The large networks now offer free mobile internet on their Pay As You Go tariffs.

photo: Tambako the Jaguar

I’ve written about how you can get free texts and free calls on your Pay As You Go Network before but never how you can get free mobile web from your mobile. Why? Until recently you couldn’t – web access was considered one of those premium services that shouldn’t be given away for free; the networks were worried that we would start making calls and sending texts over the data connection – something which would destroy their business model.

With the advent of smartphones and better 3G networks, we’re now beginning to see Pay As You Go packages that offer free mobile web access.

Below, we list the networks that offer free mobile web and how you can switch to that tariff. If you’re network isn’t there, you’ll have to hold on for the time being or think about switching network. If we’re missing something, do let us know.

What can I do with free mobile internet access/data?

All kinds. For example:

• Browse the web and social networks such as Facebook
• Reading the news; checking the travel news on the go
• Upload your phone photos straight to Flickr, Facebook, etc.
• Get Google Maps for Mobile – never get lost again
• Send and receive emails

What networks offer it?

At the moment: 3, O2, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile. Orange customers can get free access to social networks only. If you’re on Vodafone or another network, you need to wait for the time being.

Before you switch: your allowances may change

Your existing PAYG tariff might have some free allowances – or it might not. If it doesn’t, you don’t lose a single thing by switching. If it does, there is a good possibility that you will lose that allowance and have it replaced by the allowance of the tariff you switch to. Also, call costs might change too. Check before you switch – you might not be able to go back.

Three: 3Pay

Three’s 3Pay tariff (see our guide) offers 150MB of free internet access every time you top up. The free allowance lasts up to 90 days. As well as that, you can use Skype and Windows Live Messenger (they don’t count towards your data allowance and can also be accessed without topping up) and you get free texts too.

• Minimum topup: £5
• Free data allowance: 150MB that lasts until you top up again, for a maximum of 90 days
• Existing 3 customers: Call 444 and select option 6 to switch to 3Pay
• Other networks: Send off for a free SIM card from Three. Then see our guide about switching network and transferring your number.

O2: Text & Web

O2’s Text and Web tariff (see our guide) offers 500MB of free internet access and 600 free texts when you top up by £15. The free allowance lasts for 30 days. Chances are you won’t be able to use Skype or Windows Live Messenger – but should be OK for maps, web and email.

• Minimum topup: £15
• Free data allowance: 500MB that lasts for 30 days.
• Existing O2 customers: Text TEXTANDWEB to 21300
• Customers of other networks: Send off for a free SIM card from O2. Then see our guide about switching network and transferring your number.

Orange: Dolphin (but only for social networks)

Orange don’t offer a free data tariff as per se but they do offer free access to Facebook, Bebo and MySpace on the Dolphin tariff (see our guide) . You won’t be able to access anything like the news, weather or travel information (anything from the rest of the internet) for free. But it’s still better than nothing and it’ll suffice if you just want to use it for social networking.

• Minimum topup: £10
• Free data allowance: 50MB for 30 days but you can only use it on Facebook, Bebo and MySpace
• Existing Orange customers: Call 343 from your Orange phone
• Customers of other networks: Send off for a free SIM card from Orange. Then see our guide about switching network and transferring your number.

T-Mobile: Monthly Text and Internet Reward

T-Mobile Pay As You Go customers can opt into the ‘Monthly Text and Internet Reward’ scheme. You get 40MB of data to use per day for 1 month when you top up £10. You’re not allowed to use a Blackberry with this scheme.

• Minimum topup: £10
• Free data allowance: 40MB per day for 30 days (equiv. to 1,200MB)
• Existing Virgin Mobile customers: Ask T-Mobile to opt you in to to the ‘Monthly Text and Internet Reward’ scheme.
• Customers of other networks: Send off for a free SIM card from T-Mobile. Then see our guide about switching network and transferring your number.

