More hugely ignorant questions about mobile phones (4G now...)

[lalalonglegs]

I had lots of very useful advice when I asked how to change over my network last week . I now have a PAC code but when I mentioned this to someone they said, "You don't want to leave Orange! They're rolling out 4G next month and that's going to be brilliant - all your reception issues sorted overnight, really fast internet on your phone, no one else is going to be able to do it for at least six months."

Reception has been an issue with Orange (I can only safely use my phone standing in the very front of my bay window) and I wanted to ditch my Blackberry because I find the internet so useless on it. I'm no longer tied into Orange but have been thoroughly fed up with them over the past two years however, this new 4G lark sounds exciting. So should I stay or should I go?

It's true that Everything Everywhere (*) has been given a go-ahead for using 1800 MHz band for 4G, and has sold a portion to Three for them to also use for 4G, but if you've had problems, then why stick with them?

Without knowing where you are (rural / city / North / South / East / West) it may be difficult to guess if you would get service from them anyway (or maybe 6 months down the line, as I doubt all cells will be ready to handle 4G next month).

Then there will be the question of handsets... whether they will be kept mostly for rich city types in London to pay OTT prices for upgrades, or easily available...

(*) daft name, Orange + T-Mobile, name may change again in a rebranding exercise.

In that case, depending on the price I think I'll get a 4G dongle. 3G is a bit slow sometimes.

Hello!

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Only a handful of cities will have 4G available to start with and of course you will need a 4G enabled handset (Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, iPhone 5, etc.). Full roll out of 4G across the country won't complete until late 2014 by which time you can upgrade again anyway. And don't forget that the 4G tariffs will be roughly £5 more per month than equivalent 3g ones.

Personally I wouldn't bother just yet.

Your first priority should be to determine which network(s) give you good reception at home so you can use your phone in more places than your bay window.

Orange and T-Mobile are part of the same network EE, and share the same signal, which is labelled EE on your phone. Confusingly, next week EE will launch tariffs under the EE name (rather than Orange or T-Mobile) which will run on their new 4G network. Going forward, Orange and T-Mobile will sell and share "EE" 3G signal, EE brand will sell "EE" 4G signal. It is a bit confusing!

If you don't currently get good Orange reception in your house, I wouldn't hold out hope that the new EE brand 4G signal will solve this problem for you.

Instead, why not take a quick poll of friends / family members when they are in your house to see what reception they get from their network in your house? I'm sure you would have people in your circle who have phones on O2, Vodafone and 3 - next time they're at your place have a look at their phones and see who gets the best signal. Whichever network(s) give you the best signal in your house should help you decide which network to upgrade your phone to.