Orange & T-Mobile sharing

[Big John]

Orange customers can now access T-Mobile if they can't get an Orange signal (if T-Mobile is any better in the current location). You need to follow the instructions at:

 

https://kareena.orange.co.uk/share/opt-in.jsp?embedded=false

 

Here in Banbury we seem to be alternating between the two (automatically!)

 

And T-Mobile customers can use Orange now:

 

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/share/

[deletedaccount]

shame it doesn't work with dongles yet

[Lady Muck]

Does anyone else here find that phones seem to get priority over dongles? We've been travelling through an area which has (what looked like to me) a pretty weak connection - yet, if I accessed the internet by using my mobile phone plugged into my laptop (which is also 3g), I'd get a 3g signal where the dongles wouldn't show one at all - even if I put the dongle on the roof on the top on the canoe (which is about as high up as I can get it).

 

I'm wondering if my phone has simply got a much stronger aerial and together with abuilt in battery (which dongles don't have) it is able to boost any signals it receives?

 

I'm also annoyed that despite upgrading three times, the dongles get worse everytime - as in our oldest one can pick up and keep much weaker connections than the newest one.

 

I'm thinking about getting an unlocked dongle, a transmitter and a selection of PAYG sims - I spend over £100 a month with Vodafone for two dongles and a phone and I know I'm being ripped off.

 

I also wonder if theres alot of bandwidth contention now so many people have smartphones. Only that we had no problems at all when we went up North last year, could get a connection everywhere. I do remember that when O2 had iphone exclusively, friends with phone contracts with O2 in London suffered hours of outage a day - this was attributed to the network not being up to dealing with the increase in usage.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Lady Muck

[Nightwatch]

Same company now I believe.

 

I was having a moan about Orange charges and said I was with T-Mobile for many years and didn't get this treatment etc. That was when I was informed that they are now the same company.

 

Martyn

[stuart]

Its only for 2G services at the moment as well - 3G is being switched over soon according to my t-mobile account manager.

[twocvbloke]

I'm sure my 3 stick has connected to non-3 networks (O2 or Orange I think), seems that Co-operation rather than Competition is making the end user happy...

 

Just signed my Orange SIM up for it, not sure if it'll work on my old Orange-branded Motorola (it has to have it's bands changing manually, but I think Orange, T-Mob and Virgin are on the same band), it'd be fun seeing it on a non-orange network though...

 

===================================================================

 

It works, manual selection on my Nokia allows it to connect via t-mob, obviously Orange takes presidence on auto selection though, but it's handy indeed...

Edited October 22, 2010 by twocvbloke

[the grinch]

i've been with mercury/121/tmobile for years. I am considering moving elsewhere as even with tango phone the signal throughout the New Forest is S..T no other word for it, they have had every opportunity to improve the signal round here and have done precisely nought! time to move to Vodaphone which actually works in my area.

[sueb]

I have never used a dongle. I just connect my orange phone to my computer. One less thing to lose.

Sue

[the grinch]

Orange customers can now access T-Mobile if they can't get an Orange signal (if T-Mobile is any better in the current location). You need to follow the instructions at:

 

https://kareena.orange.co.uk/share/opt-in.jsp?embedded=false

 

Here in Banbury we seem to be alternating between the two (automatically!)

 

And T-Mobile customers can use Orange now:

 

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/share/

 

well thanks for this I have signed up and will give them a chance, but as i said if i still get no signal in the new forest then so long to them.

[nb Innisfree]

well thanks for this I have signed up and will give them a chance, but as i said if i still get no signal in the new forest then so long to them.

 

Just signed up mine and the wife's PAYG phones and already getting improved signal in Redlynch, I assume it's the same throughout the NF, previously had to put my Sony Ericsson by the window and use Bluetooth, wife's older Nokia 6230 was just able to function on one bar anywhere in the house but now has full signal. I look forward to the day when all networks are shared all of the time instead of just for emergency calls, in fact I think it should be a legal requirement.

Edited October 23, 2010 by nb Innisfree

[twocvbloke]

Well, seems my old motorola mr601, sold only on Orange, is happy to use t-mob as it's carrier, only it comes up saying "Roaming", but I guess that's cos it's pretty old and can't really tell that it's okay to roam off the home network...

 

[Marky_Mark]

 

Bl**dy hell, thats an oldie

[carlt]

Bl**dy hell, thats an oldie

It's got a pinhole camera and the predictive text dictionary is in Latin.

[twocvbloke]

Bl**dy hell, thats an oldie

 

Yep, still works great though, gets a better signal in places my modern Nokia 5300 can't, with the same SIM card...

 

It's got a pinhole camera and the predictive text dictionary is in Latin.

 

oooh no, no such thing as predictive text in the mid to late 90's, unlike lazy phones of today, you had to know how to spell, but that probably resulted in that stupid "txt spk" rubbish...

 

And the camera's built into the phone's user, sadly the memory's proprietary so is not compatible with anything to download the stored images...