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 More incentives, to keep topped up
Orange has announced they have revamped the rewards given out to pay as you go users, to encourage regular top ups.
The new benefits to Orange prepay customers extend what is already on offer, when the phone is regularly charged - with money.
The Monkey tariff is geared up for music lovers with free access to music online, where for the first time this plan rewards users that top up with just £5 a month. The new rewards are in the flavour of free text messages and a daily internet pass, with a cap of 2MB a day.
Orange’s Canary users can now benefit from free 100 evening and weekend text or picture messages, when they top up £10. This is in addition to the free 100 minutes of evening and weekend calls, which is already a part of the package.
Racoon tariff on Orange has been updated to offer the flat call rate of 12p a minute, which is the lowest cost Orange has to offer. The previous fixed rate for calling was 15p a minute, with a saving of £1.80 per hour of calling.
The Camel plan can now offer up to 240 minutes to over 50 countries, if the phone owner tops up by £30. This tariff is ideal for people that do call overseas often, where Orange has now opened up the plan to be a monthly tariff as well.
One Mobile Ring was recently informed when the dust settles on Everything Everywhere, T-Mobile will be focussed towards the business user and Orange will be focussing on the consumer. This announcement will certainly benefit their new possible remit, with the consumer being a high percentage of pay as you go users.
And vice-versa
T-Mobile and Orange customers will soon have access to both networks, for UK roaming between the two mobile phone carriers with a greater coverage area in Great Britain.
Orange and T-Mobile customers will soon be able to make calls and send text messages on either network - with no extra cost attached. This is coming off the back of the newly merged companies, which now runs under the guise of Everything Everywhere.
The 30 million users of both networks are being invited to sign up to the program, in order to gain access to this offer that starts from October 5th.
Orange and T-Mobile customers that have signed up for the network share will automatically switch to the other carrier, if the signal is lost from the original provider they’re signed up to.
Plans are under way where users of either carrier can switch between the phone networks mid-call, on to whichever network has the strongest signal.
This is the first news to be made public after the two companies merged, where mobile users on the separate networks can now see the benefit from this combined deal.
Nothing has been mentioned by either company about the data network sharing, which comes as no surprise as T-Mobile has a data-share in place with Three.
T-Mobile users can sign up at - www.t-mobile.co.uk/share
Orange users can sign up at - www.orange.co.uk/share
 Clearer calls from now on
Mobile phone network Orange has unveiled its high definition voice service on a number of handsets, which brings in a better quality of calls over the airwaves.
Orange is the first UK network to announce this service, which effectively reduces background noise and therefore improves the overall quality of a call. The Sony Ericsson Elm ‘Eco’ handset arrives with a similar feature, but its technology is built in to the phone and it’s not an over the air service.
This new feature from Orange is available on a number of handsets, such as the Nokia 5320, Nokia E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro. Other upcoming mobile phones will support the service too, where new devices will be shipped with an Orange HD Voice logo to identify the handset is compatible.
HD Voice runs from a 3G network and uses the WB-AMR (Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate) speech codec, which provides better audio quality due to its wider speech bandwidth of 50-7000 Hz - as compared to the current narrowband speech codec of 300-3400 Hz.
Orange has been successfully trialling out HD voice since June, where we first brought you news of the technology at the end of 2009.
The service is available now and at no extra cost to 3G based Orange customers, where we suspect more handsets will support this ability within the next few months.
Whilst unveiling its arrival time
Mobile phone network Orange has apologised for the delay of the latest version of the Google OS arriving on their HTC Desires, with the fault being down to HTC.
Orange’s PR manager announced in a tweet - “Android fans there has been a delay in receiving the 2.2 Froyo update from HTC, & we now expect it to be available mid-Sep. Apologies”. This also confirms a rough arrival date for the update to be rolled out, to handsets on the Orange network.
A follow on tweet from Orange indicated the onus is firmly not on the network, but on another entity. The Twitter message reads “..would like to point out the delay on 2.2 Froyo is not related to Orange services on the device.”
