Testing: O2 - L09/L23 & N28/N78

[CarlO1460]

That's not looking likely tho that O2 will roll out IMS to PAYG users:

Post 180 from Giff Gaff say they will here: https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33325393-future-flexibility-we-want-your-thoughts/184

Post 3 from Giff Gaff here say they have cancelled the rollout of IMS:

https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33351648-wifi-calling/3

So from that it seems that yes they were going to introduce it but something happened and now they have no intention of doing so ever which is a pity as £20 for 100GB data on Giff Gaff is more appealing then £30 for same data on O2 PAYG or Tesco Mobile PAYG especially as WiFi calling and 4g calling isn't available yet.

Note all operators as standard should offer IMS services regardless of who they are

I agree they should offer it, but from reading, it’s a complex design and probably due to O2 infrastructure and systems they’re probably dated which is causing the delay.

I’m confident O2 will bring it to payg and whoever else, they just don’t have the full package, and rolling something out half complete will probably just cause more complaints than it’s worth.

 

[Mike80]

Could just be coincidence of who gains the strongest signal at that point in time? Many variables in mobile networks thus never being guaranteed.

No. One mast. One band. Same sector/cell. Same signal strength. Phones next to each other. Both have Cellmapper installed. Swapped SIMs around between devices and Giffgaff always slower.

As long as there isn't congestion, you won't notice. The moment there is, you will notice.

 

[hle13]

No. One mast. One band. Same sector/cell. Same signal strength. Phones next to each other. Both have Cellmapper installed. Swapped SIMs around between devices and Giffgaff always slower.

As long as there isn't congestion, you won't notice. The moment there is, you will notice.

That's just it, O2 PAYG might be a bit faster then Giff Gaff but there's no 5G and it's more expensive whereas Giff Gaff has 5G, it's cheaper but suffers with congestion when the mast is busy.

If O2 actually had IMS and 5G for all then I probably be happy with O2 especially the O2 Rewards/Priority stuff.

Just at the moment if I want 5G at home, I only have Giff Gaff who provide this as I'm not interested in Pay Monthly.

 

[Tom153619]

If your device supports esim you could get one from esim.net as they have an unlimited 5g service at £18pm and has the same performance as a native o2 pay monthly sim but a 30 day contract

 

[hle13]

If your device supports esim you could get one from esim.net as they have an unlimited 5g service at £18pm and has the same performance as a native o2 pay monthly sim but a 30 day contract

Sadly my phone doesn't support esim to the best of my knowledge, it's a Motorola Moto G 5G which I had to import from the EU as the only model that is sold natively in the UK is the Plus model which has worse battery life compared to the vanilla model.

Also anyone knows if you have to do a credit check with esim.net? I know they do PAYG but as I've not heard of them, I wonder if anyone knows.

 

[Tom153619]

I use them they don't have any credit checks but I think you're right the phone you mentioned doesn't support esim

 

[CarlO1460]

Anyone know what the burst speed is?

I’m not technically hitched to 5G according to my phone, the logo just shows there.

There’s maintenance happening this Friday though after reporting it in the app it seems like they’re coming out to review it.

 

[Lucian]

I think "burst speed" is just the peak it reached, they could have named that "max" or "top" to avoid some of the confusion..

 

[jbennett360]

What's the best MVNO for the O2 network? In terms of performance being identical to O2

 

[Meatball]

Probably only Sky if you need WIFI Calling/VoLTE. Some have reported call drops transitioning 3G/4G. One benefit of Sky is the cumulative rollover of data if usage is volatile or backup etc.

Assume VM will not differentiate when they move to VMo2 very soon.

As far as I know Giffgaff, Tesco and Lycamobile still don't support WIFI Calling/VoLTE. Giffgaff and Tesco support 5G.

 

[hle13]

I've now enabled my Motorola G 5G with eSim capability with a SIM adaptor from eSim.Me and a eSim plan from eSim.net so my main number is now on O2.

Was meant to take 48 hours to port over from Voxi but took about 24 hours and had to go into phone settings to jumpstart the device from 5G to 4G to 5G again to get O2 5G.

Speeds inside my flat vary from 15MB to 21MB depending on the time while I was about to get just over 121MB outside the flat, I guess that is due to the time of the day and other environmental reasons.

So far so good, the good thing about O2 is I can actually get 5G at home and at work plus their coverage map shows my local mast although I've yet to see it in reality.

Haven't been on O2 since it was BT Cellnet in the early 2000s so it be interesting to see what the network is like.

 

[CarlO1460]

I've now enabled my Motorola G 5G with eSim capability with a SIM adaptor from eSim.Me and a eSim plan from eSim.net so my main number is now on O2.

Was meant to take 48 hours to port over from Voxi but took about 24 hours and had to go into phone settings to jumpstart the device from 5G to 4G to 5G again to get O2 5G.

