The iPhone on O2 in and around central London at busy times like 5 in the afternoon simply doesn’t work. On 3G at least, you have to wait half an hour for a connection and even then, receiving any kind of data is like pulling your hair out. It seems now, O2 have actually apologised but all this is hot air if they’re not going to do anything about it. What is the point of spending £45 a month for a service you cannot use at the one time you really need it.
What gets me the most though is the fact that while using 3G I have to wait 20 minutes to even receive texts and frequently people who call me are greeted with the answerphone despite my phone being on and in signal.
New York have taken a novel approach. Apparently Apply have actually stopped selling iPhones to people with NY zip codes. Is it really the case that our 3G networks cannot handle this much data? I never seemed to have a problem using the Three network. Loads of people are using Three USB dongles without this kind of issue. It seems strange to hear AT&T would prevent people from buying iPhones rather than investing in their network.
Disabling 3G and falling back to EDGE only seems to help, but does mean you are stuck with a much slower transfer rate. To me this is preferable to no transfer at all. I had thought of taking out the tethering plan. I will think again. go on O2, sort your network out, or at least stop selling more iPhones that don’t work in London like AT&T!!