Offer from 3

[steve9025]

I'm currently on a contract with 3 until October, which includes an LG U8120. I've been made the following offer:
@"we can simply send you a free handset (with no obligation on your part)" or
@"you can take your pick of our handsets if you renew your contract with us - this is part of your special upgrade package"

The letter is somewhat lacking in precision. It doesn't say what would happen to my old handset (needs to be returned, presumably). Enclosed are three cards each detailing a type of handset - a Motorola V975, E1000 and a Nokia 6630.

I have a few questions. Let's hope someone with a lot of time on their hands is reading

With re. to renewing my contract, I'm not 100% sure I'll be in the UK much of the next academic year. Therefore, I'd like a contract which I can cancel without too much fuss (not sure if these exist). Are there siginificantly better contracts than the one 3 is likely to offer me? I'd like to keep my current phone no.

Which of those new handsets above is best? Are they all better than my LG?

[Ben]

Hey,

If you've not had any problems with your LG then you may wish to consider sticking with it. At most, you'd be wanting the 'free replacement', but you'd be well advised to call and find out what that is. I'm assuming the letter is genuine because I'm sure I've heard of other cases similar to your own after the Watchdog debacle.

If you renew your contract then you'll be tied in for at least another 12 months - that's just the way it goes I'm afraid. If you're not sure if you will be here for the next academic year then I'd strongly advise you not to take out a new contract that could see you having to pay for months of line rental that you'll never actually use.

Of those phones you mention, I'd say the 6630, even with its lack of video calling through a forward facing camera, is by far the best. Whether you'd prefer the Motorola E1000 is down to your personal preference. However, I'd imagine you will not get to choose if you take the free replacement.

I hope that helps, somewhat! I'm sure others will have comments for you also.

[Hands0n]

@Steve9025 - If you want/need something that is going to be flexible with your travel arrangements I would be inclined to suggest you take a poll of all the current PAYG offerings - especially if you only have modest voice and text requirements. Networks like Virgin and easyMobile, for example, have foreign tariffs that may suit your pocket. What you really need to do is to analyse your current usage, or try to predict your off-shore usage to come up with some figures. Don't forget, even on contract when travelling you will be hit with very high calling costs at International rates plus!!

Something else to consider is to buy a SIM from the local country you are going to be staying in. This can work very well if you are going to be in one country rather than gadding all over the world! I have a Greek SIM from Vodafone that I use in my phone whenever we holiday there and which saves a bomb.

I quite like the E1000 over the LG U81xx series - it has Bluetooth which I do need in my daily work being in a car a lot. I also find the E1000 functions quite a bit quicker than the LG, plus it has memory expansion (Transflash) which is useful for storing MP3s to play with its built in Media Player. The transflash card also stores any images or video taken with the handset (downloaded content lives on the phone's memory and is locked in place!).

I cant comment on the other two other than to say if you like the flip-phone style then the Motorola v975 is probably the one to go for - and if you really don't like it you can either eBay it for £100's or keep it [unlocked] and in reserve should the U8120 go west on you.

A couple of other points worth considering; get your LG U8120 unlocked [existing and new] so you at least have the option of using non-3 SIMs. You will have to fiddle with MMS settings (see elsewhere on this forum) but Voice and SMS text will work as these settings are carried on the SIM.

Do not, under any circumstances, send your old phone back to 3 - it should be yours to keep as you paid for it under the contract fees. They did say in your letter "..... with no obligation on your part". Keep it as a backup in case your new handset plays up. At worst, sell it on eBay - you'll get close on £50 for it!

Remember, these handsets are yours to do what you want with. The mobile op only holds title on the SIM/USIM - that is most definitely not yours!

To answer a couple more of your questions;
Contracts - these are normally very well sewn up in the favour of the mobile operator. 12 months and 18 months being the norm these days. Try and get out of these prematurely and you are looking at paying the full price to contract end. There are no get-outs unless the mobile op is in breach of contract and you can prove it.

