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.
Vodafone has announced a new series of smartphones have arrived on their network and for sale from today onwards, these are the BlackBerry Pearl 3G, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro and LG Optimus. The latter of which is the start of a new range of Lucky Goldstar manufactured handsets, in which this is the first of 10 to appear under the Optimus brand name.
