Good points, I think ID Mobile would be a non starter as far as I can see ID Mobile don't do Apple watch tariffs which would be a deal breaker for my friend as she does a lot of running.
Do any of the MVNOs do cellular watches (apple, google, samsung etc?) It has been a sticking point for two of my friends who ended up with mainstream network rather than cheaper MVNO just so they can leave phone behind!
It appears not, a few of them do eSIMs but not at watch level.
I would like to know when Vodafone customers can get access to Three’s super fast 5g sites, as 5g in Kent on Vodafone is really sparse and I spend quite a bit of time on 2g when driving around rural areas Kent, really hope some of these areas get filled in with decent 4g or even 5g
Does anyone know if the merger has improved performance in London on Three? Has mast sharing started in any locations yet?
Some MOCN in London has been detected. However Three 4G coverage is already quite broad in London, so this hasn't been VF3s focus
Vodafone is great in London, I just hope Three benefits indoors from that coverage soon, as in buildings and around busy areas, Three can struggle.
Not in my part of London it isn't. It'd easily drop down to 3G when I had it, so would assume it drops to 2G in poor reception areas now. A shame as the Voxi plans would otherwise be up my street.
It would seem like being on a good Three deal is going to be better than Vodafone, but who knows what will happen down the line.
They made some promises but they were time limited and with the merger taking time, it's quite possible that by the time everything is done they'll be in a position to raise prices or migrate users.
I've been asked for advice on this by a friend, she's currently with EE but the renewal price is way more than she's happy to pay, her partner is with Vodafone and gets decent coverage in the places they go to, so going to Three seems logical and cheaper.
She's guaranteed the price for two years (plus the £1.25 annual price increase.)
Maybe also consider ID Mobile. They run on Three and have decent SIMO pricing.
I assume, though, that until the networks become one, you’ll still default to the infrastructure associated with your chosen brand?
So, if you’re in an area with great signal on both, but Three is a bit congested, you’ll still stick on Three’s network if you’re a Smarty customer?
I am forever singing the praises of ID Mobile. If you go to mobiles.co.uk (owned by Currys) & get a SIM only deal with ID Mobile (also owned by Currys) the deals with cashback offer the cheapest contracts on the market e.g. 50GB for £4/month or unlimited data for £10/month There are no annual price rises & EU roaming is included.
Does anyone know if the merger has improved performance in London on Three? Has mast sharing started in any locations yet?
Some MOCN in London has been detected. However Three 4G coverage is already quite broad in London, so this hasn't been VF3s focus
Vodafone is great in London, I just hope Three benefits indoors from that coverage soon, as in buildings and around busy areas, Three can struggle.
Not in my part of London it isn't. It'd easily drop down to 3G when I had it, so would assume it drops to 2G in poor reception areas now. A shame as the Voxi plans would otherwise be up my street.
I took out a Voxi SIM as a backup after EE had no voice calls for a few days recently. The problem with dropping to 2G seems to have gone away now, and the voice calling is much clearer than on EE.
Coverage where I live on Vodafone is still worse than EE, there is barely any 5G, but still usable now that the 2G drop problem has been resolved.
Network benchmarking firm Opensignal has reported that they’ve seen the “first measurable improvements” in their data from the recent merger between mobile operators Vodafone and Three UK, which appears to indicate that VodafoneThree is delivering some “significant coverage” improvements and “faster speeds” (mobile broadband).
Not bad for less than 5 months… this stuff takes time and isn’t simple. As a VF (phone) and Voxi (tablet) customer I’m hoping to see more improvements like this by the 1 year anniversary.
It has surprised me how quickly they have moved, after VF doing relatively little for years near me apart from applying for sites then letting the planning permission expire or building and not switching them on which maybe hints to a change in direction waiting on the merger. I find it interesting that the coverage map shows 3 sites coming in planned coverage then they disappear, but other sites going live that NEVER appear on the planned coverage at all? From the places I have travelled and seen 3 sites it has been very impressive. It is easy to pick the ones which have filled black holes as they are so noticeable, but it is the increase in cell density / capacity that surprises me as I would have thought the initial push would be for the big extra coverage as maybe it makes a better consumer headline.
Is there a way for iPhone users to see what network they are using?
