Next mobile phone

[Ian C]

Got a new phone today as my contract was up; still operating at the budget end of the market (because it's all I need) but they didn't have the one I wanted in stock so I ended up getting a 4G one. Can anyone tell me what advantages this gives? Couldn't be arsed hanging around listening to the smug salesman, who I think was looking down on me due to the fact I was spending so little .

 

4G has much faster internet connectivity - max ~8MB/s download. Whereas 3G maxes out at about 1MB/s

[MikeO]

Just faster coverage of internet , streaming movies music etc I think mate. That's how I see it anyway. I'm sure a tech will tell you more to it but I have an iphone 5s and voda have just gone 4g and everything whizzes along on my phone where as before a lot of things lagged.

 

 

 

4G has much faster internet connectivity - max ~8MB/s download. Whereas 3G maxes out at about 1MB/s

 

But just realised that my village doesn't even have 3G yet, let alone 4G .

 

Never mind, it's a good phone and when I venture out of the rural middle ages (where I live) to the big cities I'll be up to speed!

[rubecula]

I can make phone calls on mine. Well it is a fucking phone .... what the hell else do you need it for? Not so you can contact friends while you are at work surely? It is more so your work can contact you when you are at home or on holiday or whatever.

 

Screw that for a game of soldiers. I have a mobile phone that I use to make phone calls IN AN EMERGENCY. Other calls can wait until I am at home.

 

(Sorry rant over just ignore me)

[MikeO]

I can make phone calls on mine. Well it is a fucking phone .... what the hell else do you need it for? Not so you can contact friends while you are at work surely? It is more so your work can contact you when you are at home or on holiday or whatever.

 

Screw that for a game of soldiers. I have a mobile phone that I use to make phone calls IN AN EMERGENCY. Other calls can wait until I am at home.

 

(Sorry rant over just ignore me)

 

Dinosaur .

[Guest blueboy122]

I have a Nokia something something. One of those simple £10 ones and its brilliant.

 

I don't understand how people can justify spending so much on a mobile phone. I don't do any social media or anything like that so it doesn't interest me at all.

[Vranny]

I have a Nokia something something. One of those simple £10 ones and its brilliant.

 

I don't understand how people can justify spending so much on a mobile phone. I don't do any social media or anything like that so it doesn't interest me at all.

I was once like you

 

Honestly, the thing I mostly use my smart phone for is ToffeeTalk and the beeb for football news

Edited August 15, 2014 by Vranny

[Paddock]

I have a Nokia something something. One of those simple £10 ones and its brilliant.

 

I don't understand how people can justify spending so much on a mobile phone. I don't do any social media or anything like that so it doesn't interest me at all.

I don't do any social media, facebook. , twitter nothing but I couldn't live without mine. I can watch sky sports on it when I take the kids to swimming lessons, park or wherever, I can get the internet wherever Zi am, if I'm lost it's a sat nav, I get updated flashed through like a text message from all sporting events, browse the web in the pub to answer any questions being argued about If I'm away from home on a course or whatever I can facetime which means it becomes a videophone and I can actually see my family and they me as we're chatting... I could write chapters on what you can do with one.

 

We have 2 ipads and a laptop (which is now broke) in this house, I can't get a look in so I use my phone for this site.

[Paddock]

 

 

 

But just realised that my village doesn't even have 3G yet, let alone 4G .

 

Never mind, it's a good phone and when I venture out of the rural middle ages (where I live) to the big cities I'll be up to speed!

 

Oh well at least you're up to speed with the times now.

 

Two things. I'm savagely jealous of you living in a little village like that. I yearn to move out the city and live somewhere like you but it's balanced that I couldn't go the match if I did.

[MC11]

I have a Nokia something something. One of those simple £10 ones and its brilliant.

 

I don't understand how people can justify spending so much on a mobile phone. I don't do any social media or anything like that so it doesn't interest me at all.

You still got a VCR mate

[Cornish Steve]

I'm an iPhone addict and would have a hard time using any other type of phone. 4G speeds are quite incredible, but you soon eat up your data allowance. The key for us (because everyone in the house has an iPhone) is using the wireless connection to our cable Internet connection: very fast (50Mb/s) and unlimited data. My younger daughter probably watches an hour's worth of videos every night on her phone.

 

Is it unlimited texting in Britain? One month, one of my son's managed to send/receive over 10,000 text messages in a single month. Thankfully he's now down to about 3,000, but we'd be bankrupt if it wasn't unlimited.

