I've been with T-mobile for nearly 10 years now and like every year I upgrade my phone and re-new the contract. Well not this time, they flatly refused to offer what would have liked. When I said I'd cancel the contact I was replied with, you do that sir. Customer service at it's best!

Anyway what operator to go for, what have you lot got? Any comments view would go down a treat! I use my phone a fair bit during the day so cheap/free daytime calls would be best to all other networks

As for what phone I was tempted by the Sony P900 but really only for it's keyboard (thumb just cant txt like it used to :( ) any other good phones out there

Cheers

Mike

O2 seem to have the best allround tariffs if you like free minutes or free texts

but you have to do it all online not in the shop w*w.o2.co.uk

Apparently orange will match o2's tarrifs but not confirmed this

What you really need to ask yourself is:

Do I only use the phone in a city? Or is it used in the middle of nowhere?

Do I mainly use the phone during the daytime? Or evening?

Which networks do I mainly call? One in particular, or a variety?

How many minutes per month would I need?

Do I use a lot of txt messages?

Do I care really which phone it is? Or would a free phone be ok?

These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself.

My brother recently phoned o2 to cancel his contract and join up with 3. He only had one munth left with o2 when he phoned. They asked him why he wanted to leave and he told them that he could get 750mins anytime to any network and 100 texts free every month plus a new phone of his choice elsewhere for the same price. O2 matched it just to keep him, and give him the new phone of his choice for

O2 seem to have the best allround tariffs if you like free minutes or free texts

but you have to do it all online not in the shop w*w.o2.co.uk

:iagree: Got a sim-only online deal with free evening and weekend calls, unlimited free texts and unlimited free WAP for 9.99 a month a few years ago. Don't think they're quite so generous any more, but you can still get some good deals. If Orange WILL match O2's online deals (I know they used to do it for High Street tariffs), then I'd go for them, 'cos their customer service is tons better!

cheers I will look into that. I tried 3 for a few months and their service is dire! So I wont go with them but I'll use them as the standard to beat (well price wise that is!)

Do I only use the phone in a city? Or is it used in the middle of nowhere? Mostly City but sometimes in the middle of nowhere

Do I mainly use the phone during the daytime? Or evening? Mostly daytime

Which networks do I mainly call? One in particular, or a variety? At the moment it's T-mobile as kim is also on that, but her contact is coming to an end so what ever I change to so will she.

How many minutes per month would I need? I'm on 200 free minute at the moment will I use up all too soon, I spend far to much time on the phone

Do I use a lot of txt messages? Yes probably no more than 150 though

Do I care really which phone it is? Or would a free phone be ok? Not really but I need something that is easy to txt with, as I said before the old thumb isn't a usefull as it used to be!

It's a shame you found 3 to be so bad. Have you tried them recently? The new batch of phone have some form of amplification. I previously couldnt use my mobile at work (bad area for all networks) but with my new one I can.

I'm on a deal for 750 minutes (anynetwork/anytime) and 150 texts per month and that costs just

I tried them at the end of last year, ran it for a few months and just gave it up! Could hardly ever get a call out and when I did the line was really bad. Though saying that it is an on going saga with 3 at the moment!

I cant fault T-mobile they have always been good well atleast up until now.

O2 were ok until I had to get involved with customer services.I put it down as one of the worst times of my life .Nightmare :thumbdwn:

Don't know if they have improved but I moved to T mobile who so far have been faultless.On the one occasion I had to ring I actually got through quickly (no half hour waits) and was actually sorted quickly and efficiently.I even tried their e mail service for help and they rang back.Impressed so far!

As for phones,I have the Motorola V3 (Razr thing.V slim clamshell).I only really wanted a phone for calls and text but the blue tooth headset is brilliant as a car hands free.And yes I do use my left ear to hang it so no one can see it!

Great phone if you dont need too many extras (though still think nokias do the best menus if not the nicest looking phones now)

I agree that o2's customer service is bad. Plus it costs a lot to get through and they won't touch it in a shop either.

I've never used Orange or T-Mobile but 3 is ok, it's free to call, but you do spend more than necessary time on the phone due to the call centre being in Mumbai and their english is very broken.

Over the years, I've used Orange, One2One/T-Mobile, Cellnet/O2, Virgin, Tesco and Vodafone, and the conclusion I have drawn is that they're all as bad as each other.

Coverage these days is much of a muchness, customer services all typically have long queues and put more emphasis on sales rather than aftercare. Also, to a certain extent, you get what you pay for - if you go for a cut-price service, the savings have to be made somewhere.

