T-Mobile • Non-Gaming • Mobile Phones • Eurogamer.net

Kid_Icarus 30 Mar 2010 17:34:02 553 posts
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Just wondering how they are in general. Coverage, signal and all that as I'm looking to go with them for a new contract.

This is what I'm thinking of getting for anyone wondering.
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/htc/desire/pay-monthly/pay-monthly-10-24m/allowances/

TheSaint 30 Mar 2010 17:45:08 20,950 posts
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I switched to them recently and aside from them sending me two phones they've been fine.

Shivoa 30 Mar 2010 18:50:22 6,314 posts
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Picked them because they have ok signal in my area (Oxford, where anyone can get signal as long as they're not on O2 - learned that one the hard way previously) and were doing a deal for cheapo internet over 3G as well as having the model of phone I wanted.

About 12 months ago I went in for a refresh (renew contract, grab a new handset) and thought I'd done well to get a free upgrade (5800, so not an expensive phone but getting it for Ł0 was decent) and keep my free 1GB/month 3G deal. Turns out I really should have read that contract properly as it wasn't a renewal by moved me to a different Flex-T contract type (now discontinued, so probably not a problem for you) with different prices.

How Flex-T works (for anyone who doesn't know) is you get a cash pool every month from which to 'pay' for your usage both txt and phone calls. The pool is significantly bigger than your monthly fee value, but the price per min/txt are also not that low so you can get through it reasonably quick. It works for me as some months I'm txt heavy and other I use a lot of minutes, rarely do I use both heavily. The problem with the contract I signed up for a year ago was that they changed the 'payment' system to exclude some numbers.

If I call any 08** numbers (including fucking 'national freephone' 0800 lines) then they are not included in my monthly pool of cash charges and are charged above and beyond my normal monthly fee. Not reading the contract when I got my contract updated means I now pay Ł0.10/minute to call a freephone number from my mobile above the monthly I pay anyway.

Which is an arse!

Ok, my fault for refreshing my contract and not reading the fine print to see the changes. And to be fair the current Flex-T contracts include 08** numbers in the payable by the pool/credits section (according to the customer support people I've spoken to). But they're basically being profiteering assholes by catching people in this trap previously and holding them to it. I'll probably move to Orange or Vodaphone once this contract expires in another 6 months rather than renewing again on principal.

Everything else: coverage, internet speeds, billing have all been fine. So recommended, but read the fine print and find out if they don't include any calls you may want to make in the allocated minutes or cash pool that your monthly fee pays for.

Edit:

Yep, so from the phone plan you linked "Inclusive minutes and texts are from the UK to all UK mobiles and numbers starting with 01, 02 or 03 at any time" so that plan will charge you cash for 08** calls even if you've got all 100 minutes still in play.
"0808, 0800 - From free to 40p a minute" ie we charge you what we want, you can't know before hand if a half hour call to an important service provider will be free or will add Ł12 onto your bill at the end of the month.
"0843, 0844, 0845, 0870, 0871, 0872 - 40p a minute" so all 0845 style 'national local rate' on landlines will be charged at a quid for every 2 and a half minutes you make the call, you better hope you're never waiting on hold for long.

So worth thinking about if you ever make calls to service providers or others who give out either free or 'local rate' numbers to call on. Especially to those who sometimes have queues when you're stuck on hold and paying a small fortune for it on that contract.

NBZ 30 Mar 2010 18:57:17 2,425 posts
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Soon they will also be a part of Orange - the merger has been given the go ahead.

Kid_Icarus 30 Mar 2010 19:05:55 553 posts
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Hmm it seems most 08 numbers aren't included in the contract I'm looking at, though in that case I could always ring on the landline which according to google would only be about 10p a minute.

Edit: Didn't see your edit, but yeah I never seem to be on hold that long, or call the service providers too often either. And seeing as my budget was Ł15 a month rather than the tenner this is, I think I can afford to go over a bit each month anyway.