That age old issue of bandwidth, as devices got faster the issue was getting worse, then LTE/4G came along, the nirvana? Only if money is no object, and your in the right place at that moment, but it’s changing
If your interested in LTE info I waffled on about this back in November so take a look, this time it’s tariffs up for discussion.
EE, formally Orange and T-Mobile have merged and obtained the licence to initially offer 4G services here in the UK. This was late, the U.S were already wizzing along on the iPads that had shipped 6 months earlier. The offering, needless to say is not the greatest deal you have ever seen, who would give something away on the cheap and especially as they are the only ones at the party.
The Analogue To Digital TV switchover happened and the government auctioned, meanwhile Three managed to buy some spectrum from our friends at EE, everything everywhere, deep joy.
Now would you prefer lots of something slow at a low cost, or a small amount of something fast at a high cost? Quantity or Quality?
Aparantly Steve Jobs said “One Home Run is better than two Doubles”
In this case it’s not true because of all you can eat! This is the best aspect of 3G services, currently only offered by Three here in Blighty, therefore “One Home Run is not better than as many Doubles as you can eat”
Getting onto Tariffs then, EE’s deals are grim IMHO, let me elaborate,
iPhone5 32Gb £36 per month 24month contract.
Upfront device cost £269, compared to £599 Sim Free
Unlimited Texts and Minutes, I see minutes have become pretty valueless, it’s all about data.
500Mb data, yes 500Mb which will last preciously 20 minutes.
For 8Gb is another £20 per month, taking you to £56 per month for 2 years, ouch.
Compared with Three (3G)
iPhone5 £36 per month 24 month contract
Upfront device cost £199, compared to EE £269
5000 Texts, 7000 Minutes and of course All You Can Eat Data, no limits!
I just ran a test and got this result on my Three 3G enabled iPad.
The latest is Three have announced they will be offering LTE/4G to all their users at No Extra Cost! They have not yet confirmed if the All You Can Eats will continue but at least you get the premium bandwidth sat no extra cost!
Three, voice calls are pretty rubbish in my experience lots of calls failed, but their data network is brilliant, bravo to Three!