Personally I wouldn't get a contract on Orange or T-Mobile because they lock their handsets to the network - yes, you can get them unlocked, but I'd rather have an unbranded, untinkered-with version of the handset from the start. This means that when they turn out to be dreadful, you can just pop a competitor's SIM in your phone with minimum of hassle.

Rob.

Tried O2 website but got nowhere looks like it's down today, orange have some good deals going which they seem to match either T-mobile or O2

Forgot to add what phones are good that hav full keyboards or bigger keys? My thumb just wont txt anymore without it becoming painful and my using my fingers I end up pressing too many keys ate once.

Anybody got any ideas (apart from not texting anymore lol)

My experience has been that Orange have the edge on customer service, certainly as a business user this has been my experience.

As for phone choice, I had a p900 but hated it as a phone. I keep straying, but I always come back to Nokia.

Nothing between the networks at all in terms of quality/coverage/dropped calls except for 3 who are way behind everyone else.

As for handsets, a slightly different suggestion is O2's XDA Mini a.k.a. T-Mobile MDA Compact. It's a mini PDA, about the same size as a Nokia 6630 but runs Windows Mobile, so you can put satnav on it etc

Looks like I will be going with orange as they seem to have the best deals. Still unsure of what phone yet but I'll have a play in the store I guess

Cheers all

I've had my phone number since April 1998. Kept getting Dad's retained phones from his upgrades, and putting my SIM in it. I had a 07974 dialling code, while there were still mobile numbers starting 04 and 08... before the great "everyone to 07" switch.

Currently on a little Siemens C55 which is fine for me. My contract has no line rental at all, and a 15p a minute flat rate for calling local/orange, and 10p a text. My monthly bill is rarely over

I've had experience of BTCellnet, Orange and Vodafone. BTCellnet were dire and from what I've heard O2 aren't much better. Orange had excellent customer service and as a PAYG customer, I couldn't fault them, but when I was looking for a new deal last year, only Vodafone offered what I wanted. Have been with them for 8 months now and can't fault them either and I've yet to go somewhere in the UK where I have no coverage (even in deekest darkest Somerset!)

Chris

funny enough it was between orange and vodafone but for the amount of talk time I get through (that's the trouble of a long distance relationship) Orange seems to be a slighty better deal.

funny enough it was between orange and vodafone but for the amount of talk time I get through (that's the trouble of a long distance relationship) Orange seems to be a slighty better deal.

Funnily enough I was after a deal with loads of free texts and minimal talk time

Chris

Orange/Vodaphone have the best coverage generally speaking. I've had trouble with both networks in this area however during end 2004 when I had to have a working phone. Typical...

Vodaphone has been terrible with dropped calls though, not had any of that with Orange.

At the end of the day you are usually best off getting a phone on a network most of your mates use or on one where you can have any-network type minutes.

Error....abort, abort...

Forgot to add what phones are good that hav full keyboards or bigger keys? My thumb just wont txt anymore without it becoming painful and my using my fingers I end up pressing too many keys ate once.

Anybody got any ideas (apart from not texting anymore lol)

Sorry to repeat JPreston's suggestion but from what you are saying you really should check out the MDA compact.

It is slightly smaller that the P900' date=' more powerful and has loads of sofware available for it.

I got one about 3 months ago (Free phone, 100 xnetwork mins (with 100 free texts and half price line rental for first 3 months)) and have found it excellent. I use the stylus for texting and it is faster that using T9 (though that is also avaible through the touch screen pad).

You should be able to get a similar deal either through T-Mobile direct or with an Internet retailer. Check out my gallery on this site for some shots of the phone. [url']http://www.briskoda.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=2258&c=500&userid=2642[/url]

I would say though unless you are interested in the extra features a Pocket PC gives (MP3 player (1gb of songs on mine, 3gb cards will be available soon), movie player (you can rip any DVD to play on the phone), Word and Excel, Sat Nav (with bluetooth receiver), Games (including DOOM!!), full sync capabilites with your PCs email and organiser functions, full internet access etc etc) then I would steer clear. A normal phone is much easier to use. However, if you are gadget freak then you will not be dissapointed.

Regards

Has anyone ever used this company? http://www.advancedmobiles.co.uk/index.asp

they are alot cheaper than anyone else, by a fair bit infact

spangelaregreat I have a PDA already so I'm really just after a phone that has a keypad though I've linked my current phone to the pda and I can text through it that way so many I dont need the P910 after all

Personally I've had Orange, O2 and Virgin (runs on T-mobile network), and found that Orange is the best...better customer services, clearer calls (although this is usually more down to the phone than the actual network) and they were doing the buy 1 3g phone on contract get the other free...so maybe the other on t-mob can get one as well :P