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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
 Budget RIM device comes to the masses
UK mobile phone networks T-Mobile and O2 have announced Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105, on pay as you go deals at £249.99.
The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is their candy bar budget phone, with 14 keys instead of the 20 that accompany the USA version. Also dropped, is the Suretype keypad for a T9 version in the UK model where this is the first Pearl to have 3G access along with the first on 802.11n.
We have also just learned this week version 6 of the BlackBerry OS will be made available to the handset in due course, which is the very same mobile operating system that ships with the upcoming BlackBerry Torch 9800.
T-Mobile offering in the pay as you go market comes with 6 months free internet and BlackBerry mail, with unlimited texts if topped up with £10 a month.
O2’s offering ships on a bespoke pay as you go BlackBerry tariff, with a 500 text message allowance with free messaging and 500MB data limit for £15 per month.
In the past T-Mobile has sold the previous generation of the Pearl, the 8110, at £180 with free email and internet access for a year - although the deal this time around doesn’t appear to be as attractive.
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.
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.
Last to the table, despite being Everything Everywhere
T-Mobile has finally announced their Apple iPhone 4 prices and tariff details, whilst the other mobile phone networks have already been selling the handsets for some time.
Apple’s 16GB version of the iPhone 4 arrives on the lowest £25 tariff costing £259, with a 24-month contract. This comes with 100 minutes a month, 100 texts and 500MB data allowance. On £30 a month contract, the same handset costs £219 with 300 minutes, 300 texts and 500MB.
Stepping up in value, but reducing the phone’s overall costs are the £35 and £40 contracts. Respectively, the 16GB iPhone 4 retails here for £189 and £129 with the calling allowance bumped up to 900 and 1200 minutes, with an increased 500 text allowance. The £45 a month deal, reduces the handsets cost even more to just £59, on 1200 minutes a month along with 750MB data allowance.
Signing up to the £60 a month contract only offers the 16GB Phone 4 for free, where there’s a 3000 minute call limit a month, with 500 texts and a 1GB data allowance.
The 32GB iPhone 4 matches the minutes, text and data allowance of the £25, £30, £35, £40, £45 and £60 monthly tariffs with just an overall increase in the handset’s initial price. Running in the same order, the 32GB iPhone 4 costs £349, £299, £269, £229, £159 whereas the £60 a month contract still has a cost attached for the phone of £99.
Contract for contract, the iPhone 4 is more expensive than nearly all the networks, where there isn’t even an 18 month deal on offer with T-Mobile.
T-Mobile
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
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.
Conditions accepted
 The Orange T-Mobile 50/50 deal as discussed previously has been accepted by the European Commission, and the UK Office of Fair Trading has withdrawn its objections, Reuters report.
France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom can proceed with merging their UK operations, on condition of expanding the existing network sharing agreement T-Mobile has with 3. The combined company must also hand back a quarter of its assigned 1800 MHz radio spectrum. The paper should be signed in the Spring, followed by both brands running in parallel for up to 18 months.
FT and DT’s new business will be catapulted to a 37% market share, with the companies expecting to save around €4 billion through synergies and economies of scale, i.e. cuts.
Like the Nexus One, and then some
 Android fan blog, Phandroid (see what they did there?) report that all the UK networks have now announced plans to sell the HTC Desire.
The Desire is basically HTC’s own brand version of Google’s Nexus One. Similar looking and with virtually the same feature set, the Desire replaces the trackball seen on previous HTC models with improvements to HTC’s Sense UI. Running Android 2.1 powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon, this top-end smartphone’s availability across all UK carriers will help the popularity and uptake of the OS.
T-Mobile are likely to get it out first, with a release planned at the end of March. The other networks are harder to pin down, giving more flexible timescales like ‘springtime’ or ‘Q2’ and ‘first half’. Anyone who wants to buy one will see these as code words for ‘eventually’.
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