Keep your number - You can transfer your number even to a PAYG facility by asking Three for a PAC at the time you cancel. They have to give you this (it is the law). You then have 30 days to apply the PAC to the new contract or PAYG and you do this by contacting the new provider's Customer Services and giving them the PAC info. You can move your number around any number of times doing this. But, you won't be able to PAC your number to a foreign mobile ops SIM (as far as I know anyway!!).

Hope this helps also - and I'm sure others will give you their thoughts on here too

[steve9025]

I like the idea whereby I take one of their handsets and sell it Which one (out of "Motorola V975, E1000 and a Nokia 6630") is worth the most on Ebay?


Cheers
Steve

[steve9025]

Dawned on me that I could easily find out myself (durrrr) and the Nokia 6630 is the winner. Seems a bit strange that they offer me a £200+ phone and I'm free to sell it.

[solo12002]

Not sure if this helps.

If you are not staying in the UK for period of time, then Pay as you go on three will give you more of less what you have on three contract, and you may be able to port number across?

On the other hand you could go to the o2 web site were 02 have online pay 30 day notice contracts, I have a online 30 day contract 400 mins amonth with another 400 mins free and 2000 text messages free per month with free voicemail and ITS which means cheaper calls while roaming. You dont get a mobile with this tou have to supply your own but then you have an LG mobile anyway.

[Hands0n]

Yup, you could sell the 6630 on eBay for £200 and pick up a "spare" LG U8120 for around £50 which leaves you a princely 150 beer vouchers to do what you like with.

I don't believe you can PAC from contract to Threepay but ... there's always a way it seems ..... others have reported that they have ported out to another network's PAYG and then subsequently ported back in to Threepay! More fiddly, takes a bit of time, but you gets what you wants in the end Which is nice.

[steve9025]

I phoned 3, for my free handset, and was told that offer was a mere exchange of handsets. So, despite the small chance I'll not be in the UK for a lot of next year, I signed up to a new contract. What a sucker. Don't get sweet-talked into it like me . On the plus side, this way I get to keep the LG, can sell the Nokia for £200 versus the total cost of the next 12-month contract of £225. £25 for 500 mins + 100 texts for 12 months. How does that compare?

[Hands0n]

It sounds like a good plan to me If you can get the £200 for your 6630 (no reason why you shouldn't) that gives you a 12-month contract for £25 providing you don't go over.

I'm surprised the other part of the offer was for an exchange of handsets. But maybe Three have got wise to people doing that on eBay - there are tons of very current Three handsets on there at the moment. Maybe Three will become eBayers themselves

[steve9025]

This is becoming increasingly hypothetical....but when the 6630 can be unlocked, and I sell that to a friend, with the bonus of his being able to use my insurance should the handset need repairing (ie I just pretend it's been mine all along)....would 3 notice it's been unlocked? If this invalidates the free repairs I get with my contract, could I get it re-locked prior to sending it off to them?

[Hands0n]

Hypothetically then ............. The chances are that any unlock made on the 6600 series will be detectable by the Service Centre (assuming always that they will actually look for signs of unlocking).

Re-locking will almost certainly be detectable also.

[steve9025]

Wow, you are a darn quick replier, HandsOn. You should get paid for this . I'll probably ebay 6630 since I don't really need a powerful media phone but find the LG's depth dimension. I want to buy a handset which is small and light and can be used with my 3 contract sim. (what's the diff between sim & usim?)

Certain extras aren't a big deal (no need for bluetooth/videocalling/web browsing) but a good camera would be a plus point and an mp3 player which can easily hook up to a pc would also be a bonus (but mobiles don't tend to have enough memory to make their mp3 players any use, right? :S). Any handset recommendations?

[steve9025]

above should read: " [...] find the LG's depth dimension a pain."

[Hands0n]

hee hee. I just 'appened to be around that morning.

