Those who know me well will know all too well how much soul searching I have been doing over the last 2-3 months with regards to mobile/cell phones. It started out with the “I want the new iPhone”, thinking that the one Apple will release will be the all-singing, all-dancing device that everyone was hoping it would be. The other competing device at that point in time was the also yet-to-be-released Nokia N97. This also seemed to be the perfect convergence device.

Wind the clock forward to the iPhone 3GS release, and things did not look rosy in the Apple direction. The N97 release came and went with much bluster from the networks, but of little substance. A device filled with bugs, an unusable keyboard, an unusable resistive touch screen and lack of integration with what I consider “must haves”, now, such as native Exchange (for Google Mail). While the iPhone is capable of that, the device itself was looking less and less inspiring, and is now apparently plagued with overheating issues. Both the N97 and the new Apple 3GS are out of the running.

After several weeks of further searching, I have stumbled across the perfect device: The HTC Touch Pro 2. This is actually available on a couple of networks over here in the UK, most notably Vodafone. Having done lots of price comparisons, I can’t seem to get Vodafone to work out as expensive! The device is free on a 24-month contract (and an 18 month), and comes with 750 any network, any time minutes, unlimited inclusive landline calls, 250 text messages, unlimited internet, free push email and accident/theft cover for the life of the contract period. On a £30, 24 month contract the total spend works out at £630 (the first 3 months are free, saving £90). The other networks are more expensive or with less service offerings, so they are out of the running immediately.

I telephoned Three today (my current network who I have been with now for 5 years), to see what they could do for me in terms of reducing my line rental in lieu of renewing with a new handset. The idea then being I’d go and buy the HTC “sim-free” and just pop my sim out of my current phone – the trusty Nokia N95 – and dump it in the HTC. After we’d cut out the standard retential bull of offering the N97 for free, or the Blackberry Bold 9000 for free (… which is still tempting, actually), we got down to what they can do for me. It boiled down to: absolutely nothing. My only option is to change to “sim only” (which is what I want to do, if you sit down and think about it I suppose), for £15/mo which has 300 voice minutes, unlimited 3-to-3 calls, unlimited texts, and they’ll throw in unlimited internet as a perk. Total monthly cost then: £15 (half the price of Vodafone’s offering).

Except, if I take the Three deal, I need to go out and buy the handset. Let’s draw up a little comparison table:

	Three	Vodafone
Plan:	Sim 15	Anytime 750
Minutes:	300	750
Texts:	Unlimited	250
Internet:	1 GB	500 MB
Perks:	Unlimited 3-3	Unlimited landlines
Handset:	£500	£0
Monthly:	£15	£30
Total (24M):	£860	£630

My usage tends to be around 120 voice minutes and around 100 text messages, so either will suit me. I do use a lot of mobile internet, but even that tends to be around the 100mb at the very most, so either fits my requirements. Free 3-to-3 calls would be nice, as it means I could ring my mother entirely for free but with 750 cross-network minutes included with Vodafone, it’s really quite irrelevant!

So I can stay as I am and take advantage of possibly being able to bargain future good deals with Three given I’ve been with them 5 years now but they have poor upgrade and retention offers right now, or I can move to Vodafone and save £230 over 2 years, get the phone I want, but lose any loyalty I’ve built up with Three.

Ugh. This was supposed to be simple!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Geek, Life, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.