Re: Phew...sort of
It's coverage that affects me.
I have tried 3 and Giffgaff in my ipad, and have O2 on my company phone and Virgin on my private one.
from O2/GiffGaff I get no coverage at all on the hills between Grantham and Stamford, and close to nothing in the middle of Spalding. Driving from Lincolnshire to Cheshire I got coverage only in Stoke on Trent, and scrappily in Crewe. I could not even make a phone call on the Derby ring road.
Meanwhile the 3 and Virgin systems were at 5 bars for all of those examples.