O2 evaluate: Premium pricing with out a premium connection

O2 is a powerhouse of a cellular community. Now a part of a three way partnership with Virgin Media, it doesn’t simply function its personal community, but additionally offers the community infrastructure utilized by Tesco Cellular, Sky Cellular and Giffgaff, with over 43 million cellular connections within the UK over the past monetary 12 months. 

Regardless of its huge consumer base, O2 hasn’t been vastly profitable in business benchmarks or in earlier Professional Evaluations Cellular Community Awards. In its 4G and 5G testing, RootMetrics has constantly positioned it behind EE, Three and Vodafone for pace, whereas our survey pinpointed points with customer support and assist. 

It’s not a superb signal that, the place final 12 months 88% of O2 clients we spoke to stated that they might advocate it to a good friend, after this 12 months’s survey this determine has gone all the way down to 69%, placing it someplace within the mid-table so far as buyer satisfaction goes.

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O2 evaluate: What do you get?

O2’s pay-monthly telephone plans go massive on flexibility: in the event you don’t just like the ready-made packages, you may roll your personal, customising the upfront worth, contract size and information allowances till you hit the precise stability. This lets you get the most recent and best telephones at a comparatively low month-to-month value, with the iPhone 14 from £41 a month and the Samsung Galaxy S22 from £39 on the time of writing. Nonetheless, you want to remember that you just’ll be paying this off over a three-year time period, and that the airtime portion of the contract could get costlier within the final 12 months, as this solely holds for the primary two years. 

On a extra typical two-year contract with 100GB of information, the iPhone 14 would value you £62.49/mth plus £30 upfront, whereas the Galaxy S22 can be £58.75/mth plus £30. That’s greater than you’ll pay for a similar bundle from BT Cellular, Three or iD Cellular. 

That stated, O2 does throw in some tasty extras on most of its plans, together with free three-month or six-month subscriptions to Disney Plus, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Video and different companies. What’s extra, you continue to get O2’s standard subscriber advantages, together with particular presents for O2 clients, precedence reserving for reveals at O2 venues and O2-sponsored occasions, to not point out VIP remedy must you go.

These tempting extras additionally include most of O2’s SIM-only plans. These begin at a not precisely value-packed £12/1GB deal and prolong to a £35 Limitless Plus Plan with all of the extras, and usually get higher in the event you join 24 months, the place you’ll get further information for a similar or much less cash. We wouldn’t advocate the 30-day plans, as you pay over the market charge in your information allowance and don’t even get the free subscriptions.

All of the above would possibly clarify why O2 doesn’t get prime scores for worth in our Cellular Community Awards survey. With 79% of shoppers glad or very glad with the worth of their package deal, it fares higher than EE or Vodafone, nevertheless it’s a approach behind Tesco Cellular, Sky Cellular and Giffgaff, all of whom function over the identical community.  

O2 evaluate: Customer support

O2 does higher on customer support, enhancing on final 12 months’s disappointing scores. Some 79% of the shoppers we spoke to had been glad with the community’s customer support, and solely 8.35% stated they weren’t glad, placing O2 forward of Three, Vodafone and Virgin Cellular, to not point out a lot of the no-frills digital networks.

Ofcom’s 2022 Evaluating customer support report involves comparable conclusions. O2 is above common for general satisfaction and has fewer than common complaints to Ofcom or clients with a motive to complain. The one severe blot in its copybook is its lengthy common name ready occasions: at practically 4 minutes, it’s the worst of the most important networks right here.

O2 evaluate: Protection, reliability and pace

O2’s 4G community covers round 99% of the UK inhabitants, and it’s solely in some extra distant coastal and rural areas that you just’ll wrestle to get a sign. In the meantime, 5G protection extends to round 750 cities and cities, with O2 claiming that it’s on course to cowl 50% of the UK inhabitants throughout 2023. EE and Three have reached this milestone already.

If O2 is taking part in catch-up there, it’s doing a lot the identical on connection speeds. RootMetrics’ newest spherical of pace exams nonetheless places it firmly within the fourth and last place of the UK’s main networks, with a UK-wide median obtain pace of simply 16.4Mbits/sec. To place that in perspective, Vodafone has a median UK obtain pace of 23.8Mbits/sec, whereas EE’s is 66.2Mbits/sec. O2 fares higher in Northern Eire, notably on calls and textual content efficiency, and its 5G attain and speeds are enhancing. RootMetrics discovered 5G obtainable in 15 of the 16 cities the place it exams, with median obtain speeds of over 100Mbits/sec in most of them.

That is the primary 12 months we’ve requested about 5G efficiency in our Cellular Community Awards survey, and O2’s outcomes aren’t something particular. Slightly below half (49%) of the 5G customers we surveyed stated they had been very or pretty glad with their connection. Compared, 64% of EE clients discovered their 5G passable, and Three and Sky Cellular additionally did higher, although Sky Cellular makes use of O2’s community. Lack of protection was the most important difficulty, raised by 73% of O2’s dissatisfied 5G customers. 

O2 will get one other mid-table place for reliability. Right here, 83% of customers say it’s all the time or largely quick sufficient for a spot of internet looking, however that falls to 63% for audio streaming and 53% for video streaming. Tesco Cellular, Virgin Cellular and BT Cellular have worse figures, however O2 must do some work if it’s going to meet up with EE, Three and Vodafone.

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O2 evaluate: Roaming

On the optimistic facet, O2 is likely one of the few main networks to incorporate free EU roaming with its contracts, so you should use your inclusive minutes, texts and information whilst you’re away, topic to a roaming restrict of 25GB per thirty days. Outdoors that, some plans embody the Journey Inclusive Zone Bolt On, which supplies you a similar in 27 extra locations, together with Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA.  

In the event you don’t have one in every of these plans, your greatest guess is the O2 Journey Bolt On for £6 a day, with limitless minutes, texts and information (however no MMS or calls and texts to premium charge numbers). This covers a wider vary of locations, although don’t count on to spend your time bingeing Netflix; information switch speeds are restricted to a most 500Kbits/sec.

O2 evaluate: Different companies and spending caps

O2 helps spending caps of wherever between £0 and £200 over your regular month-to-month contract spend. As soon as the cap is about, you have to contact O2 by way of telephone or on-line chat to switch or take away it.

O2 evaluate: Verdict

O2 isn’t doing a lot improper when it comes to customer support or reliability, nevertheless it’s nonetheless charging lots for companies that don’t offer you something particular in relation to speeds or protection. It’s price checking O2 for particular presents, or in the event you’re going to make full use of its added extras, however in the event you’re simply after the precise connection on the proper worth, different networks have higher offers.