Posted on 01/03/2012. By Pete Otaqui.
My mobile phone contract is due for renewal. I’ve been calculating some costs and it seems that getting a “free” phone on an 18 or 24 month contract is not actually all that economical – you end up paying more than you would by buying the phone outright and then choosing a “sim-only” deal. You obviously also tend to get the freedom to change your deal more easily and you will get an unlocked phone that can be used with any network.
An exception to this rule seems to be if you get a bundle of not only mobile phone provision, but also broadband. One of the best in terms of price when you do get a bundle seems to be O2 Broadband . I also like the idea of just getting one bill. Unfortunately for me, we don’t have the BT wiring in our house so can’t get that deal.
Virgin, who I get my broadband from, don’t seem to be nearly so competitive – at least in the brackets of broadband and mobile usage that I’m interested in.
So I’m looking at unlocked providers like Clove to buy the phone and a truly budget service provider like Talk Mobile .
If you’re interested, I’m particularly looking at a “tough phone” like the Motorola Defy, or even better the Xperia Play. I currently have an iPhone and while I’ve been very happy with it, I think I’ll be able to make the jump to Android, especially since you can now use a Google Apps account as the main one, rather than only a Gmail account. I’m also very keen to try in Mozilla’s Boot to Gecko project when that reaches some level of maturity (I was very keen on HPs WebOS too, but that never took off).
You might guess that my requirements are a) cost and b) durability. That’s right: I’m a father.