So if you were buying a new phone contract today, who and what would you buy?
Ever since Orange released their ‘unlimited’ texting deals, I’ve been glaring at their ads as I walk around the London Underground.
500 minutes and unlimited texts for £35 a month is good. Very good. Stuck on T-Mobile, I’ve just recently swapped to some Relax timeplan. Can’t remember which one, but it was archaic. I bought minutes – I dunno, 600 minutes and 100 texts. What the hell use is 100 texts? Not a lot if you’re sending between 5-15 texts a day.
The ‘unlimited’ texting label on the various Orange price plans is really, really alluring. Mega attractive. Now, I know this is the equivalent of 3,000 texts a month on account of their fair use policy. That’s fair enough. But that’s 100 texts a day!
If you’re a regular user of texting, it’s worth looking at how many you purchase in your service plan — I’m willing to bet (and the Bentleys in the Operator car parks testify) that most people go way over their text allowance and end up being totally nailed to the wall for 10-12.5p a text. That’s what does a lot of damage on my price plan.
A lot of my friends are spending 40-50 quid a month on texting OVER and above their price plan allowance. Many operators don’t give you sufficient opportunity to buy in bulk. I can remember looking bewildered a few years back with my Vodafone account — I’d bought the top deal – 65+VAT or whatever — that’s the most you could buy up front as a consumer at that time. You could then add a block of 50 texts for a fiver or something. Something like this. That was no damn use at all — and routinely, before VAT was added, my monthly bill was topping out at 150+.
I was in an Orange shop today.
I would’ve swapped to their £75 unlimited deal. If it wasn’t for their absolute CHEAPNESS of making it unlimited texts, 1600 mins and unlimited OFF PEAK data. OFF PEAK? You’re off your rocker Mr Orange.
So I’m stuck on T-Mobile. Or, I choose to remain on T-Mobile. Yes I love their 7.50 unlimited data deal (particularly after I blew a grand on some international data last month – idiot). But the rest of the price plans are totally unspectacular.
I’m just not satisfied.
My shirt is still being ripped from my back every time I’m out of my service plan minutes and I want to call someone on a mobile.
39p a minute on some plans.
What the hell is going on here?
It’s a massively sophisticated method of getting as much cash as possible from us all.
When I can make a call to America for a penny a minute, or totally free in many cases, what is our industry regulator doing about me calling my friend Tom on Orange at 40p a minute? A few more pence and it’d be a premium call.
Of course it’s all about revenue generation isn’t it. They’ve got a few more years from us before it all falls apart and Wi Fi, WiMax or [insert technology here] introduces a bit of meaningful competition.
It’s not all bad though.
If you hunt around, there are good deals to be had. Extra minutes. Extra texts. In fact most operators are now offering bulk buy bundles putting texts at around 3p a go. E.g. Vodafone allow you to buy 1,000 texts a month for £30. Fully recommended — because 1,000 texts at their standard rate 12.5p is £125 😉
Still I have a bit of a problem paying £30 extra when my brother is poncing about with unlimited texts on a 35 quid a month plan because he’s a student.
For quite a while, o2’s ‘bolt ons’ have been rather useful. I recently noticed that T-Mobile’s online control panel allowed me to buy discount texts in bulk. Never knew that.
But you know what, if I was buying new this weekend, I think I’d be buying the £75 Orange unlimited deal, inspite of their ridiculous off peak policy — you know this is going to be reversed at some point. I know that if I met anyone from Orange, they wouldn’t be able to look me in the eye without smiling if I asked about this strategy.
Now over to you: You’re reading SMS Text News, thus you’re not a consumer — you either work in mobile or you have a specific and probably a professional interest in the industry — so, I’d be really interested to learn your opinion on this question:
If you were getting a new contract today, what network and price plan would you pick?
Damn, and I thought you were going to tell us!
Seriously, I’m in the market, my Vodafone contract comes up for renewal in November and I’m tempted to jump ship. Looking for recommendations. My text use is nowhere near yours though (probably averages 3 or 4/day).
I’m looking at T-Mobiles Flext tarrifs at the moment. £30 quid buys you a maximum of 900 x-ntwork mins (I have 500 on 3 at the moment which I just about use). So there’s plenty of scope to cover the small amount of texts I use (I have a 100 a month at the moment). I guess that’s a real benefit of Flext.
I’m probably going to sign up for the Blackberry so email is an extra tenner. If you want internet access that’s another £7.50 for unlimited use (fair usage policy applys to this, I think the nominal limit is 2GB.
That’s how miserable the average mobile web experience has been so far for me that even at £7.50 I’m not interested. Or have I just been unlucky with 3’s bizzare walled garden policy?
Jim