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 MIFI under a different name
Mobile phone network Vodafone has launched a rival to Three’s MIFI product under the name of mobile WIFI, with a cost of £25 a month with a 5GB data allowance ceiling.
The Huawei R201 is also made by the same people behind Three’s MIFI product, with both of them being able to allow 5 devices to connect over WIFI to the mobile broadband network. Three was able to brand their device ‘MIFI’ in the UK, where others now have to use another name as a result of that imaginative piece of branding.
The rebranded Huawei mobile WIFI product arrives free on an 18 month contract, with a 5GB data allowance for use with laptops or even a WIFI enabled mobile phones, such as the Apple iPhone 4 for FaceTime video calling.
Vodafone also offers up their mobile WIFI product with lower data tariffs on an 18 month contract, although there’s a price attached for the device at this stage. Vodafone provide for £20 a month, a data allowance of 4GB with an upfront cost of £29 for the mobile WIFI device. Whereas, £15 a month with an upfront cost of £49 gives you a 3GB data allowance.
As a comparison Three’s 5GB MIFI tariff costs just £17 a month, where there’s pay as you go options available and even higher data plans with Three sharing T-Mobile data backbone and possibly Orange’s in the future.
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.
3 mobile phones from 3
Mobile phone network Three has unveiled a trio of new handsets on their new One Plan tariff, the Sony Ericsson Zylo, Nokia E63 and Nokia 5230.
These new smartphones are all free on Three’s £25 a month One Plan tariff, which allows for 2,000 minutes a month to any network, a further 5,000 minutes to any other Three mobile phone number, 5,000 texts and 1GB data allowance - which is one of the most competitive deals around today.
The Sony Ericsson Zylo is their recent 2.6-inch screen Walkman phone, with a slide out T9 keypad along with a 3.2 megapixel camera and memory that can be expanded to 16GB from a microSD card. The phone’s form factor has a human curvature design which makes it comfortable to hold, and SE has even brought in the FLAC music codec for the first time in a Walkman mobile on the Zylo.
Nokia’s E63 builds on the success of the E71 BlackBerry-esque handset, only bringing this more affordable phone to a wider audience with its more budgeted materials. The E63 still has the large Qwerty keyboard, which is accompanied by a 2.4-inch display and a 2 megapixel camera - where there’s also free 6 months Spotify premium account access.
The Nokia 5230 is their large touch screen music orientated mobile phone, which runs their Symbian platform and has access to the Ovi store and is also accompanied by free 6 months access to premium Spotifyaccount
Apples for the two Ts
Mobile phone networks T-Mobile and Three both announced over Twitter today they will be retailing the Apple iPhone 4, as of Friday this week.
Unveiled in a very low key way, whilst also showing the two networks have embraced social media was the unusual way they publicised they will be stocking the new iPhone, both in their shops and online too.
T-Mobile and Three have previously never sold Apple handsets directly, nor have they officially supported them on their own networks.
It has been reported their staff have undertaken sales training this week in preparation of the stores early opening hours on Friday morning, solely for the expectant rush of sales over the counter and also for those who have pre-registered and ordered the mobile phone in advance.
T-Mobile announced and confirmed the arrival of the new Apple mobile in the twitter message ” #iPhone 4 launching on T-Mobile on Friday July 30th. Official pricing announcement expected imminently “.
Mobile phone network Three was more subtle, by responding to a Tweet from a customer with the message ” iPhone 4 will be on sale in our stores from Friday!! ” .
T-Mobiles prices for the iPhone 4 were the highest of all the networks, although there could be a revision of the unwelcomed prices due to the end part of their message.
Three has the most competitive costing model of the larger networks, where they undercut most deals with a cost of just £99 on a £30 a month tariff.
T-Mobile iPhone Tweet
Three iPhone Tweet
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.
A phone racing ahead of the competition
Mobile phone network Three has unveiled the ZTE Racer budget Android phone on their network, running the latest Google OS version of 2.1 and all for £99 on pay as you go.
ZTE’s Racer is a 2.8-inch QVGA resistive touch screen mobile, with 2GB of storage from an accompanying microSD card along with a 3.2 megapixel camera - all running from the same 600Mhz chipset as the HTC Legend.
The Racer handset is co-branded by Three, in much the same way as two other joint venture mobile phones are on Three by ZTE, the MF112 and F930.
ZTE also makes handsets under the guise of rebranded devices, such as the Vodafone 546. This co-branding could very well be a way of break out from under those OEM shackles, and stand up on their own two feet in much the same way as HTC once did.
