"I think what most affects which network you go with depends on coverage in your local area."
Same here. The only network that covered my home was Vodafone (provided you stood by a window on the right side of the house), so I got a contract with them.
These days I live about 500m from a mast, so all the networks work equally well, but every time I've tried to leave Voda they've offered me an even better deal, and as yet they've not messed anything up bad enough to make me want to leave.