Wish it was like the Virgin Mobile part of the T-Mobile and Orange merger when you could see the Virgin (T-Mobile) and virgin (Orange) network name in upper/lowercase letters depending on the mast used.
Could they not have VodafoneThree in the status bar when accessing the other networks masts?!
Is there a way for iPhone users to see what network they are using?
Wish it was like the Virgin Mobile part of the T-Mobile and Orange merger when you could see the Virgin (T-Mobile) and virgin (Orange) network name in upper/lowercase letters depending on the mast used.
Could they not have VodafoneThree in the status bar when accessing the other networks masts?!
Interesting one, I used field test mode but it only shows the band not the actual network.
Is there a way for iPhone users to see what network they are using?
Wish it was like the Virgin Mobile part of the T-Mobile and Orange merger when you could see the Virgin (T-Mobile) and virgin (Orange) network name in upper/lowercase letters depending on the mast used.
Could they not have VodafoneThree in the status bar when accessing the other networks masts?!
As already mentioned, Field Test Mode is the best way of figuring this out. When you're using a bit of the other network's spectrum, so for e.g. as a Three based customer if you start connecting to Band 7 or 8, it's pretty obvious. Bandwidth can also give you a clue (so for Band 20 if it's 10 MHz it'll be Vodafone and if it's 5 MHz it will be Three), but this can be complicated when it comes to areas they both had the same holdings such as Band 32.
However, using Band 32 as an example, originally Vodafone only deployed this in London and other large cities, but Three deployed it more widely. However, with O2 now going to end up with the "Vodafone" holdings of Band 32, this will mean eventually everyone on vodafoneThree will use what was originally the "Three" holdings of Band 32.
David's groovy little website if very handy for seeing how the combined VodafoneThree spectrum holdings will look eventually in time, but for us iOS customers, it's still going to be down to a lot of guess/detective work!
From what I see on coverage maps, and here in my own location, VF seems to be bringing more Three sites into the VF network (MOCN was it?).
Now that this is happening, how are you folks finding VF in general since the 3G switch off? Are you seeing far less 2G, more 4G/5G and seeing the benefits of the Three "sharing"?
Three's 3G is being switched off from my local MBNL mast next week although the coverage map claims there's no 3G there already. The mast was recently replaced with a taller one which has improved coverage for EE, but can't confirm the same for Three although they've kept the same bands as previously.
Personally I can see Three moving off that mast to relocate to Vodafone's mast nearby.
I am definitely seeing improvements on the Three side on my back up SIM.
Vodafone and Three UK Deploy Joint Network Sharing to 8,000 Mast Sites
Mobile operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has revealed that 8,000 mast sites have now been upgraded to implement their new Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN). This is one of the first big benefits of the recent merger (here and here) – allowing customers to roam across both networks at no extra cost (whichever one provides the best signal).
As previously reported, it could take a total of 8 years to fully complete the roll-out of these upgrades (it will be 95% complete after 6 years). The deployment is thus initially being strategically focused on areas of the country that will gain the most benefit from it (i.e. those with a poor 4G or 5G signal from one or the other operator).
The fact they’ve gone from 600 sites in August 2025 to 8,000 now means that they’re on course to hit or possibly even exceed their original target of 9,000 sites by the end of the first year of VodafoneThree being formed (March 2026).
Personally I can see Three moving off that mast to relocate to Vodafone's mast nearby.
I think there may be contracts with the mast owner (often Cellnex) or even MBNL that would have to be exited; but it will happen eventually. And then the coverage pattern will change, and you'll get all the same reports in the media that happend when Orange & T-mobile merged.
VF3 will want to avoid losing customers as long as possible.
I would like to know when Vodafone customers can get access to Three’s super fast 5g sites, as 5g in Kent on Vodafone is really sparse and I spend quite a bit of time on 2g when driving around rural areas Kent, really hope some of these areas get filled in with decent 4g or even 5g
According to the VF coverage map this looks to have started to happen close to me ( see CW1 3HU). There are three 3 poles of wonder spread across town and the exact footprint of those from the 3 coverage checker now show on VF.
Comments
It appears not, a few of them do eSIMs but not at watch level.
Some MOCN in London has been detected. However Three 4G coverage is already quite broad in London, so this hasn't been VF3s focus
Vodafone is great in London, I just hope Three benefits indoors from that coverage soon, as in buildings and around busy areas, Three can struggle.