What stamped home the buck was passed, was a tweet from the PR manger to a question from a Twitter user with the response being “we are waiting to receive the update from HTC..”.
Delays of this nature are usually down to the new OS being tested and put through its paces, with the networks own customised software on-board. Orange is well known for adding their fair share of extra software, or bloat ware to mobile phones.
Orange users were concerned by this issue, in which the Orange PR representative responded over twitter with “the delay is not related to Orange customisation on the handset”. He also added, “as far as I know there will be less Orange customisation on 2.2 than the existing 2.1″.
This could be a good sign, where there will be less qualifying time by Orange when HTC does eventually ship them the updated.
Orange Tweet
BlackBerry Torch 9800 coming to UK networks
Vodafone and Orange have both announced they will be carrying the first BlackBerry slider phone from Research In Motion - since its launch event in America on the AT&T network.
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the first slider handset from RIM, which also has a full touch screen and runs their new OS 6.
Orange announced over twitter they will be selling the new BlackBerry handset, in a tweet from the UK PR Manager that reads: “Good news: The new BlackBerry Torch 9800 with BlackBerry 6 will be coming soon to Orange UK. We will keep you posted with details…”. - with no further information on offer, or even Orange’s own ‘Coming Soon’ page listing its existence.
Straight after the USA launch event for the 9800, Vodafone also posted on twitter they will be carrying the phone, in a tweet that reads “The BlackBerry Torch will be coming soon to Vodafone UK. Register for updates here: http://bit.ly/dzJ72A”. That very link redirects to their ‘Coming Soon’ page for the BlackBerry Torch, indicating they are more prepared than Orange and will most likely have the phone on sale first.
No pricing has been announced by either network, although expect to pay around the mid £30 mark on a 24 month contract with the handset free.
One Mobile Ring was at the RIM launch event in the UK, where we will be posting a First Looks review on the handset soon. At the event there were a number of BlackBerry Torch 9800 phones on show, with various demos being held by members of RIM staff where we noted a handset on the O2 network - but there’s no news had been made public yet from them.
Vodafone
Orange Tweet
Recently, we began a feature that surrounded £15 a month tariffs, comprising of what exactly they can offer within minutes, texts and data allowances. This also takes into account the free handsets accompanying those deals, in addition to SIM Only offers from the same networks.
Previously, we brought you news of the tariff details from the mobile phone networks Three, T-Mobile and Orange. This week we will wrap up with Vodafone and O2, followed by a break-down and what’s best within certain criteria’s.
Vodafone
Vodafone offers a few different contracts over 24 months and an 18 month period with numerous handsets, along with a few SIM only deals.
What Vodafone presented to One Mobile Ring as their “Option One” is a 24-month contract that comes with 100 minutes, with 500 texts and a 500MB data allowance.
There are 12 phones on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite, Nokia E63, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Vodafone 360 M1 and rebranded Huawei Vodafone 845 phone.
There is also a variation to “Option One”, which tips up with 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any networks, with an unlimited text message allowance.
There are 9 phones available on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite, Nokia E63, and the Samsung Solid Extreme.
Another Option One is a 24 month contract too, and comes with 100 minutes, 500 text messages where the only phones on offer are the Nokia 6700 Slide Purple and Nokia 6700 Slide Silver.
What Vodafone presented to OMR as Option Two is a 18-month plan, that comes with 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 500 text messages.
There are 9 phones on this deal, which are the Samsung Monte, Samsung Monte Pink, Nokia 5230, LG Viewty Smile, Nokia 6303, Sony Ericsson Elm, Samsung Genio slide, LG Viewty Lite and the Samsung Solid Extreme.
Vodafone’s SIM only deals start with 200 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with 3,000 text messages on a 30-day contract.
Vodafone also has a SIM only deal that comes with 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with unlimited text messages and a time limited offer of unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls
Vodafone does retail a yearlong SIM only deal too, which comes with 600 minutes with unlimited text messages and a time limited offer of unlimited Vodafone to Vodafone calls.
O2
O2 has both 12 and 24 month contracts on offer with free handsets as well, along with SIM only on-line deals.