Virgin Mobile: Addict

Virgin Mobile’s Addict tariff offers 1GB (1000MB) of free internet access and 3,000 texts when you top up by £20. The free allowance lasts for 30 days. Chances are you won’t be able to use Skype or Windows Live Messenger – but should be OK for maps, web and email.

• Minimum topup: £20
• Free data allowance: 1,000MB that lasts for 30 days
• Existing Virgin Mobile customers: Ask Virgin to switch you to move you to the ‘Addict’ tariff.
• Customers of other networks: Send off for a free SIM card from Virgin. Then see our guide about switching network and transferring your number.

Other Networks

Vodafone customers are out of luck for the time being for totally free internet access. For Vodafone Simply customers, there is a flat rate of £1 for the first 15MB you use each day. After that, it’s £2/MB.

Keep up to date on mobile phone tariffs in the UK

Subscribe to the Ken’s Tech Tips: News Feed for details of new phone tariffs, price cuts and exciting ways to use your mobile.

Related posts:

1. Pay As You Go Internet & Data Tariffs – The Good, Bad and Ugly
2. T-Mobile launch PAYG ‘Monthly Text and Internet Reward’ with free texts, internet on PAYG
3. O2 UK: Free texts or minutes

T-Mobile have reacted to O2’s recent launch of their Text and Web tariff by launching their own ‘Monthly Text and Internet Reward’ tariff. When topping up £10 or more per month, you’ll get 40MB of mobile internet access per day and unlimited texts for the next month.

How does it work?

When you top up £10, you’ll get “unlimited” free texts and mobile internet access. In reality, there is a usage cap of 40MB per day (this is pretty difficult to exceed unless you try to download files). Also to restrict spam or nuisance texts, you can’t text more than 200 different numbers in that month. Your free allowance lasts for one month.

You can’t use a Blackberry on this scheme and you can’t use the internet connection to make VoIP internet calls.

How do I sign up?

If you’re switching to T-Mobile, you can get a free SIM cards on their website. You will be automatically opted in to this new scheme (click the banner on the right hand side of the T-Mobile registration page for more info on the scheme).

No news yet on whether existing customers can opt in to this scheme – there is no easy way to switch. I recommend contacting T-Mobile customer services and asking them to enable it for you. It makes no sense for a network to punish existing customers and so they should be happy to do it for you. Do let us know in the comments whether you have any success though…

How will this be affected by the merger with Orange?

photo: John Steven Fernandez

We’re not sure how the combined “T-Orange” company will work yet but we do know that the two brands will initially be run separately and independently. Hence the chances of this tariff being withdrawn in the near future are slim. Whether the tariff will survive the merger is to be seen as Orange don’t offer free internet on their PAYG tariffs.

What are the alternatives?

The only alternative worth considering is probably Three’s 3Pay tariff. For an equivalent £10 topup, you only get 150MB internet access (a lot less than T-Mobile’s 40MB/day) and 600 texts.  The flip side is that 3Pay’s free allowances last for 90 days whilst T-Mobile’s free allowance only last for a month. As you’re probably unlikely to even come close to 40MB/day (I use about 10MB/month), you could find Three’s allowance would actually serve you better. The other benefit of 3Pay is that you can use Skype and Windows Live Messenger for free.

O2 offer Text and Web but requires a minimum of a £15 topup for 600 free texts and 500MB of internet access.

Keep up to date with T-Mobile tariff news

Subscribe to the Ken’s Tech Tips: T-Mobile News Feed for details of special offers, tariffs and money saving tips for T-Mobile customers.

Related posts:

1. O2’s “Text and Web” PAYG tariff gives free, unlimited internet & texts
2. Last week for O2 “Text and Web” unlimited free texts and mobile internet offer
3. Free texts on your Pay As You Go mobile

photo: William Hook

So O2 has lost exclusivity on the iPhone – Orange are stocking it from next week and Vodafone from next year.

As the networks start to release details about their iPhone tariffs, we’ll update this page and allow you to easily compare iPhone tariffs side-by-side. Changes to this page will be logged at the bottom of the page.

