Really not true. It's generally possible to get the phone + contract for the same price as the phone sim free, or even less if you are lucky. I certainly have with my BB9900, particularly after £130 cashback!
O2 tariffs, wtf ?!?!
- Thread starter Defiant306
- Start date
Really not true. It's generally possible to get the phone + contract for the same price as the phone sim free, or even less if you are lucky. I certainly have with my BB9900, particularly after £130 cashback!
Nicely neglected the rest if the post.
iPhones especially are a lot cheaper to buy outright, due to mobile operators taking the pee. Even on android, you can often get it for a similar price and not get tied into a contract. It all depends what phone you want and what services.
Sorry but I think what platform we consume the limit on is none of the networks business ultimately as long as I don't break the data tariffs limit. Tethering is nothing but a company trying to bleed the customer yet again.
Its like me selling you a litre of cooking oil and telling you that you can use it in a pan but not in a chip pan.
I don't have any love the networks and I think tethering is damn outright wrong.
I would stay with my Three on Pay and Go for my iPhone but the local mast has a fault for the internet. Been down a week and support tells me they have people working on it but can't give an eta.
I'd rather pay a couple more quid and have O2.
I'd rather pay a couple more quid and have O2.
This. When I was last due an upgrade I could have an iphone 4 for £200 or a htc desire hd for free on contract despite the sim free price difference being only £20. It was a no brainer to get the HTC. But even then I am paying £450 over 18 months for 800 mins, 500 texts and 500mb data so slightly less than what it would have cost me to buy the phone contract free outright and then I would have to buy a package. With the ipone I would have been paying much, much more.
However, I find contracts especially if you have been with them and have loyal to be much cheaper than buying outright. My gf got the the latest Blackberry (yuk) on a 600 mins contract with Orange for £10 a month free for 18 months as she has been with them for about 10 years.
You couldn;t have bought the Blackberry for £180 never mind the free minutes/texts/data etc.
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Who the hell needs that many free minutes, texts and data? I have 800 minutes which is more than enough and 500 texts and 500 Mb of data and never go over so that deal is only a good buy if you actually use it all. If you don;t then you are wasting money and could have got a cheaper tariff and got the phone thrown in for free.
Soldato
Giffgaff certainly seems pretty cheap, just a shame about no tethering.
They only have a 3G network. So its 3G or no signal
.However three are brilliant. As mentioned their CS agents have a lot of discretion over what they can do without the system preventing them. Three made a profit last year for the first time in their existence and just goes to show how much investment they have put into their 3G network. They are currently rolling out on a large scale (o2 and t-mobile have a limited rollout) the latest 3G technology known as HSPA+ supporting upto 21Mbps depending on the number of people using the mast.
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Can they tell if you are tethering?
Almost all networks disallow tethering unless you pay extra for it, doe'snt stop people doing it anyway...
To much crap with Giffgaff from what I remember, all the goodiebags were month long so you had to keep mucking around each month to get what you wanted.
Also Tesco's STILL don't have tethering which I'm guessing is due to O2 refusing to give that option to them. So you cant get a tablet or use your phone for a tablet
I'm not 100% sure about 3, not always the great rep in the past. Anyone know what network they buy from the big 4?
Also who does Giffgaff buy from?
Ideally I want to be able to get a mobile which can become a WiFi hotspot so tethering is a must. It would make my job easier as I can activate on the fly and not have to worry about it, damn you restrictive web proxies!
Pretty sure you can queue up the bundles so if it's too much hassle to send 5 minutes doing that every 2-3 months then maybe giffgaff ain't for you...
Soldato
T-Mobile allow it. How can they tell you're doing it?
Nope it isn't, i got enough going on in my life without messing about with this lot. I generally don't make such choices without checking all the options so 5 minutes turns in an hour later and still no choice. But it doesn't matter as no tethering is a deal breaker for me.
I asked that question to an O2 CS rep a while ago and was told that my iPhone uses a different AP when tethering so they can find out. However, if the tethering/sharing software on the phone just used the same AP (i.e. through a jailbreak), they feasibly wouldn't.
Sounds like you should try 3. The tethering is excellent and I usually get a solid 2 - 2.5 mbit on my iPhone 3GS. However, it's worth mentioning that 3 blocks a few types of websites like torrents, film / TV show streaming sites and pornography but I haven't yet found a website that I often use that is blocked.
I use about 6 GB /mo. streaming BBC Radio 4 and music from www.jango.com and www.mflow.com all day every (work) day and my 3G signal has always been rock solid.
What no pornography?!?! At least O2 lets your authenticate that your an adult for over 18 content. No such system for 3?
Of course there is.
Ah well all is good with 3 
Meh not like I need it to activate Becrypt licenses anyway
Meh not like I need it to activate Becrypt licenses anyway
Soldato
Got to love long term cashback deals.
£25/month nets me 300mins/unltd sms/500mb data
then I get £24/month cashback (never let me down so far) and £40 from quidco just for signing up. Bought a HTC 7 PRO for £220 sim free.
So effectively I'm on a £25/month orange contract with a free wp7/qwerty phone for less than £9 a month. I'm never going to get such a good deal again.
£25/month nets me 300mins/unltd sms/500mb data
then I get £24/month cashback (never let me down so far) and £40 from quidco just for signing up. Bought a HTC 7 PRO for £220 sim free.
So effectively I'm on a £25/month orange contract with a free wp7/qwerty phone for less than £9 a month. I'm never going to get such a good deal again.