The offer O2 presented to One Mobile Ring as their 24 month Handset tariff is accompanied by 100 minutes, with an unlimited text allowance.
There are 17 phones available on this deal, which are the HTC Smart White, HTC Smart Black, Samsung Jet Ultra, Samsung Monte, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Genio Touch, Sony Ericsson C903 Black, Sony Ericsson W995 Pink, Sony Ericsson Elm, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia X6, Nokia 6700, Nokia 6700 Slide Silver, Nokia 6700 Slide Pink, Nokia 6303i, Nokia 2330 Classic and LG POP.
Also on offer with O2 is their 18-month Handset tariff, which is accompanied by a 50 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, with an unlimited text allowance.
There are 14 phones available on this deal, which are the HTC Smart White, HTC Smart Black, Samsung Monte, Samsung Solid Extreme, Samsung Genio Touch, Sony Ericsson W995 Pink, Sony Ericsson Elm, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 6700 Slide Silver, Nokia 6700 Slide Pink, Nokia 6303i, Nokia 2330 Classic and LG POP.
O2’s SIM only deals come in three varieties, one with no contract, another with a 30-days and there’s also a 12-month contract.
O2 has a Pay & Go you Simplicity SIM with 100 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts, with 500MB of Internet browsing.
The Simplicity SIM only, 30-day contract offers 300 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts and unlimited O2 to O2 calls or UK landline calls.
An O2 Simplicity SIM 12-month contract comes with 600 any time any network minutes, unlimited UK texts and unlimited O2 to O2 calls or UK landline calls.
The Break Down
Breaking down all that’s on offer in the £15 tariff market place is a mean feat in itself, with close to 30 tariff deals from the various mobile phone networks. Taking into account the minutes on offer isn’t enough in choosing a tariff any more, it’s the text limits and more importantly these days - the data allowance. The most important question too is sometimes over looked, what handset accompanies the tariff, or what choices do I have.
After collating all of the details from companies such as T-Mobile, Orange, Three, Vodafone and O2 we have made some One Mobile Ring Editors choices as to what tariffs stand out. The following decisions do take into account the tariffs minutes, text and data allowance along with the handsets they have on offer.
The tariff with the highest range of phones has to go to O2, with 17 handsets to choose from on their standard 24-month tariff with 100 minutes and an unlimited text allowance.
The majority of the networks did actually offer an almost identical range of phones in their £15 tariffs, where the diversity across all the carriers weren’t as varied as we initially thought they would be. They were mostly budget models and non-popular handsets, where one network stood out by offering refurbished higher-end models and that was Three.
The tariff that came on top by providing the most minutes per month was Three, with their Internet Talker 500 24-month plan. This tariff comes with 500 minutes a month to any network, which beats even its closest rivals in minutes alone by 200 on Vodafone and T-Mobile.
There is a slight covet for the Internet Talker 500, where the minutes are traded off against the number of text messages sent in a month. That 500 figure is therefore taken down by 1 minute for every text message sent, whilst every minute used in calling takes the 500 text messages allowance down by 1.
We still believe this is an outstanding tariff, as although an unlimited text allowance offering sounds attractive on paper - 500 minutes in practice is a lot more useful.
Thrown in with the Internet Talker 500 is 5,000 minutes to any other Three mobile phone numbers, a 500MB data allowance a month where you also get free voicemail, Skype-to-Skype calls and Windows Live Messenger use.
Whilst we were writing this piece Three reduced this tariff from £15 a month, to £13 and therefore undercut the remit of the “So, what can you offer me for £15 a month?” feature. At the same time we believe they rejigged their handset deals, where most of the phones accompanying the deal now come in it at £17 and £18 - also slightly over the feature’s remit.
Three also offers the best SIM Only ‘30-day’ contract, which comes with 300 minutes, 3,000 texts, 2,000 Three-to-Three minutes and a 1GB data allowance with free voicemail, Skype-to-Skype calls and messages with free Windows Live Messenger use.