[MikeO]

I'm an iPhone addict and would have a hard time using any other type of phone. 4G speeds are quite incredible, but you soon eat up your data allowance. The key for us (because everyone in the house has an iPhone) is using the wireless connection to our cable Internet connection: very fast (50Mb/s) and unlimited data. My younger daughter probably watches an hour's worth of videos every night on her phone.

 

Is it unlimited texting in Britain? One month, one of my son's managed to send/receive over 10,000 text messages in a single month. Thankfully he's now down to about 3,000, but we'd be bankrupt if it wasn't unlimited.

 

Sure you can get unlimited, but my contract allows 5000, same with my son's. In an extreme month I can use fifty!

[Romey 1878]

I've got unlimited texts and unlimited data.

[Paddock]

I'm an iPhone addict and would have a hard time using any other type of phone. 4G speeds are quite incredible, but you soon eat up your data allowance. The key for us (because everyone in the house has an iPhone) is using the wireless connection to our cable Internet connection: very fast (50Mb/s) and unlimited data. My younger daughter probably watches an hour's worth of videos every night on her phone.

 

Is it unlimited texting in Britain? One month, one of my son's managed to send/receive over 10,000 text messages in a single month. Thankfully he's now down to about 3,000, but we'd be bankrupt if it wasn't unlimited.

You can get all kinds of different deals at different prices. I pay. £35 and get unlimited data, texts and calls (to specific numbers) (thats per month)

[Cornish Steve]

Wireless carriers in the US offer unlimited data only on slower speeds - or they may throttle down from 4G to 1X speeds after 5GB is used, for example. Unlimited text, thankfully, is the norm.

 

Incidentally, I found out about the number of text messages my son was sending and receiving (you're charged for both) because the carrier had set up the plan wrongly and they were charging 1c per message. The bill had a charge for over $100, which is quite amazing. That translates to about one message every minute for every waking hour. We had a serious discussion after I saw that!

[Romey 1878]

Wireless carriers in the US offer unlimited data only on slower speeds - or they may throttle down from 4G to 1X speeds after 5GB is used, for example. Unlimited text, thankfully, is the norm.

I'm on 4G and still have unlimited data . Three is a great network.

[Cornish Steve]

I'm on 4G and still have unlimited data . Three is a great network.

 

Are you sure they don't throttle after a certain amount of usage? Offering unlimited 4G/LTE data will kill a carrier's network. While several of the regional wireless operators (and also T-Mobile) advertise unlimited data in the US, none of them offer unlimited 4G speeds because it's not commercially feasible. They don't advertise it, but they do implement throttling.

[Paddock]

I'm on 4G and still have unlimited data . Three is a great network.

Me too on Vodafone.

 

I pay £35 a month though which is probably too much.

[Paddock]

 

Are you sure they don't throttle after a certain amount of usage? Offering unlimited 4G/LTE data will kill a carrier's network. While several of the regional wireless operators (and also T-Mobile) advertise unlimited data in the US, none of them offer unlimited 4G speeds because it's not commercially feasible. They don't advertise it, but they do implement throttling.

I honestly have no idea what that means but I've not long upgraded and have all you can eat data. I assume that's unlimited?

[Cornish Steve]

I honestly have no idea what that means but I've not long upgraded and have all you can eat data. I assume that's unlimited?

 

It means that for your first 5GB, you get very fast 4G speeds. Once you hit that limit each month, though, you are throttled back to slower speeds. It's unlimited data, but it's not unlimited data at 4G speeds.

 

Different carriers throttle in different ways, though, so some might slow you down only during peak times. No matter what they advertise, I'm not aware of any carrier that truly offers unlimited wireless data at 4G speeds. As noted before, it would bring a carrier's network to its knees and is commercially unsustainable.

[Paddock]

 

It means that for your first 5GB, you get very fast 4G speeds. Once you hit that limit each month, though, you are throttled back to slower speeds. It's unlimited data, but it's not unlimited data at 4G speeds.

 

Different carriers throttle in different ways, though, so some might slow you down only during peak times. No matter what they advertise, I'm not aware of any carrier that truly offers unlimited wireless data at 4G speeds. As noted before, it would bring a carrier's network to its knees and is commercially unsustainable.

Ah, right ok. Then maybe I don't. I have all you can eat data and I have 4g but maybe it does do what you say it does.

 

I'll have to check what I actually have. To be honest, mine switches to the house wifi when I come home automatically I found the house one was faster over the years so my settings just do it automatically so maybe I never reach that limit.

[StevO]

In the uk Apple dictate the contracts so it's a level playing field. Try haggling the phone companies on an iPhone, ball ache!

Not sure if they do this in the rest of the world though. I'd be lost without unlimited data, have wifi most places I go, but I'm so used to just popping into an app and doing something without thinking about it.