• 24 month contracts
• 18 month contracts
• Pay As You Go

Today, we heard details of Orange’s iPhone tariffs. Orange has more or less duplicated O2’s iPhone tariffs to the letter but with the introduction of a £30/month contract (O2’s cheapest offering is £35/month) and a £125/month all you can eat tariff (unlimited calls, texts, internet and a free iPhone).

We’re still yet to hear from Vodafone.

24 month contracts

£30/month

£35/month

£45/month

£75/month

£125/month

18 month contracts

£30/month

£35/month

£45/month

£75/month

Pay As You Go

Orange:

• £440.00 for 8GB iPhone
• £539.00 for 16GB iPhone
• Includes 250MB of data allowance per month for 12 months

O2:

• £440.48 for 8GB iPhone
• £538.50 for 16GB iPhone
• Includes unlimited data for 12 months

Notes

(1) Orange have a fair usage limit of 750MB per month.

More information & Buy

For more information on the tariffs and to buy an iPhone, visit the Orange website or O2 Website.

Article Updates

• 5th November 2009: Added details of O2’s £30/month 18 month tariff and details of Orange’s fair usage policy
• 2nd November 2009: Initially published with O2 and Orange prices

Related posts:

1. Orange, Vodafone launch iPhone – hold off your iPhone purchase
2. Orange launching iPhone on November 10th; Three to offer iPhone 2010
3. iPhone 3G on Pay As You Go: September 16th

Earlier this year I wrote about TVCatchup, a service which allows you to watch most Freeview channels live on your PC (the name is a misnomer as you can’t actually watch TV which has already been broadcast). They’ve now launched an iPhone version and unlike BBC iPlayer, it works on a 3G connection as well as Wifi.

You’ll only be able to get it in the UK and you’ll need a TV license too.

A dedicated iPhone app is said to be coming soon.

Orange trialled something similar in France.

From my previous post on TVCatchup:

What channels are available?

The channel lineup is similar to Freeview. The following channels are currently available although TVCatchup say that as they are currently in beta, they cannot guarantee the availability of all of them.

• BBC One
• BBC Two
• ITV1
• Channel 4
• Five
• ITV2
• Five USA
• E4
• ITV3
• ITV4
• More4
• BBC Three
• BBC Four
• Dave
• Fiver
• Film4
• BBC News
• CBBC Channel
• CITV
• E4+1
• Dave ja vu (Dave+1)
• ITV2+1
• Yesterday
• Channel 4+1
• ITV3+1
• BBC Parliament

Is it legal?

According to the TVCatchup website it is:

Yes. TVCatchup is fully compliant with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended, and the broadcasters have fully participated as part of the process of assessing the legality of TVCatchup.

I’m not a lawyer though.

Keep up to date on iPhone in the UK

Subscribe to the Ken’s Tech Tips: News Feed for details of news of iPhone releases, tariffs and price cuts in the UK.

Related posts:

1. TVCatchup: Live TV service streamed to your browser – Freeview for your PC
2. Television
3. Sky Pay-DTT Service, Virgin Media

photo: Caveman 92223

In the UK, there are 121 mobile phones for every 100 people. That’s more phones than people! Many of us have got spare phones lying around in the cupboard which we don’t use any more. Mobile phone recycling companies will often take away your old handset and pay you a cheque for it too.

What condition does the phone need to be in?

Generally, it needs to be in decent working condition. Some companies will pay for non-working handsets and then refurbish them, however.

First things first: Recycle it through Friends and Family

Before recycling your phone ask yourself whether anybody in your social circle might find the phone useful. Mobile phone recycling companies usually pay a lot less for your old mobile than it costs to buy that handset new. If you know somebody who might find your mobile useful, consider passing it on to them or trading it amongst yourselves.

For example, a brand new Viewty costs £100 but you’ll only get £30 for it when you recycle it. If it’s in good condition, why not sell it to a family member for £50? It’s a win-win situation.

