Recommend me a network :)

Coverage depends on where you live & where you work.

This will be useful to check coverage in your area:

http://www.gadgetstylist.com/blog/mobile-phone-coverage-check-your-mobil...

In my experience, going directly to network providers rather than Phones4U etc. for your contract is better, for superior customer service.

I think 02 are still the only network that supports visual voicemail correctly, I love it.  You can get apps to do it though.

Oh, is that it? I'm on o2 and think visual voicemail is great, my gf is on orange and it doesn't work, I assumed it was a service you had to activate or something. Good to know, thanks.

02 got the iPhone first cos they were the only ones who could be bothered to build the servers required for Visual Voicemail apparently. 

Have been on both O2 and Vodafone - never really had an issue with O2 until I moved to my new area, where I just couldn't get signal in my flat, whereas my OH on Vodafone was fine. Spent quite a while with customer service with the issue and tried all their suggestions. Eventually, I did get quite irate with a couple of the phone support people, but once it was escalated, got to someone who admitted there wasn't really anything they could do. Fortunately my contract was up soon, so moved to Vodafone once that happened.

With Vodafone, I've found the customer support in the local Vodafone store to be fairly patchy, whereas the main customer service phone support has been excellent. I do miss Visual Voicemail, but having signal in the first place is more important!

Why not ask one of the providers for a trial service so you ensure you get good signal in your area before committing to a long contract? I did this with Vodafone after my issues with O2 - it wasn't an issue, they just gave a 30 day SIM which I was then able to upgrade to a 12 month contract once I'd confirmed everything was okay.

One more point to note: If you're on Orange, you can use T-mobile's network & vice versa.

If you download Hullomail that can give you the visual VM

I'm also thinking of getting a 4s, but for me, the tarrif's aren't all the same.

Three's One Plan seems a touch ahead in terms of raw value, but I'm put off by the reputation of their customer services. I'd like to stay with orange, but their iPhone tarrifs seem particularly uncompetitive.

O2 seem to be some kind of middle ground, with a £36p/m tarrif that is unlimited for calls and texts but has a 1GB data limit. I have no idea however how much activity 1GB equates to in terms of streaming radio etc over 3G.

Hmmm.

You need to get the Hullomail app Lee mentioned above if you go with three, as they sting you 30p per minute for voicemail

Hmm, so the answer phone's not in the bundled mins?

Wonder if it's worth appealing to Orange's better nature to see what the best they can offer is.

My brand faithful nature is unbecoming of these modern times methinks!

I have got bad customer service experiences from both o2 and Vodafone...

You might find LG U+ or SK Telecom better for you