Category: Networks / Carriers
If you’ve watched our full hands-on with the HTC One M9 then you’ll probably also be aware that it’s going to arrive here in the UK on pretty much every network. Already we’ve seen Vodafone, giffgaff and Three and O2 put their hands up. Today you can start …
This past year I’ve travelled around Europe quite a bit and the data roaming and connectivity costs are just insane. We were promised by the European Commission that this would all be sorted out soon enough. Now I don’t care who I upset, this is a massive cash …
Got a phone? Happy with it? Just want a SIM? Vodafone look to have tweaked their SIM only deals with their Red 12-month plans dropping in price. The base Red deal is now £15.30 (down from £17) and you’ll get unlimited texts and calls with 1GB of 4GB …
Some hours ago, or possibly days (I’m not totally sure as Mobile World Congress week is always pretty insane at the best of time), we mentioned that giffgaff are to offer the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. Now they’ve announced that the HTC One M9 will be …
Three have just announced they will exclusively offer the Honor 6+ on a monthly contract here in the UK, away from having to purchase the phone outright. We’ve already had a hands-on with this thanks to the guys in Barcelona. The Honor 6+ is a device not many …
I’ve seen some weird tech items before, but these things totally freaked me out today. Meet the Orange Ub-y (short for “ubiquity”), which roams around the Orange stand here in Barcelona. There’s actually two as I write this, and the girls controlling the devices are chatting to each …
Tesco Mobile? giffgaff? How about switching your mobile to Google as a provider? It’s another step into your life for the company, who last night announced here at Mobile World Congress that they would be launching an MVNO in the USA. It’ll be arriving in the “coming months” …
When a new and rather popular device (like the HTC One M9 or the two Samsung Galaxy S6 devices) appears, you almost expect every UK network to be ranging the device. What you don’t expect, at least not straight away, is for the MVNO’s to say they’re getting …
You may remember how EE signed a 6 year deal to push the latest tech into the Wembley stadium. EE will be bathing the stadium in enhanced 4G, fast WiFi and NFC mobile payments. Of late though, they’ve gone a bit nuts with their speed trials. Using CAT …
Hello, what’s this then? The hot new LG G Flex2, on Vodafone with a G Watch R chucked in too? For £44.50 per month? Ohh, I’ll have a bit of that thank-you. Feeling a bit like a bendy LG G2, this has a 5.5″ screen and runs Android …
Tonight, during the Brit Awards, you’ll be seeing Mr Kevin Bacon turning up at the home of two “reality TV stars” that I’ve quite frankly never heard of. EE, which looks set to become BT pretty soon, are pushing their BT YouView EE TV system, which is no …
It’s not going to mean that farmers and remote villages will suddenly be getting high-speed broadband, but a Virgin Media announcement today will increase the size of the cable network in the UK. A massive £3 billion should mean that your fibre-less neighbours will be soon able to …
EE has just committed to spending £1.5 billion, that’s £1,500,000,000 or 5,084,745,763 pints of beer, between now and 2017 as part of a snazzily named new manifesto called “Signalling the Future”. This new manifesto is designed to tackle the digital infrastructure needs of the UK and lay the …
A new year means a new set of plans for Vodafone, who have today launched some new SIM-only deals. £9.50 will get you 250MB of data per month and 300 minutes plus 500 texts on 3G. However, you can also choose to pay £14 per month for 500MB …
Not long ago we brought you the news Three were going to sell the new Samsung Galaxy A3 over here in the UK. It now looks like they will also be taking the bigger brother too – the Samsung Galaxy A5. The hands-on video from employee Brendan has been …
In just a few short weeks we’ve seen the remaining Orange and T-Mobile branding confined to the dustbin and BT have been chatting to EE about a potential buy-out. Tonight it looks like the deal has been sealed, with Reuters and the Financial Times reporting that it’ll be …
Remember the HTC Desire 610? That had a 4.7″ qHD screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU and 8GB on-board. The 620, however, has had a bit of an upgrade with a slightly bigger 5″ 720×1280 screen but similar specs everywhere else. The 620 is now available …
With the amount of networks here in the UK possibly dropping down to three main players, it’s interesting to see new MVNOs from manjor companies suddenly appearing. Only last week we saw Sky jumping on board the O2 train to set themselves up as a virtual operator. Now …
Football is a huge deal for anyone that follows a team. Sometimes this comes at not only a large expense, but a large amount of time travelling to games around the UK. Plymouth Argyle fans are to make the longest trip in English football on Saturday visiting Hartlepool United …
Sky (BSkyB) this morning have announced that they will be entering the mobile market in a deal with O2. The deal should see the Sky network powered by O2 but have no impact on O2 customers allowing Sky to offer Phone, TV, Broadband and now Mobile packages. This …