T-Mobile came close with their ‘30-day’ offering but they did come out on top with a 12-month SIM only deal, on minutes alone. This offer comprises of 600 minutes, 500 texts, with their flexible booster package of either unlimited texts, unlimited internet or unlimited T-Mobile calling.
Tariffs, deals and choosing a handset can be a minefield for anyone - even for the most knowledgeable and thoroughly researched of consumer. We thought we would ease the headache and bring you what each major mobile phone network can offer, starting with £15 a month tariff and what that consists of along with what handsets are currently offered on that deal.
In no particular order or ranking, we will start with the network Three.
There are two £15 tariffs on offer, with different setups but also a few similarities too. These two plans are known as Internet Texter 100 and Internet Talker 500.
Internet Texter 100 is a 24 month contract, which offers up 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 5,000 minutes to any Three based phone numbers, with 5,000 texts, a 500MB data allowance and free voicemail. This comes with free Windows Live Messenger chats and free Skype-to-Skype calls that does not encroach on that data allowance.
Internet Talker 500 is also a 24 month contract, which offers up 500 minutes at any time of the day and to any network or 500 texts, or a mixture of both minutes and texts, along with 5,000 minutes to any Three based phone numbers, with a 500MB data allowance and free voicemail. This comes with free Windows Live Messenger chats and free Skype-to-Skype calls that also does not encroach on the data allowance.
The handsets available on these £15 tariffs are: Sony Ericsson T715, Sony Ericsson Zylo, INQ 1, INQ Chat, INQ Mini 3G, Samsung S5600, Samsung S3370, Nokia 5230, Nokia 2730, Nokia E63, LG GW520, LG Viewty GT, 3 Skypephone S2x, Huawei U7510 and ZTE Racer.
There is also a £15 ‘SIM Only’ tariff from Three, which offers up 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 2,000 minutes to any Three based phone numbers, with 3,000 texts, a 1GB data allowance and free voicemail. This comes with free Windows Live Messenger chats and free Skype-to-Skype calls which does not encroach on that data allowance - all on a one month rolling contract.
There are also two £15 tariffs on offer with T-Mobile, also with different setups but also a few similarities too. These two plans were presented to us as Option One and Option Two, which vary in contract length.
Option One is an 18 month contract, which offers up 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 100 texts and a flexible booster. The latter of which is a bolt on to the package that’s a part of the plan for free, which includes one of the following: unlimited texts, unlimited internet access, unlimited landline calls, unlimited T-Mobile calling and various international calling offers.
Option One can be accompanied by one of these handsets, Samsung Tocco Lite, LG Pop (GD510), Nokia C5, Samsung Monte (S5620) or LG Viewty Snap.
Option Two is a 24 month contract, which offers up 300 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 300 texts and a flexible booster. The latter of which is a bolt on to the package that’s a part of the plan for free, which includes one of the following: unlimited texts, unlimited internet access, unlimited landline calls, unlimited T-Mobile calling and various international calling offers.
Option Two can be accompanied by a slightly better handset, which include: BlackBerry Curve 8520, LG InTouch Max (GW620), Samsung, Tocco Lite, LG Pop (GD510) and T-Mobile Pulse.
T-Mobile also has a SIM Only offering on a 12 Month contract, which offers up 600 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 500 texts and a flexible booster. The latter of which is a bolt on to the package that’s a part of the plan for free, which includes one of the following: unlimited texts, unlimited internet access, unlimited landline calls, unlimited T-Mobile calling and various international calling offers.
There is also a SIM Only offering on a 30 day contract, which offers up 350 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 300 texts and a flexible booster. The latter of which is a bolt on to the package that’s a part of the plan for free, which includes one of the following: unlimited texts, unlimited internet access, unlimited landline calls, unlimited T-Mobile calling and various international calling offers.
Orange has three key £15 pay monthly contracts, all surrounding various requirements and needs for the individual user whether they need a good data allowance, higher minutes a month or just text a lot.
Their Dolphin 15 is a 24 month contract, which offers up 50 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with unlimited texts and a 250MB data allowance.
The Canary 15 is also a 24 month contract, which offers up 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with unlimited texts.