Check if your handset is locked first though; it might not accept their SIM card.

Sell it on eBay

Have a look on eBay and see what price your mobile phone is currently getting. Many mobile phone recycling companies will just sell your handset on eBay, so cut out the middle man.

What happens to the phone when I recycle it?

photo: ginnerobot

The company will check your phone to make sure it isn’t stolen and then test it to see whether it’s in working condition. If your phone is accepted they will usually sell it on to somebody else as a “refurbished” handset. If they can’t do that, the phone will be reprocessed. Phones contain metals such as gold which can be recovered, components which can be reused and other materials which can be smelted for energy recovery.

According to mobile phone recycling company Envirofone:

We’re very pleased that the majority of the mobile phones that we receive are re-used as this can make a significant contribution to managing the demand for precious minerals such as coltan which is sourced from the deep forests of the Congo in central Africa. The Congo’s mining business has in recent years led to a dramatic reduction of animal habitat, specifically the world’s endangered lowland gorillas and reuse and recycling can help to reduce the demand for new raw materials.

Take out your SIM and memory card…

Remember to remove the SIM card and memory card from the phone before you send it off! The memory card is still useful (e.g. you could use it in your camera or laptop) and might contain information you wouldn’t want to share with a stranger (photos, videos or passwords!).

photo: NightRPStar

Make sure you remove your SIM card. Somebody with your SIM card can access your address book, receive calls that are meant for you and could even make calls which are charged back to you. Either use the SIM card in your new phone or dispose of it securely once you’ve used all remaining credit.

It’s worth wiping the handset memory too – that might have photos, text messages and your address book.

How much will I get for my phone?

Use the price comparison tool on the MoneySavingExpert.com website. It’ll get quotes from various mobile phone recycling companies and allow you to find the company that pays the most. Then see if you can use a cashback site such as TopCashback to get a few extra quid.

Related posts:

1. Orange to integrate credit cards into mobile phones
2. Switch mobile phone network with free Pay as you Go SIM cards
3. Listening to music on your mobile phone

photo: e-magic

Mobile network 3 is to offer a Spotify tariff from next month. The tariff will offer customers a HTC Hero Android smartphone with a bundled subscription to the Spotify Premium music streaming service. The tariff will make 6 million tracks available to customers to stream at any time, without adverts.

How much does it cost?

You will need to buy the HTC Hero phone for £99 and then pay £35 a month (24 month contract). This brings the total cost of ownership to £939 over the 24 months (equivalent to £39.13 per month).

In return you’ll get a monthly allowance of:

• Unlimited Spotify Premium (usually £9.99/month) on your mobile and your PC
• 750 minutes
• Free 3-to-3 and Skype calls
• Unlimited texts
• Unlimited data, email

Is the phone any good?

photo: Iain Farrell

The HTC Hero has won the T3 magazine ‘Phone of the Year’ award and has had pretty good reviews. I’ve not heard any bad things about it anyway. And as it’s an Android phone, there are lots of applications available for it.

The key specs are:

• 5 Mega Pixel touch screen handset
• 3.2” TFT LCD capacitive touch screen, 320 x480
• HSDPA, AGPS, 3.5mm connection
• 512 MB Internal memory, supports up to 8GB SD Card
• Slim tablet 112 x 56.2x 14.35mm, 135g
• Stereo Bluetooth
• Android OS

How else can I get Spotify for mobile?

Android offer a Spotify mobile application for the iPhone and Android. You’ll need to subscribe to Spotify Premium to use it though (£9.99 a month). Three are essentially bundling an Android phone with Spotify Premium in this tariff.

What are the alternatives?

Nokia offer ‘Comes with Music’ phones. ‘Comes with Music’ phones bundle 12 months of free music downloads with the phone. The tracks can still be played after the 12 months expires.

Orange PAYG customers can switch to the Orange Monkey tariff which offers free music streaming when you top up £10 per month.

