[Reason077]

This was certainly true for many years with their awful 4G network. But their 5G network is excellent if you are in an area with good coverage.

I’ve regularly seen over 800 Mbps in London, consistently faster than any of the other networks.

(On the other hand, I wouldn’t pick Three if you value good and consistent coverage. But if you are using it from a fixed location with a good 5G signal, it’s great)

[secondcoming]

I use 3 as home broadband. To be fair, I have an uninterrupted view of the mast

https://www.speedtest.net/result/14072973814

[dspillett]

I was with Three for a while (cheap offer, coverage near me was decent and at the time I didn't travel much)…

> if you are in an area with good coverage

In my experience, this is a huge caveat.

[Lio]

If you're using Three from a fixed location WiFi Calling is included as part of the package too.

I have complaints about Three but coverage is not really one of them.

[denton-scratch]

If you're in a fixed location, you don't need to use a mobile network. Get wired internet connectivity, then use VOIP.

[Reason077]

> "If you're in a fixed location, you don't need to use a mobile network. Get wired internet connectivity"

Not always the best option in the UK.

5G mobile broadband is often both faster and cheaper than old-fashioned DSL, which is still all that's available in some areas/buildings. Even when you can get fibre to your home, it's often significantly more expensive and requires 12+ months contract commitment etc. Unlimited 5G data, on the other hand, can be got for around £20/month with no contract.

5G also tends to be more reliable. There’s a lot of redundancy built in to mobile networks that you don’t get with fibre.

[denton-scratch]

> faster and cheaper than old-fashioned DSL

Is that so? I didn't know. But I require internet connectivity anyway; being in a fixed location, I use a fixed connection. So I have FTTC. My VOIP-phone plugs into my router, so all I pay for is a local number, and maybe a local POTS connection at the other end. 5G may be cheap, but it's not as cheap as not buying 5G.

[Nextgrid]

Unfortunately phone manufacturers (even Apple) are in bed with the carriers and still don't provide VoIP as a first-class option in 2022. VoIP is not as well integrated into the OS as normal cellular calls are, and you can't verify a VoIP number as outgoing number for iMessage/FaceTime either.

[denton-scratch]

> phone manufacturers (even Apple)

Oh, that kind of phone. Apple doesn't make "phones"; they make mobile devices.

We were speaking of fixed-location phone services. You don't need a mobile device to do fixed-location telephony; my VOIP-phone is made by Gigaset. It doesn't do iMessage/Face-whatsit, but neither do I.

I'm usually at home; I wouldn't need a mobile device, except that some commercial and government services refuse to believe I exist unless I can spit out a mobile number. I don't carry my device with me; it lives on my desk at home.

In terms of standard voice telephony, my Gigaset phone works better (and is much cheaper to use) than my mobile device. And the battery never goes flat.

[Nextgrid]

The problem with a non-iMessage/FaceTime capable phone is that you sacrifice confidentiality and quality. Unless both sides are a good VoIP provider that interconnects with others over IP (which would ideally pass through RTP as-is and allow both sides to negotiate a good codec like Opus) - which is unlikely among the non-technical crowd - you're stuck with a fairly narrowband codec, where as FaceTime is something everyone has (and Android has its own options, including cross-platform ones).

[29083011397778]

Hell, even Android, which had built-in VOIP support in the default AOSP dialer app, had VOIP support ripped out. It now requires a third party app.

[Nextgrid]

Since LTE and IMS, all phones internally have a built-in SIP client already. If you're on LTE or using Wi-Fi calling, you're using SIP under the hood. There is no reason that client can't be opened to allow people to add arbitrary SIP accounts if it wasn't to protect the carriers' monopolies.