64 Macworld • March 2021iPHONE
To see how well your provider is
living up to its claims, you can use the
free iPhone app Speedtest by Ookla
(free from fave.co/3pmpzv4).
EE came top in a recent report by
Opensignal (see fave.co/3nM3WnF),
winning the top spot for overall
download speeds in the UK. It also
won the best games experience,
video experience and upload speed
experience. Vodafone came a close
second in most, but did beat EE in
voice app experience.
Good news for EE, of course,
but also good for the providers
that piggyback on that company’s
infrastructure: BT Mobile, Plusnet
and Virgin Mobile.Reliability
Network outages are frustrating,
leaving you unable to access any
online services until you get back to
Wi-Fi. In Dec 2018, for instance, O2
customers were disconnected for a
whole day. This is another case where
piggybacking is important. The above
incident affected O2 piggybackers
too – so when considering a network
provider, check out reports of its
parent network’s reliability.Customer service
This is where the smaller providers
can stand apart from their parent
networks. How efficient is the provider
at dealing with problems, and does
it offer compensation when things
go wrong? Does it spam you with
marketing letters? Does it get your
bills wrong on a regular basis? An
Ofcom report from August 2020
(fave.co/34Dt3lb) found that Tesco
Mobile tops customer satisfaction
rankings, while Three fares worst.Data limit
You can pay less if you’re willing to
compromise on your data allowance:
contracts can vary from around
250MB to 60GB or more.
We’d advise against going for the
real bargain-basement allowances:Use the
Speedtest
by Ookla
app to
see if your
provider
is living
up to its
claims.64 Macworld • March 2021iPHONE
To see how well your provider is
living up to its claims, you can use the
free iPhone app Speedtest by Ookla
(free from fave.co/3pmpzv4).
EE came top in a recent report by
Opensignal (see fave.co/3nM3WnF),
winning the top spot for overall
download speeds in the UK. It also
won the best games experience,
video experience and upload speed
experience. Vodafone came a close
second in most, but did beat EE in
voice app experience.
Good news for EE, of course,
but also good for the providers
that piggyback on that company’s
infrastructure: BT Mobile, Plusnet
and Virgin Mobile.Reliability
Network outages are frustrating,
leaving you unable to access any
online services until you get back to
Wi-Fi. In Dec 2018, for instance, O2
customers were disconnected for a
whole day. This is another case where
piggybacking is important. The above
incident affected O2 piggybackers
too – so when considering a network
provider, check out reports of its
parent network’s reliability.Customer service
This is where the smaller providers
can stand apart from their parent
networks. How efficient is the provider
at dealing with problems, and does
it offer compensation when things
go wrong? Does it spam you with
marketing letters? Does it get your
bills wrong on a regular basis? An
Ofcom report from August 2020
(fave.co/34Dt3lb) found that Tesco
Mobile tops customer satisfaction
rankings, while Three fares worst.Data limit
You can pay less if you’re willing to
compromise on your data allowance:
contracts can vary from around
250MB to 60GB or more.
We’d advise against going for the
real bargain-basement allowances:Use the
Speedtest
by Ookla
app to
see if your
provider
is living
up to its
claims.