"... whats the diff between sim and usim"
Well, USIM is an enhanced security and authentication card for the 3G technology - at the moment I don't believe that it does very much more than the GSM SIM but it is ready for wider application. An article I found on the Internet may help somewhat which included the following comment;

The really new and exciting feature of the USIM is that it breaks
with the traditional notion that “SIM card equals GSM application”.
3G represents a new departure because it uses a UICC,
a removable IC card that is designed to be a true multi-application
card and can contain one or more USIM applications, as well
as other applications. The GSM SIM card is a mono-application
card that conforms to the GSM specifications. On a GSM SIM
the additional applications such as banking are an integral part
of the GSM application and cannot be used separately on a
stand alone basis. SIM technology has undergone significant
changes on the way to USIM and has been brought in line
with ISO/IEC International Standards.

The link to the entire PDF article is here --> http://www.gi-de.com/pls/portal/maia...B?p_ID= 76839 You'll need Acrobad Reader to see it entirely.

Another article helps clarify this somewhat http://www.austriacard.at/austriacar...da665ce0f1.pdf
Here it is saying that the USIM is the application stored on the UICC card and that the UICC is more generic than purely mobile network telephony.

One learns something new each day (now I've got a headache )

As to the rest of your posting .... it is an interesting spec that you want, and one that can be more easily met with 2G phones than 3G at the moment. The latter are all on the bulky side by comparison but maybe the bulk is not that bad? In terms of MP3 playing you should seek out handsets that make use of storage cards such as Transflash, MCC, SD and Memory Stick to name but a few. These will give you the opportunity of storing very much more than the handset's inbuilt memory. So to answer your question specifically......... "Yes" mobiles can make excellent MP3 players with sufficient memory (albeit limited by the current flash technology). Newer handsets on the way will incorporate actual hard disks - these are due later this year and in 2006.

It is hard to recommend a specific handset that would suit your entire purposes but I am quite happy with the Motorola E1000 which has a nice Media Player included and being Transflash capable makes for a reasonable MP3 player also (battery life notwithstanding!).

The new Nokia 6680 has MP3 capabilities - and uses MMC storage which can be bought for up to 1GB these days (expect to pay around £60 for such a capacity card).

Okay enough waffle from me Probably best thing to do is get a visit in to the high street mobile shops and try a few of their dummy units in your hand before engaging the usual "I'll tell you what you want" wally they employ (apologies to any such wallies reading this, I've been assaulted one time to many by these and no longer hold them in high esteem).

Do let us know what you eventually settle for ... We're such a nosey lot in here

[steve9025]

Great info. Do you work in the mobile industry?

Can you put any old 3 contract-SIM or Threepay SIM in a handset locked to 3?

Can you port over a number from Virgin PAYG to a Threepay SIM?

[Hands0n]

Thnsk No I dont work in the industry but have been in telecomms as a corporate consumer for "a few years" and involved with mobiles since their launch. Its just a keen interest on my part.

Yes, a 3-locked handset will take any functioning 3 USIM. There was a rumour that 3 were locking the handest to the USIM-type (Threepay & Contract) but this has not been substantiated as far as anything I've read to date. I am interchangeably using 3-Contract and Threepay in a number of 3 handsets (locked and unlocked).

Yes, you can port from into Threepay - so long as you can get a PAC for the existing number. They are not supposed to refuse you this but there has been some news elsewhere on the Forum about Vodafone (for example) imposing conditions that fly in the face of the spirit of Number Portability (can't recall what it was exactly).

[3GScottishUser]

According to OFCOM the only compulsion is for networks to provide PAC codes - they dont have to accept them!!!!

Fabulous piece of regulation eh?

Laughable!

[Hands0n]

Yup. It just goes to show that "self regulation" simply does not work in this country - the suppliers just cannot be trusted to provide a customer service without compulsion. I'm not one for rabid statutory regulation - but these firms really do bring it upon themselves, and then bleat all the way to their local MP and Lobby Group! Meanwhile, we The Customer lose out ......... What a cosy little cartel they have among themselves.

[steve9025]

Trust me to say 3 SIM rather than USIM after all that... :|

[cyberkid999]

I suggest you look more closing at any auctions you have found for a Three locked handset selling for anything over £150 as there will be some extras or something you have missed or the buyer will be a newbie and it will have been a scam auction. The 6630 can be purchased SIM free and hence unlocked for only £215 so to hope to get anywhere near this is unrealistic.