 

They don't reduce speeds over here. But a lot of unlimited packages have fair use policies in the small print. So unlimited texts might only be 5,000 but you may never get near it for it to be a problem, but who reads the small print?

Chances are most iPhone users will be sending iMessages for free half the time anyway.

 

I love my iPhone, won't even consider anything else.

 

Mark, you get good service from 3 don't you? If you ever leave them get everything in writing and keep it safe. I ended a contract with them and three years later a letter turned up at my parents house saying I owed them 6 months line rental for after I ended my contract. They backed down eventually, but it was a pain. I saw out my contract but they didn't do something at their end. Idiots.

[Paddock]

In the uk Apple dictate the contracts so it's a level playing field. Try haggling the phone companies on an iPhone, ball ache!

Not sure if they do this in the rest of the world though. I'd be lost without unlimited data, have wifi most places I go, but I'm so used to just popping into an app and doing something without thinking about it.

 

They don't reduce speeds over here. But a lot of unlimited packages have fair use policies in the small print. So unlimited texts might only be 5,000 but you may never get near it for it to be a problem, but who reads the small print?

Chances are most iPhone users will be sending iMessages for free half the time anyway.

 

I love my iPhone, won't even consider anything else.

 

Mark, you get good service from 3 don't you? If you ever leave them get everything in writing and keep it safe. I ended a contract with them and three years later a letter turned up at my parents house saying I owed them 6 months line rental for after I ended my contract. They backed down eventually, but it was a pain. I saw out my contract but they didn't do something at their end. Idiots.

Without boring you with the details I fell out with 3 over them fucking up my bills and after a two month scrap and them finally admitting they were wrong I ran my contract out and moved to Vodafone who have been fantastic when it comes to customer service but their coverage is shite.

[Romey 1878]

Mark, you get good service from 3 don't you? If you ever leave them get everything in writing and keep it safe. I ended a contract with them and three years later a letter turned up at my parents house saying I owed them 6 months line rental for after I ended my contract. They backed down eventually, but it was a pain. I saw out my contract but they didn't do something at their end. Idiots.

 

Cheers for the tip, mate, I'll remember that!

[Hafnia]

Vodafone are very good. Looking to get 4G, but waiting till it's unlimited data and cheaper. What's coverage like now?

[Paddock]

Vodafone are very good. Looking to get 4G, but waiting till it's unlimited data and cheaper. What's coverage like now?

Haf, my advice would be don't!!

 

The coverage is awful. I can't even get a signal in my own house half the time. It drops out in the middle of calls it's basically awful.

 

The customer service is fantastic, they can't do enough for you they really can't. I was set to leave when my last contract ran out but they were going 4g so I thought I'd give them another chance (thats how great they are at looking after their customers) but the signal coverage whilst admittedly better is still nowhere near as good as 3.

 

My wife is still on 3 (we both were at one point) and her coverage pisses all over mine but their customer service is shite . They're always making mistakes with billing and stuff. I asked for a bolt on so I could ring 0800 and 0845 numbers cheaply , they charged me for the bolt on but I never got the cheap calls. Just stuff like that but if you just want a cheap package with calls texts and internet 3 is the one I would recommend.

 

You also have to speak to people in India to iron any problems out with 3. Not that there 's anything wrong with that but the language barrier can get frustrating. With Vodafone it's usually Scotland you go to to speak to them which is so much better trying to explain what it is you want.

[Louis]

I have a Samsung S3 on Pay-as-you-go. I haven't had a contract for about eight years. I just can't see the value for money I'd get out of it. My phone's used more for podcast listening and audiobook playing when I'm walking the dog than it is as a phone. I'm on Orange, solely for the two-for-one cinema tickets.

[Guest blueboy122]

You still got a VCR mate

And a sega mega drive

[Romey 1878]

And a sega mega drive

I loved the Mega Drive.

[Paddock]

I loved the Mega Drive.

My zx spectrum with football manager was the dogs bollocks.

 

Little matchstick men kicking a little dot for the ball and it used to make this rrrrrrrrrr noise when it was kicked.

 

That and urban upstart.

[MikeO]

My zx spectrum with football manager was the dogs bollocks.

 

Little matchstick men kicking a little dot for the ball and it used to make this rrrrrrrrrr noise when it was kicked.

 

That and urban upstart.

 

Manic Miner on the Commodore 64 was my favourite. I've mentioned it in the past but the company I worked for back then manufactured a lot of the programmes (on cassette) so we had all the platforms for quality control checks. Since I was the QC boss I pretty much played what I wanted, and took them home in the evening to do some "overtime" .