MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
At present I have a £10/month contract which does me fine - about 200 texts and 250 minutes if I remember rightly. However I am now thinking that I could spend a lot less time at work/in the office if I had email access on my phone. I'll need a new phone. Quite fancy an iphone or similar. What's the cheapest monthly rate for unlimited/large web/email access and a handful of texts and minutes?
Ta
Gareth
Get BT home broadband and use their openzone networks on a phone with wifi?
Nice idea, hadn't thought of that. But... I get free internet at home anyway (rent a room in a house) so can't change provider, and there's not much openzone out in the hills, which is where I'll be if not in the office 😀
nokia e71 for £25pm on 3
plenty of minutes plus free texts and internet
Someone recommending the 3 network?! Christ, that has to be a first!
Depends really on just how much use you make of email. There are plenty of fairly basic phones that can access email, just not as elegantly as say an iPhone might. So a pretty basic phone on a cheaper package with a bit of data allowance is all you need to be able to monitor your emails for anything important, but the interface will be like looking at and replying to a text message, you'd only be able to send a few lines of reply before you thumbs get sore, beyond that you're better off calling someone back. But at least you can keep abreast of whats going on in your absence.
Pay as you go on 3 and download the free Opera Mini browser. I topped up a tenner in early april, and as I barely make any calls other than to people also on 3, (but send plenty of texts and use the internet lots) I've still got £4 left...
So long as you can access web based mail, it works on most 3 phones (mine is a 3 year old sony 610i) and while it's a bit slower than the Iphone interface, the extra £300odd per year in my pocket works for me!
Get them to send by text?
Get an iphone, but if its for work, make sure that your exchange has active sync enabled, otherwise you will have to set up an autoforward onto a gmail account and pick up that way. It works, but can be a pain as you have to forward the message to the original sender as a reply, rather than reply, as then it sends it back to you. Bit of a faff but it does work
Get a second hand unlocked iPhone - O2 unlocks theirs after 12 months so plenty 3G/3GSs will be on for sale unlocked. Sim only contracts are pretty cheap even when they include unlimited internet.
As mentioned before though if you are using exchange server for your email make sure it plays well with the iPhone.
Much less faff using a mail client on the phone than web access, so you can connect via IMAP, POP or Exchange Activesync. Also depends on whether you want to just read the mails or reply to them. If you want to be able to reply without going mad you will need a QWERTY keyboard - either soft keys like iPhone, HTC or keys like Blackberry or Nokia E72
if you're wanting email access in the hills, might be best to start by checking who's got a good signal round there, and going from there. 3 are pretty useless in a lot of places imo.
O2 do a PAYG text & web package - £10 a month top up ~250 texts, unlimited web, and that £10 for calls.
It's what I use for spotify mobile.
Get a second hand iPhone and then get the O2 SIMplicity package. £15 per month gets you unlimited net unlimited SMS and 300 minutes.
Best deal going imo.
Cool, the O2 packages look like a very good deal.
Cheers
3 network offer unlimited internet, 100 mins, 100 texts for £10 a month.
24 month contract and a Nokia E63.
They also have the Android 2.1 Samsung Galaxy Portal for the same deal from £12 a month.
Work out what phone you need first as per my post above. No point going for a good deal if the device is not what you want. Then go to the website of the networks doing deals on those phones and check their service coverage where you want to ride - no point ....etc.
Don't know where you are, but if you ride in Scottish hills it's Vodafone, end of