Speeds inside my flat vary from 15MB to 21MB depending on the time while I was about to get just over 121MB outside the flat, I guess that is due to the time of the day and other environmental reasons.

So far so good, the good thing about O2 is I can actually get 5G at home and at work plus their coverage map shows my local mast although I've yet to see it in reality.

Haven't been on O2 since it was BT Cellnet in the early 2000s so it be interesting to see what the network is like.

I’ve no issues with O2, good coverage, had slow speeds in my previous house but here I get 60-100mbps all day long.

The perks are good too via O2 priority but you may not be eligible if you’ve gone via esim.net

My only issue is they have “5G” coverage all over the place here, as indicated by the icon on my screen but it doesn’t actually connect, neither does it provide any 5G speed as when I drop to 4G only, I get the same speeds regardless.

It’s like the tech is airing, but not connected up.

Doesn’t say I’m in a 5G coverage area here on their map so I have no grounds of complaint. Just seems odd to have it showing 5G everywhere but no backhaul or whatever else.

Doesn’t tell me in iphone field test mode it’s connected to 5G either even though the icon is there.

Generally connected to band 40 for 4G.

 

[hle13]

Well I should be testing O2 in another location come this weekend hopefully, it's a rural location but O2 says I should get a decent connection good enough for 4G Calling etc.

No 5G but I be interested to see the differences between O2 and EE for signal and data speeds.

 

[maninman]

I’ve no issues with O2, good coverage, had slow speeds in my previous house but here I get 60-100mbps all day long.

The perks are good too via O2 priority but you may not be eligible if you’ve gone via esim.net

My only issue is they have “5G” coverage all over the place here, as indicated by the icon on my screen but it doesn’t actually connect, neither does it provide any 5G speed as when I drop to 4G only, I get the same speeds regardless.

It’s like the tech is airing, but not connected up.

Doesn’t say I’m in a 5G coverage area here on their map so I have no grounds of complaint. Just seems odd to have it showing 5G everywhere but no backhaul or whatever else.

Doesn’t tell me in iphone field test mode it’s connected to 5G either even though the icon is there.

Generally connected to band 40 for 4G.

Is your local 5G mast a N78? Just wondering as some older 5G devices don't support all NR bands.

 

[CarlO1460]

Is your local 5G mast a N78? Just wondering as some older 5G devices don't support all NR bands.

I’ve a iPhone 12 Pro Max which supports all UK bands and then some.

It doesn’t tell me whether band 28/78 as iPhone field test mode won’t pick it up fully, only showing a 5G logo.

I predict n28 though as when I went to Billingham it connected there, just really confused why it’s airing but not actually connecting.

 

[hle13]

Well been using the eSim O2 SIM for past two weeks and in two places, O2 is a lot faster then Three.

Some places I have found internally that the signal speed is no more then 15MB with 5G showing on phone yet go outside and it's easily 10 times that.

Only issue is where I have full voice and data working, I can't use it to send texts as I keep getting a error 96 - what exactly is this error and what does O2 need to do to fix it?

 

[CarlO1460]

Well been using the eSim O2 SIM for past two weeks and in two places, O2 is a lot faster then Three.

Some places I have found internally that the signal speed is no more then 15MB with 5G showing on phone yet go outside and it's easily 10 times that.

Only issue is where I have full voice and data working, I can't use it to send texts as I keep getting a error 96 - what exactly is this error and what does O2 need to do to fix it?

I may be wrong but this may relate to trying to send the sms over IMS (wifi calling or lte) when O2 standard is to fall back to 3G/2G for sms as far as I know.

Did you reboot your phone when swapping sims? Assuming it’s an android device.

 

[hle13]

I may be wrong but this may relate to trying to send the sms over IMS (wifi calling or lte) when O2 standard is to fall back to 3G/2G for sms as far as I know.

Did you reboot your phone when swapping sims? Assuming it’s an android device.

Yup rebooted it and I got a new QR code from eSim.net however despite removing the old esim and reinstalling the new one, I simply cannot use SMS over the VMO2 network - thankfully it's a dual sim device and I can still use SMS using the EE network.

No worries with Data or Voice indeed for some reason, Voice is even clearer.

 

[CarlO1460]

Yup rebooted it and I got a new QR code from eSim.net however despite removing the old esim and reinstalling the new one, I simply cannot use SMS over the VMO2 network - thankfully it's a dual sim device and I can still use SMS using the EE network.

No worries with Data or Voice indeed for some reason, Voice is even clearer.

If you switch off wifi calling does it resolve the issue?

 

[hle13]

If you switch off wifi calling does it resolve the issue?

WiFi calling wasn't active when SMS doesn't work, I've tried it with WiFi calling on and off - still get the error.