Your 4G Questions Answered

While it’s important to us that our 4G network reaches as many people as possible as quickly as possible, it’s equally vital that all of our customers understand exactly how this new technology can benefit their lives.

To help with this, we’ve scoured social media to find the top 4G questions asked by our customers and answered them below.

I can already use the internet on my phone – why do I need 4G?
The internet on your current phone is probably powered by the 3G network. This is great for many tasks like sending emails and loading web pages, but we’re now using our mobiles for much more data-intensive activities like streaming music and watching videos.

The 4G network is around five times faster than 3G – almost as fast as your home broadband connection – so you can stream videos, play games live online and download music much more quickly than ever before.

Say you want to download a 10 minute video clip – doing this over 3G would take minutes, whereas on 4G it could only take seconds. In short, 4G is like having your home broadband internet connection wherever you go!

How can 4G improve my everyday life?
If you own a smartphone and use it to browse the internet, then 4G is for you. Regardless of what you’re doing online, you can do it more quickly with 4G and it opens up even more for you to do on your phone.

The fast data speeds mean that you can easily make video calls, stream videos, send big attachments on your emails, and much much more. Not only that, but 4G has better indoor coverage than 3G – the 4G network uses the same frequency as the old analogue terrestrial TV that was switched off last year, so passes through walls more easily than other frequencies.

In addition, all O2 4G tariffs come bundled with a range of exclusive music, sport and gaming content, allowing you to take advantage of the full O2 4G experience. We’re so keen for you to try out 4G that we’re offering a 90 day Happiness Guarantee. If you aren’t totally satisfied within 90 days, we will help transfer you to a 3G tariff and give you a bill credit up to £15.

I want superfast internet on my laptop when I’m on the move – can 4G work for that?
We’ve recently launched our new 4G mobile broadband tariffs, giving customers the opportunity to experience 4G on their tablets and laptops.

Monthly plans start at just £15 per month, with the first monthly data allowance completely free. To make sure you get the most from the monthly package, if you don’t use all of the data in one month we’ll roll over up to 12GB into the next top-up. And if you don’t want to sign up to a monthly plan we’ve also got a pay as you go option where you can buy 5GB of data for £30 and have 90 days to use it up