UK supermarket giant Tesco is to kick out rival networks and only sell contracts to Tesco Mobile, which hops on the back of the O2 network. The Tesco Phone Shop will eventually stop selling contracts on all networks but its own, in a move designed to streamline its …
If you’re in London then you’ve already got quite a selection when it comes to home broadband, however you’ll usually find that line rental is an essential. Those headline figures try not the mention the all-important line rental cost, which is tucked away in the corner of the …
The owners of UK network Three have just added details on their site about the discussions taking place to buy O2 UK. The rumours stated that the deal was pretty much done, but the official statement is a little more cautious, saying that the companies are in “exclusive …
Sources have confirmed to the Financial Times that Telefónica (O2 UK) is about to be purhcased by Hutchison Whampoa (Three) for “more than £10bn”. The move comes after rumours of the deal surfaced earlier this week. According to the newspaper there’ll be an official announcement tomorrow (January 23rd) …
As you’ll know if you follow us, the boys at BT are currently sniffing around EE. Poor old O2 were out in the cold but, according to The Sunday Times, the owner of Three is looking to buy the network. Owner Li Ka-shing is apparently in talks with …
Want a Chromecast? Want a free one? Have a gander at this broadband offer from an outfit called Fuel Broadband. Instead of getting sucked into a provider who wants to offer mobile calls, phone calls, broadband and a TV package, they’re binning the add-ons and launching a £2 …
Following the launch of the new, higher-resolution G-Flex2 yesterday (which has a 5.5″ screen and a number of other similarities with the LG G3), Vodafone have approached us this morning with some juicy information. Vodafone will have a network exclusive for 6 weeks from the launch of the …
Roaming costs can be a right pain for anyone wanting to enjoy their holiday. Id your want to brag to friends about the good fine you’re having or keep updated with family members then it’ll usually run up a massive bill. Three hoped to change all that with …
The Nexus 6 has been plagued with availability issues both in the UK and on the other side of the pond. However upon checking the Play store today I saw that this is about to change. If you are wanting to get the Nexus 6 from Google direct …
It’s Christmas Eve. Can you believe it? At this festive time of year we should stop and give thanks. Thanks to all the dedicated writers for keeping this site going, thanks to you guys for coming every day and thanks to all the press agencies, mobile makers and …
Fancy a go on the Moto G 4G? How about getting your 4G fix from Three for no extra cost per month? The new Motorola handset is now available from the network with prices starting at just £16 a month, and there’s no up-front cost on that. If you …
It’s 2014 people. Granted, it won’t be for much longer, but let’s stay in the moment. I take a regular route to and from work. On my drive there’s always a section of the motorway that simply has no signal, so I have to tell callers, “I’m going …
The fight, we thought, was between O2 and EE for the pot of money being waved around by BT. There was also some discussion that Three were possibly going to make a surprise outside purchase of either one to consolidate their holdings. It seemed to make sense to …
Samsung recently announced the new Galaxy Note 4 smartphone which we all expected to see and had a rough idea what was coming. What we were not expecting though was the introduction of another Note handset, this time the Note Edge. AFter our up-close look we were then told …
A lot of people chose EE and, previously, Orange, because of the Orange Wednesdays offer. It gave you two seats in your local cinema for the price of one and, if you got enough codes, you could take the entire family for half the price. EE continued the …
This morning I walked through driving rain, freezing winds and complete darkness at 6.30AM. It was a delightful walk and just made me smile inside and out. However, if you want to swap this beautiful wind, snow, rain and hail for some horrible sunshine and irritating sandy beaches …
Whilst 4G speeds, in theory, are rather insane, the “real world” experience can be a little different. There’s a range of factors that’ll alter your experience. Location, of course, is the major one, but we must also consider the time of day. Trying to “nail” a speed testing …
Yup. It looks like it’s happened again. Twitter is slowly filling up with messages about the giffgaff data network being down and, if you reboot or switch data off and on, you’re getting a message asking you to sign into the network. After a quick scan of the …
Getting connectivity when you’re in a rural area is a challenge. My weekend of train journeys only served to highlight the fact that beautiful countryside usually means a complete lack of signal. EE are to tackle this with a new idea that doesn’t require cabling, planning permission or …
As promised, I’m writing all the Coolsmartphone content this weekend on my phone. It’s part of #acerliveblog2014. There’s a number of challenges facing rail commuters still, even in our modern world of 4G communications, HD video and on-demand content. It’s not always the trains themselves though. On the …
