[Hands0n]

Okay, so I've given the entire game away in the title of this post :) but it is a rather interesting offer ...

Based on the O2 network Tesco are a fairly well known MVNO and have had some fairly good offers in the past. This new £30 all you can eat up to a limit of £500 makes for interesting reading. The Tesco Mobile tariffs are here (http://www.tesco.com/mobilenetwork/content.aspx?page=35) and you would need to project your likely usage of the £500 FUP against these charges.

That £500 really only represents 128MB of data before you're over the FUP and additional charges kick in. It does represent 2,500 minutes of talk, 5,000 SMS or 2,000 MMS which is good value if that is what you do. So the usual "buyer beware" applies if you have intentions to use this for mobile broadband, you could very rapidly run over and without any warning or control to let you know when that happens.

The conditions are that the SIM is used in a mobile handset only, HSPA modems are specifically forbidden in the Ts&Cs. Interestingly though, Videocalling is included in the "mix n match"

Tesco, something to keep an eye on.

[@NickyColman]

Virgin Mobile/Media are also doing the same deal, but at a cost of £65 per month!! Jesus.

Its terrifying how much the networks are giving away! Surely they cant sustain this type of give away? Its great for us, the customer, but in the long run are they going to regret it *cough* ThreePay *cough*

[Ben]

More despicable use of the term "unlimited" on services that truly aren't.

Lazy sods should think up a more accurate description for their services.

[@NickyColman]

They really are setting themselves up for a fall. What happens when they want to top their current tarrifs? How can you get more than unlimited? Infinite? Never ending lol?

"Get even more unlimited texts, minutes & webbing for £30 a month." Sad thing is, tonnes of people won't even see the obvious flaw in this.

[3GScottishUser]

This offer simply confirms what has been known for a long time.

The operators have a fairly good idea of how much the average user will use. Most folks don't remain on a mobile 24/7, so with that in mind it comes down to just how much the market can stand. Who would have thought a few years ago that you could get landline calls included for free in your phone line rental? That is common nowadays and so will the 'all you can eat' for a fixed monthly fee on mobiles. I am guessing that the £30 rate will fall to £20/25 eventually and that will include local/national calls, SMS, MMS and data. It'll perhaps take another couple of years but fixed cost FUP pricing looks like the way the market is headed and it makes a lot of sense as consumers like the idea of knowing exactly what their monthly outgoings will be in advance. If and when interconnection charges are removed the flat rate tarriffs will flourish. I can see the current 3 tarriff model with a handset premium being copied once fixed pricing becomes the norm.

[Ben]

If interconnection is removed we will likely have to pay to receive.

I'm all for interconnection rates coming down a bit, though. They don't reflect anything like the true cost to the operator at this time.