Not in my part of London it isn't. It'd easily drop down to 3G when I had it, so would assume it drops to 2G in poor reception areas now. A shame as the Voxi plans would otherwise be up my street.
I am forever singing the praises of ID Mobile. If you go to mobiles.co.uk (owned by Currys) & get a SIM only deal with ID Mobile (also owned by Currys) the deals with cashback offer the cheapest contracts on the market e.g. 50GB for £4/month or unlimited data for £10/month There are no annual price rises & EU roaming is included.
https://www.mobiles.co.uk/sim-only/idmobile
I took out a Voxi SIM as a backup after EE had no voice calls for a few days recently. The problem with dropping to 2G seems to have gone away now, and the voice calling is much clearer than on EE.
Coverage where I live on Vodafone is still worse than EE, there is barely any 5G, but still usable now that the 2G drop problem has been resolved.
https://www.threemediacentre.co.uk/content/vodafonethree-unveils-two-networks-are-better-than-one/
And
VodafoneThree unveils first joint campaign since merger
Vodafone and Three will each have their own assets as part of the campaign, which come together under the ‘Two networks are better than one’ tagline.
https://www.marketingweek.com/vodafonethree-joint-campaign-merger/
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/10/study-sees-coverage-and-speed-improvements-from-vodafone-and-three-uk-merger.html
Wish it was like the Virgin Mobile part of the T-Mobile and Orange merger when you could see the Virgin (T-Mobile) and virgin (Orange) network name in upper/lowercase letters depending on the mast used.
Could they not have VodafoneThree in the status bar when accessing the other networks masts?!
Interesting one, I used field test mode but it only shows the band not the actual network.
As already mentioned, Field Test Mode is the best way of figuring this out. When you're using a bit of the other network's spectrum, so for e.g. as a Three based customer if you start connecting to Band 7 or 8, it's pretty obvious. Bandwidth can also give you a clue (so for Band 20 if it's 10 MHz it'll be Vodafone and if it's 5 MHz it will be Three), but this can be complicated when it comes to areas they both had the same holdings such as Band 32.
However, using Band 32 as an example, originally Vodafone only deployed this in London and other large cities, but Three deployed it more widely. However, with O2 now going to end up with the "Vodafone" holdings of Band 32, this will mean eventually everyone on vodafoneThree will use what was originally the "Three" holdings of Band 32.
David's groovy little website if very handy for seeing how the combined VodafoneThree spectrum holdings will look eventually in time, but for us iOS customers, it's still going to be down to a lot of guess/detective work!
https://mastdatabase.co.uk/gb/spectrum/
Now that this is happening, how are you folks finding VF in general since the 3G switch off? Are you seeing far less 2G, more 4G/5G and seeing the benefits of the Three "sharing"?
I sometimes see EDGE on trains (SWML.)
Hmmmmm, I guess therin lies the bigger issue, the abundance of B20 only masts with little bandwidth :-/
Personally I can see Three moving off that mast to relocate to Vodafone's mast nearby.
Vodafone and Three UK Deploy Joint Network Sharing to 8,000 Mast Sites
Mobile operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has revealed that 8,000 mast sites have now been upgraded to implement their new Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN). This is one of the first big benefits of the recent merger (here and here) – allowing customers to roam across both networks at no extra cost (whichever one provides the best signal).
As previously reported, it could take a total of 8 years to fully complete the roll-out of these upgrades (it will be 95% complete after 6 years). The deployment is thus initially being strategically focused on areas of the country that will gain the most benefit from it (i.e. those with a poor 4G or 5G signal from one or the other operator).
The fact they’ve gone from 600 sites in August 2025 to 8,000 now means that they’re on course to hit or possibly even exceed their original target of 9,000 sites by the end of the first year of VodafoneThree being formed (March 2026).
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/11/vodafone-and-three-uk-deploy-joint-network-sharing-to-8000-mast-sites.html
VF3 will want to avoid losing customers as long as possible.
According to the VF coverage map this looks to have started to happen close to me ( see CW1 3HU). There are three 3 poles of wonder spread across town and the exact footprint of those from the 3 coverage checker now show on VF.
Next time I’m passing I’ll have to check.