iPhone 4 on Pay as You Go: UK networks compared We were struck by how bad a deal Vodafone is offering with its new PAYG plans for the iPhone 4. But it seems we are in a minority: the telco sold out of stock in less than a day of launching. We asked the company what the deal was for sim-only PAYG - and after getting the run-around from four departments, we were told to go …
That reminds me of the guy in the O2 store who told me that if I was buying an iPhone, I had to buy insurance as well. I told him that wasn't the case and after a bit of arguing a queue was building up, so he relented and allowed me to buy one without taking out their insurance. I let him put it through the till and then just walked off.
Jeez! Some of those data usage charges are extortionate!
Taking the Tesco one as an example, I could pay 79p or whatever for a song, but be charged £12-£16 by Tesco to actually download the bloody thing!
Yes, yes. I know they are out of bundle charges (I'd hope), but still... £4 per Meg? Who the hell dreams up these charges?
I hate Orange with a passion, but comparing them (5p per MB) and Tesco (£4 per MB) and the difference in charges is, quite frankly, startling.
1: they don't supply microSIMs, you'll have to cut your own or get one of the other users to supply one. So that's 95% of iPhone users frightened away. And you need to manually configure the phone because they can't get it automated - like most other networks seem to manage, that's most of the other Apple fans gone then...
2: PAYG data is no more or less unlimited than any of the others, use as much as you like, pay 20p/Mb for it. Yes, that's a better price than any most of the listed offers. Since no-one in their right mind would pay PAYG rates from any of them its not much of a consideration.
If one of their goodybags (AKA bundles) works for you giffgaff are *usually* the best deal without going to contract. Not exactly PAYG any longer though, more like a 30 day rolling contract with slightly less hassle switching product each month.
I use 3 PAYG (though not with an iPhone). I top up £10 every month or two and I never use all the data that comes with the top up - 150Mb - that's quite a lot for my usage. Any big downloads I do at home on Wi-Fi.
3's roaming charge is £1.25/Mb in Europe vs. £2.75 for Orange contract (and presumably PAYG) - I think that's pretty good for roaming.
Vodafone - I tried to buy a cheap PAYG phone from them recently on-line. No sign of the phone so I ring up customer services who are now so busy with iPhones that they had to route my call to another department who couldn't deal with my enquiry! I think I've managed to cancel it by e-mail but who knows!
... by cutting up a larger SIM. I phoned and asked for a MicroSIM but the dullard on the other end insisted I needed an iPhone SIM and that it would work in all iPhones. Turns out she as right, it does work in all iPhones once you've taken a pair of scissors to them.
Both Apple and the mobile companies have been utterly useless when it comes to letting people switch to a MicroSIM. I know of two other people who have had similar problems with other networks. The shops tell you to call the help line and the help line tells you to go to their shop, and neither seems to know what the hell a MicroSIM is.
Getting a micro SIM from O2 was quite easy really - I just lied and said I'd bought an iPhone 4 from the Apple store (that was the plan before the antennae problem - I've since held off). Handed one straight over and transferred it to by my active SIM.
Hell, if anyone wants one, I've got a spare one in my desk drawer which turned up after having registered on O2's website for information.
Seriously? PR people only exist to tell you what you want to hear, hopefully in a way that doesn't look like an outright lie when the reality is revealed.
If you're getting no joy finding out whether PAYG options exist from the store, website or phone salesperson, then I'm afraid you've already got your answer: it's not available. If the PR person says it is available, but you can't get it when you ask at the store or look on the website, then the reality is that it isn't available and that's what you should report.
I've had an unlimited (subject to fair use) bolt-on for ages, and I got a warning that I'd gone over 450M (which was well above the 200MB they regarded as fair use) and would get charged for data over 500MB last month. The iPhone packages might be different but I doubt it
I've never been able to get my head around mobile call plans. So here's a stupid question: what's 1 minute of voice traffic in MB/KB, and how does the cost compare to data traffic? I expect we're talking about different types of connectivity, but on the other hand data is data...
Just come out of contract on Voda. Current contract 600 mins + unlimited texts, their upgrade "deal" was 200 mins + 300 texts same money. Nice going Vodafone. Checking through their site out of curiosity; new customer Samsung Galaxy S free + 600 mins + unlimited text + 500Mb data = 30/month, my upgrade price for the same deal = 35/month. Nice. I rang them about SIM only deals. Apparently if I have an iPhone I can get a SIM only deal that includes data + free WiFi access through BT Connect. However as I have an Android phone this deal is not available, data only with no free WiFi access. And they wonder why I requested a PAC from them.
The government of the country in which I live has decreed that telco's can not discount any service below cost.
Our SIM's cost USD$0.25 (25 cents) and they are not the smallest as they contain menus in 3 languages which are quite memory hungry.
Another feature they offer is number selection independent of the SIM's which is just a matter of checking a box next to the desired number.
The articles price lists illustrate UK carriers gouging the poor British cell user.
Great article, sadly I no longer live in UK. I would love to see a similar article on the French mobile providers.
In my experience France is a little behind UK in the development of their tariffs, but just as difficult to work out what you are paying etc.
At present I'm using a simple PAYG tariff by one of the major supermarkets over here because the credit remains valid for 12 months rather than weeks! But the data is very limited. iPhones are very popular over here though. So I better knuckle down and learn the French tariff lingo!
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