I've always used my mobile for both business and personal matters, but due to a combination of starting up a new online/telephone side-hustle, appalling signal strength in my area and increased remote working due to Covid, I want to get a new one solely for business use and most likely via a new provider. I presently use an iPhone and am on an O2 sim only deal after my contract expired a year or two ago. I would prefer to stay with Apple for no better reason than I am familiar with their products and I am too old and/or impatient to be learning my way around the Android system. However, I do want to change providers as I am very unhappy with O2. No exaggeration, I can't remember the last time I managed to get through a call without it cutting me off, breaking up or spending most of it repeating "can you hear me?", "are you still there?" etc over and over. I live in rural Hertfordshire and my practice is mainly London based, though it also occasionally takes me to the East Midlands (esp Leicester when not locked down). I mention that because I have found that my iPhone/O2 combo simply doesn't pick up a signal for most of the train journey between St Pancras and Leicester. Thanks.
I was EE but the signal was too weak where I work inside a 2 floored industrial building, switched to Vodafone on SIM only faultless signal so far. I was tempted to try giffgaff as you're not locked in but went with a SIM contract for 12 Months.
I'm on o2 for coverage and haven't really had any complaints, got a EE phone for my daughter a few years back but they were god awful and I vow never to cross their path again, a colleague had Vodaphone and was calling them to complain daily - I think they are all shit so try to get SIM only so you can change easily. The iPhone is a company expense so VAT free to you sir.....
In our house were all on VOXI which is the cheapo arm of Vodafone. No problems with signal that i know but, everyone is different due to their location. Nice touch is the social media bolt on so my kids can cane the shit out of youtube and instagram at school and have no data limit...
Is your phone unlocked? If so, I'd buy EE, Voda, etc cheap SIMs and try them all. If not you better pay to get it unlocked for the freedom of choice... Giffgaff sit on the O2 network by the way...
My present phone is unlocked, yes. I would prefer to keep it as my personal phone though, and get a new one for business use. It doesn't need to be "new new", so I could get an unlocked one from CEX or similar.
The plan will need a reasonable amount of data as a lot of the work is over email (often with big attachments) or WhatsApp
Plusnet, unlimited calls, 1GB data £6.42 per month. Never had a dropped call in about 14months. There's no contract so if you don't like it, the most you lose is the £6. Though theres cheaper available here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-sim-only-contracts/#4to9gb I would change too, but I'm waiting for 5G which hopefully will be along soon and can't be bothered to switch for £1! Edit Just saw your need for data. Have a look through those on the link, there's several options.
EE for me, i have SIM only and use iPhone for work and personal, have lots of emails and large attachments so my sim only deal has about 20mb of data. i very rarely have signal issues and never get data signal issues - £20/month
EE sim only, for many years and very good reception, £27 pm for 100GB. Unlimited porn and I never run out of data.
I am not so much concerned with price plans etc, more signal quality and strength. My current iPhone has no "home" button and is on something like its 4th screen in the last couple of years due to being dashed across the room in a radge after I've been cut off for the 10th time during a 10 min call (the record, for which I may even have a screenshot somewhere, is it taking 49 separate calls to complete a 1hr 10 min telephone call).
Vodafone 20GB/mth data everything else unlimited on SIM only, £12/mth. Had to threaten to leave and ask to be put through to retentions before they offered that. Has been rock solid connection-wise apart from inevitable some dead-spots. Was in the Forest of Dean this morning and no signal, no provider does 100% coverage but I find Vodafone better than EE and 3 who I've been with previously.
Not sure what the means, but if you mean encryption like WhatsApp has, yes. I find a lot of clients prefer to use WhatsApp to email. I also hate email, as finding messages when there has been a lot of back and forth with someone is a bloody nightmare. It's legal work and so involves confidential and commercially sensitive info, and also provision of personal data, so the encryption is a definite bonus.
The type of phone you have does not affect the signal strength too much. Sounds like you have a localised issue with reception, and it may well be the same with other networks if they are using the same masts. Have you any friends or neighbours on a range of different networks you can see how the reception is in your house? I stress in your house, because internal walls can mess with reception. In my house reception is just about ok, but out in the street it’s 5*, so it’s my internal walls etc messing the reception.
You can check the signal strength on tinterweb by postcode. Perhaps that will help you find the supplier with the strongest signal at home & office?
