Topic: Mobile Dramas

[Simon]

My signal at home has got progressively worse and now I can barely make or receive calls on the mobile.  There's an option on my phone to use WiFi Calling, which basically means it uses your WiFi for calls and in theory you get better call quality.  The thing is you have to get O2 to activate it at their end and therein lies the problem.  I spent four hours last night trying to contact them.  They won't answer the phone and they won't answer the chat service so I left messages on Facebook and Twitter and they've not even responded to those, so I've given up and decided to switch to Sky Mobile, which is the same deal as I have with O2, for half the price. 

I set up the account last night, and ordered the SIM but then in the confirmation email, the address was wrong, so they've sent the SIM card to the wrong address.  Just spent 40 minutes on the phone trying to get the address right, and in the end, had to cancel the order and start again, doing it all over the phone.  And they STILL haven't got the address right, but it should get here.

Further to this, I've just discovered Sky Mobile uses the O2 network, so it's likely my signal won't be any better.     But, at least I'll only be paying half of what I'm paying now, and hopefully I'll be able to use WiFi Calling, so the signal shouldn't be an issue at home. 

Why is nothing ever easy these days?   

[Clive]

Very interesting as I am also with O2.  My bitch is that they advertise free roaming in Europe (just use your phone as normal) but I rarely got a signal in the relevant countries.  Also, when I arrived home my bill went up from £50 to £72 because of the "free" data I'd used.  On the other hand, Mrs Clive also has an Apple phone contract with Tesco Mobile (which relies on O2).  When we were away a few weeks ago it worked almost everywhere in Europe and there were no surcharges to our £19 monthly bill.  Both accounts are funding a phone purchase. 

[Simon]

I will be paying £7 per month for the Sky package (unlimited calls & texts + 3Gb data), which is the same as I've been paying O2 £15 for.  So even if the signal is no better, at least I'm saving some money on it.

[Clive]

How are you getting on with this Simon?

[Simon]

No problems at all, and in fact, my phone is now enabled for WiFi Calling, meaning I have an excellent signal at home, as it goes through the WiFi.  This is what I was trying to get 02 to enable, without success.

[Clive]

I’m not at all happy with O2 and their exorbitant charges.  Must look into it before next renewal!

[Simon]

Definitely.  If you don't need a new phone, and don't require all that much data, you can get a SIM only deal for £7 per month:

https://www.sky.com/shop/mobile/plans

[Clive]

Couldn’t I use the SIM card on a different network?

[Simon]

Sky Mobile uses O2's network, I guess a bit like ISPs use BT, but I don't think it's otherwise connected.  It does of course mean that if you have a poor signal where you are on O2, that won't improve by switching to Sky, but if you have a smartphone with WiFi Calling (most do), then you could make and receive calls at home via your broadband connection, thus getting better call quality.  It doesn't cost any more.  As soon as you leave home, calls are routed via 4G when available, or will default back to the normal phone network where it isn't.  That is all set up on your phone by default when you get your Sky SIM. You just have to enable WiFi Calling in the phone settings.  You can keep your old number by using the PAC switching code.

[Clive]

I’ll do that Simon!

[Simon]

Typically, after several months of faultless service, Sky Mobile have a network issue at the moment with WiFi Calling, the issue being it's not working.      Seems to have been going on since the Government Alert on Sunday, although that's most likely to be a coincidence.   Hopefully they'll get it fixed soon.

[Clive]

I just knew that government alert would damage something!

[Simon]

It's all fixed now.  At a third of what I was paying O2, I can forgive them the occasional outage.

[Clive]

Well done!  We are really being ripped off by phone and internet providers.