The Racoon 15 is a 24 month contract, which offers up 100 minutes at any time of the day and to any network, along with 300 texts and unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines.
Orange has mentioned there are various handsets such as the Samsung Monte, LG Pop and the Sony Ericsson W595 that are all available on these tariffs although there are many more.
Next week, we will finish off the rest of the major network tariffs and their specific details. We will also include our own conclusion, and summary of the best £15 deals around with what they have to offer.
Orange and T-Mobile are now one
Orange and T-Mobile in the UK have officially merged today where all their employees now work for the new company – Everything Everywhere Limited. This now creates the country’s largest communications company and they hope, the new leader of the industry.
The merger has taken nine months since the process first started to reach this stage, where they’ve now arrived at this official milestone in the whole proceedings. The company now houses 16,500 staff where a complete rebranding of every facet is now underway, from all their email addresses to business cards and even the headquarters.
An industry insider recently informed us it’s most likely after the dust settles the two companies will pitch themselves at different tiers in the mobile world. Orange is most likely to pitch themselves at the consumer, where the T-Mobile side of the company will most likely be focussed at the corporate business world and its mobile use.
Everything Everywhere
The company HTC has been around since the late 1990s, producing devices and handsets for many companies, although you might not have been aware you were using their products as they didn’t carry the HTC name. Instead, those devices carried names such as iPaq under first Compaq, and then Hewlett-Packard when the companies merged.
HTC has been synonymous with the PDA and mobile phone market for all those years. Many may have used their smartphones on the Orange network under the rebranded SPV handset range, or Xda with O2 all throughout the last decade.
In 2007, they stood up on their own two feet and came out from under the shadows of their OEM clients, to produce the first HTC Touch handset that beat Apple’s iPhone to market for some time in the UK.
Since then they have gradually grown to the market presence they now have and with a distinctive quality of devices, with their latest flagship HTC Desire being a testament to that very fact.
These days, many associate HTC with the Google Android OS for mobile phones, where they produced the first handset running the platform in 2008 with the HTC Dream or T-Mobile G1. To date, HTC has produced a dozen different Android models worldwide and the majority of them in use today.
Their origins can be traced back to Microsoft Windows Mobile run devices, with the iPaq’s and SPV handsets all running versions of that very operating system. HTC has had a lot of ‘firsts’ in its history from the first colour screen palm sized PC in 1999 to more recently, the first 4G Android phone in the USA with the HTC Evo.
Windows Mobile has featured heavily in their success along with their OEM partnerships. This was first seen with the original colour screen palm sized PC running the Microsoft Palm-size PC 1.2 Color OS, on a device for Compaq known as the Aero 2100 that launched January of 1999.
Their partnership with Compaq and subsequently HP went on from there to the first PDA running the Microsoft Pocket OS in 2000, with the Compaq iPAQ H3630 and then progressing to the first Microsoft Wireless Pocket PC device with the Hewlett-Packard iPAQ H1910, only two years later.
From then on a number of the HTC phones were found in the UK under the Orange SPV series or the O2 Xda range, with the first Microsoft powered Smartphones arriving as the initial O2 Xda and Orange SPV models. Some notable milestones within those rebranded handsets came from the first 2.8-inch LCD screen model with the O2 XDA II mini and Orange SPV M500. Then came along the very first 3G Microsoft Windows 5.0 phone, with the Qwerty keyboard based Orange SPV M5000 and O2 XDA Exec.
HTC has also made phones for other well-known companies such as the Treo 750 for Palm in 2006, where HTC produced a few handsets for them around that time. More recently, HTC made the Xperia X1 for Sony Ericsson although that partnership bore little more fruit after that phone.
2007 saw the first phone of theirs under the HTC name with the HTC Touch, a full touch screen handset running Windows Mobile 6 and their own TouchFlo overlay on top of that OS. Since then HTC haven’t looked back and have gone on to produce a veritable range of touch screen devices running Windows and Android, all to suit many markets from budget to the more ‘flagship’ expensive handsets.
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New cost structure for the latest Apple handset 