The phone is free from as little as £13 a month on Three’s Internet Talker 300 tariff, or costing £99 plus a £10 credit on pay as you go - which makes for one of the cheapest 2.1 Android handsets around today.
Link
With both phones being cut down versions of flagship models
UK mobile phone network Three has announced two new handsets are now available through them, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro and the HTC Wildfire in exclusive colours. Both these handsets are now purchasable through Three’s One Plan tariff, which was unveiled last week with a six month free premium Spotify account.
Effectively, the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro is the same model as the Xperia X10 Mini, only with a slide-out physical Qwerty keyboard where that phone is just a cut down version of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. The Mini Pro only has a 2.6-inch touch screen, where its larger counterpart arrives with a 4-inch display although both run version 1.6 of Android at this time, with their own overlay the OS.
The HTC Wildfire could also be seen as a lite version of another handset, where this time it’s the HTC Desire phone. The Wildfire has a less powerful processor with a 3.2-inch screen, as compared to the 3.7-inch display of the Desire although both arrive with the more recent 2.1 version of Android plus the HTC Sense overlay to that very OS.
Three have these handsets in exclusive colours to them, which is a black case to the Mini Pro and metal mocha on the Wildfire. The two mobile phones are available free on a £30 a month contract, which includes 2000 minutes to any network, 5000 minutes to any Three phone numbers, 5000 texts and 1GB data in addition to free Skye, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger.
The handsets are also purchasable on a pay as you go contracts, with the HTC Wildfire coming in at £199 and the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro costing £249.
The smartphone tariff for the network
Mobile phone network Three has launched its smartphone friendly ‘One Plan’ tariff squarely aimed at mobiles that use lots of bandwidth, at a lower cost. The tariff starts from £25 a month, with a 1GB data allowance - which is usually double the amount seen elsewhere and at the same cost.
This tariff also has bundled in 2000 minutes to any network, with 5000 more to call other Three customers and 5000 texts – all from £25 a month. The One Plan is for a standard SIM or even a micro-SIM at 12 months or a 24 month contract, escalating in value if there’s a new phone attached where there is also a 6 months free Spotify Premium account included.
Three highlight on the One Plan, someone could check Facebook more than 65,000 times, watch up to 30-minutes a day of YouTube each month and send more than 1,000 texts a week. Also, speak for more than one hour every day to anyone on another network, along with calling for more than two-hours a day other Three phone numbers – all at the same cost.
This does appear to be the most comprehensive smartphone plan to date, and one that gives the other networks a real run for their money – especially where the iPhone 4 is concerned and its data allowance. Three believe this tariff is the start of the flat-plan tariffs, which many networks will start to adopt in the future.
Three
Pre-pay iPhone 4 micro-SIM deal with Three
Mobile phone network Three has just announced they will be the first to offer a pay as you go micro-SIM card, which can be used with a SIM free Apple iPhone 4 purchased from today.
The deal from Three surround a £15 per month micro-SIM card offer, which includes 300 minutes to any network, 3000 texts along with 1GB of internet allowance. Three’s SIM ‘only’ offer also has 2000 minutes worth of calls to any Three phone number and free voicemail - all of which will be available on a one month rolling contract.
Or for larger capacity user, there is a £25 per month deal, which includes 2000 minutes, 5000 texts, 1GB of internet allowance and 5000 Three-to-Three minutes on a 12 month contract.
The micro-SIM cards along with their deals from Three will be available to order online from Friday 25th June.
Three
Latest Apple mobile phone is now available to buy
Apple’s much awaiting iPhone 4 handset has gone on sale from today and for the first time with a new Apple mobile phone it is available on many networks and not just the one, as the last iPhone 3G was only available on O2 when it launched.
This new mobile sports a brand new design unseen before in the series, along with a new operating system and a higher megapixel count within the camera amongst other new features.
Some of the key features in the new iPhone 4 range from FaceTime, their own video calling ability over WIFI and all from a camera on the front of the handset, where the image is shown on the mobile’s 3.5-inch 960×640 multi-touch retina display.
There is now a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash, capable of HD video recording driven by Apple’s A4 processor and all running from the new iOS 4 - which has just been made available for older handsets and the iPod touch.
All this is encased in a new stainless steel case design, which has taken the title of the thinnest smartphone in the world.
Networks from Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and Three have all made public their prices where even Tesco have gotten in on the deal with a low £19 cost for the handset, only on a £45 per month contract.
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