had over the last 15 months of being a customer. I'd rate them ahead of most.

[Hands0n]

.... weren't they the first network to really offer good text deals?

Yes, IIRC in the guise of Genie, £10 got you 30 "free" text on top of whatever the £10 bought you in voice calls and paid-for texts (the free text got used up first). I do believe that Genie were the inspiration behind the texting phenomena that hit the UK. The other networks simply had to follow, and contract terms started to bundle in text to ever greater degrees up to the current raft of "unlimited" text bundles (usually c.2,000 texts FUP or thereabouts).

I'm not so sure about O2 being the network of "cash strapped" individuals. Although their range of tariffs does have something in there for everyone, the higher priced tariffs offering astonishing amounts of product.

I've not had to use their CS in anger, yet, although I can believe your response from them - similar to what I had in my first flirtation with them some years back on the SE K701i that works 1,000% on any other 3G network!! But I don't read or hear terrible things about O2's CS so I guess it isn't on a par with our fifth mobile network!