4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

OK Guys, go easy as I am from the pre-historic era.:dunce:

I currently use a Motorola Moto G 2nd gen mobile on Virgins £10 per month rolling contract, like many elderly folk I do not have the phone glued to me ear all day.:D

However I do get jealous when I am trying to surf the net away from home and my friend has an Iphone with 4G and he can find out info a lot quicker and better than me.
I was thinking of buying the 3rd Gen MotoG or the Vodafone Smart Ultra (needs unlocking) for the 5" screen and the 4G.
As I understand it 4G would not be available to me(not a business user) so it seems to me that I may as well just stick with my Moto G 2nd Gen, am I correct?
TIA

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

A newer phone may be faster anyway, even though you can't get 4G.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

gas Thanks for that, definitely worth considering, my Moto G is less than a year old, I will keep my eyes on mobile phone prices, there is a new cheaper one called oneplus2 as well.

Ooops, my Moto G is 1st Gen, sorry about that.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

The 1st gen doesn't support full-speed 3G on UK networks so you may get some improvement upgrading, but I wouldn't bother unless switching to an operator that provides full-on 4G.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

VMs 3G is really slow anyway.

So you would probably get a better speed on a different network.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

At the moment, I believe 4G for individuals on the EE network is limited to EE's direct customers only. This period of exclusitivity will not last forever and indirect customers like those on Virgin will get access in due course. The other element in the mix is will Vodafone and VM pool their assets thereby giving VM another route to 4G? Again, watch this space, announcement likely Winter 2015/16.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

No, this is not the case. VM (business) customers and BT customers can all get 4G on EE. This is solely VM's choice not to provide it for their consumer clients and they have said they have no plans to do so because there is "no demand"

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

Thanks for all of your input guys, but after doing a lot of searching I am more confused than ever. :)
VM have a poor reputation with very little prospect of 4G in the next 12 months, but do I really need 4G, could a better 3G suit my needs?
I don't want to watch movies or play games but some of the web sites I visit such as raintoday do have changing graphics.
Asda seem very good for sim only using EE but no 4G, EE itself the tarriff is nearly 50% more than Asda etc but it is 4G.
I think that I have to remain with the EE coverage because of where I live EE is better than the others.
If I bought the Moto G 3rd gen from John lewis it is £159.95 inc delivery and one Asda tarriff that looks OK for me is 600mins,u/l txt and 1Gb data, I think that is £9 or £10 pm 30 day rolling.
Decisions Decisions :)

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

Thanks. Realised that VM did 4G for business hence I cryptically stated "individuals" but did not appreciate BT did offer it.

I've got VM mobile and don't think it has a poor reputation. The customer service has been good and it's always at the top of the value charts. Which is why it probably doesn't do 4G yet.
If you require a 4G network on EE then another choice is BT. Depending on whether your mobile phone is registered to a BT broadband household or not, the cheapest tariffs they do are:
Data:500Mb and Calls: 200 minutes £5pm (£10pm if no BT broadband)
Data:2Gb and Calls: 500 minutes £10pm (£15pm if no BT broadband)
All packages include unlimited texts and BT wifi.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

To be fair, with BT trying to buy EE, that might have been a special case.

The BT deals are pretty good, I'm thinking of moving my EE 4G contract to them (have BT broadband at home anyway).

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

Spoke to salesman on the phone earlier today and he claimed 4G should be available in November. He said something about a computer upgrade coming then and Virgin Media providing the fiber optic network for EE. He also said there wouldn't be additional charge for using it.

Not sure whether to take with a pinch of salt or a whole handful.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

VM already carry EE traffic and other providers.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

Yeah I thought I had heard that before. The salesman did say they already do that and he wasn't implying it that was part of the upgrade.

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

What I don't get is virgin are selling 4g phones at present so it must be on radar at some point

Re: 4G on Virgin, am I going to waste my money?
 

Well they can't help that as every new phone is 4G enabled.