(UK) Looking for advice with 920 and Orange network

Muessig

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Sep 30, 2012
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Well it seems that no-one online or in my local area can unlock my 920. I waited over 2 weeks for Cellunlocker.net to tell me this and I heard a local store tell me today that with the 920 Nokia is using something called "Security Lock 3" which apparently means that only the network carriers can ask Nokia for the unlock codes because there's nothing the third party sites can purchase to get the codes at the moment. I don't know whether this is true or not but it puts me in a hard position. I figure it's best to make something out of a bad situation and I'm in a position where I *could* start a contract with one of the networks that my P4U 'Sim-Free' 920 supports - EE, Orange, T-Mobile or Virgin. Looking around today at the deals it seems Orange Sim-Only deals are the cheapest I can find, offering cashback through Quidco, too offering 300 min, ultd texts, 500mb data for 10.50 and ?35 cashback making it effectively ?7.58 for 12 months.

So my questions are related to Orange and WP8; (sorry if I've put this in the wrong section)
- With future updates to WP8 will I have to wait for Orange (or EE) to distribute the update or will it be directly OTA from MSFT? I got the impression that the whole point of WP8 was that it was OTA?
- How are Orange with WP8 - Can I quickly find out how much of my monthly data, minutes etc I've used or will I have to find a third-party app to do this. Unless EE support WP8's new Data monitoring tools?
- At the moment I'm with 3 and I've found their signal to be quite unreliable away from City Centres, what's the coverage like with Orange?
- How do Magic Numbers work, exactly?

Is Orange the strongest choice of these networks at the moment (I can't seem to find a really cheap 1 month rolling sim-free deal that I'd like although this would be better than 12 months) or can someone recommend an alternative price or reasons to go for any of the other networks?
 

Boggy79

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Nov 14, 2012
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I can only answer two of those.

EE currently do not offer Data Sense support at the moment. Haven't found anywhere on their website where I can track this either. Lucky I use wifi all day :)

I've had perfect signal so far (only 3g) in Kent.
 

rebaser

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This is with regards to Orange and the EE 3g network

Orange in central London is very congested and seems slow to me (compared with a vodafone SIM in my Lumia 800), once you get further out speeds and latency seem to improve. Also coverage in small towns seems to be ok for me

The Your Orange App (account details) is pretty poor as it does not tell you your data usage (slaps hand against head).

Regarding software updates:
On my Lumia 800 you had to wait for Orange to approve the update to the phone (which was not too slow - especially compared to other uk networks). I thought but I am not not 100% sure that MS can do some OTA updates without Oranges approval

Magic Numbers
You start with one and get another every six months. Basically set up a number (who has to be on orange) and get free calls to them. So only really any use if your family/friends are on the same network

I am thinking of paying the ?20 to orange in three months time to get my phone and when my contract expires in six months moving to vodafone (just thoughts at the moment).

EE and 4g
Have a couple of friends who are using and anecdotally seem happy with and surprised it works so well (nobody on the network yet and no congestion?)
 

Jealy666

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I can only answer two of those.

EE currently do not offer Data Sense support at the moment. Haven't found anywhere on their website where I can track this either. Lucky I use wifi all day :)

I've had perfect signal so far (only 3g) in Kent.
Go to http://add-on.ee.co.uk/text whilst using the data (not WiFi) on your phone.


My 3G signal is pretty damn good (I seem to be connected more than when I was on o2 but that could be either the phone [iP4] or the network) and the 4G in Glasgow was quick when I went up last weekend.
 

Muessig

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Sep 30, 2012
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So Orange do have an app but it's not very good and it doesn't monitor data - sounds about right. Are there ANY ways I could monitor my data use? My girlfriend has a lumia 800 and she has a Nokia counters app but I can't see to find it anywhere. Are there any alternatives?
 

Hilazing

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the Orange website always gives me the remaining data allowance on my phone. I'm not sure why it doesn't work for everyone, but it works fine for me.
 

Muessig

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What has been peoples experiences with customer support? I have read some nasty stories but the problem researching networks on the internet is you tend to hear mostly negatives. Interested to see what you guys think.

Can anyone advise me if there are any things Orange likes to charge for even on a contract, like roaming or anything like that?
 

andrewkeith5

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- With future updates to WP8 will I have to wait for Orange (or EE) to distribute the update or will it be directly OTA from MSFT? I got the impression that the whole point of WP8 was that it was OTA?

Updates will be commissioned (i.e. provided/installed) directly from Microsoft OTA, but Phones4u/EE/Tmo/Orange stock runs a custom EE firmware so it needs to be approved by EE first. This doesn't take long for Windows Phone (Microsoft take a hardball approach which means updates are approved much quicker than Android), but it does delay your update slightly. This is one of the advantages of paying that bit more for a stock Nokia phone ;)
 

anon(5352752)

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"- With future updates to WP8 will I have to wait for Orange (or EE) to distribute the update or will it be directly OTA from MSFT? I got the impression that the whole point of WP8 was that it was OTA?"


To my knowledge, the updates come from from MS or Nokia themselves. As there is very little branding on the handset of the network operator, I can't see Orange delaying anything. It's not like an Android handset where they put Orange boot screens on, OrangeWorld, etc


"How are Orange with WP8 - Can I quickly find out how much of my monthly data, minutes etc I've used or will I have to find a third-party app to do this. Unless EE support WP8's new Data monitoring tools?"


Application is useless. I'm having to monitor mine at the moment via the online account on orange.co.uk


"At the moment I'm with 3 and I've found their signal to be quite unreliable away from City Centres, what's the coverage like with Orange?"


Orange and T-Mobiles signal is shared so your pretty well covered I'd say. Check coverage checker for that, links here


T-Mobile Coverage Street Check - Mobile Phone Coverage - T-Mobile


Coverage Checker | Orange.co.uk


"How do Magic Numbers work, exactly?"


Don't know, don't use them but Google search shows


Orange - Magic Numbers
 

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