Related posts:

1. Discover new music with Spotify & Twitter real-time search
2. Introducing Twittify – a Twitter & Spotify mash-up to share music in real time
3. Spotify offers free streaming music; how does it compare to Deezer?

photo: John Steven Fernandez

We reported at the start of the month that Orange and Vodafone had managed to break O2’s monopoly on the iPhone and would start offering it to their customers soon:

If you’re considering getting an Apple iPhone, you would be well advised to hold off your purchase for a month or two. Orange are set to offer the iPhone later this year whilst Vodafone will be offering it from next year. Both networks will offer the 3G and 3G S models (it was previously reported that only the older 3G model would be available on other networks).

Orange to release iPhone on November 10th

Previously we knew that the Orange iPhone would be available by the end of the year.

We learnt today from various sources that Orange will be launching the iPhone in just two weeks time: on November 10th. This comes almost exactly two years after O2 first offered the iPhone (on November 9th, 2007) and when O2’s iPhone exclusivity deal ends.

According to The Times, Orange has managed to received 200,000 pre-registrations for the iPhone release. However, Orange still haven’t released details about the package and pricing of the iPhone – it remains to be seen what the conversion rate on those registrations are.

Price cuts?

Analysts have said that as the iPhone is considered a premium product it is unlikely that there will be price cuts. Instead, they argue that networks will compete on factors such as the quality of their networks. We saw that when Orange lost their exclusivity to the iPhone in France, they began to offer extra features such as a free mobile television service.

photo: leoncillo sabino

I’m unsure whether we’ll see price cuts on the iPhone immediately (especially so close to Christmas) but what is almost certain is that Orange will attempt to lure O2 customers by offering extra features/applications/minutes/texts/etc. Chances are we will see price cuts next year when Vodafone and Three join in the party.

iPhone on 3

Mobile network 3 have said they are hoping to offer the iPhone during 2010. At Ken’s Tech Tips, we would certainly expect price cuts when 3 launch the iPhone as 3 have offered some very competitive and innovative tariffs lately. We’re still keeping our fingers crossed for price cuts when Orange and Vodafone take on O2 though.

Keep up to date on iPhone tariffs in the UK

Subscribe to the Ken’s Tech Tips: News Feed for details of news of iPhone releases, tariffs and price cuts in the UK.

Related posts:

1. Orange, Vodafone launch iPhone – hold off your iPhone purchase
2. Compare Apple iPhone prices and tariffs: O2, Orange VS Vodafone
3. Orange TV coming to an iPhone near you, UK?

photo: Jeff Kubina

If you want to sign up to the O2 unlimited Text and Web tariff please be advised that you need to be quick! The unlimited tariff is only available until the 31st October 2009 (just under 10 days time!).

Existing customers (many of you are on O2 Text Anytime and currently getting a limited number of free texts) need to switch by this date by texting TEXTANDWEB to 21300. You also need to top up once to complete the switch so do this as soon as possible.

New customers need to order their O2 SIM cards by this date. You can do this at O2’s website.

How does it work?

When you top up £15, you’ll get “unlimited” free texts and mobile web access for a period of 30 days following that top up. Although O2 advertise the service as “unlimited”, there is actually a limit:

• 12,000 texts (~400 texts per day)
• 500MB mobile internet allowance (~17MB per day)

photo: Jeff Kubina

You’re probably unlikely to exceed these allowances unless you have an iPhone/smartphone which uses ridiculous amounts of data. Even in a single Google Maps session, I usually don’t use more than 1MB.

What happens after the 31st October?

O2 are changing the terms of their “Text and Web” offer for customers who sign up from November onwards. The new allowances are still good and some of the best in the market but nowhere near as good:

• Top up between £10 and £14 a month will get 300 UK text messages
• Top up between £15 and £29 a month will get 500 UK texts and unlimited UK web access
• Top up more than £30 a month will get unlimited UK texts and unlimited UK web access

Keep up to date with O2 News

Subscribe to the Ken’s Tech Tips: O2 News Feed for details of special offers, tariffs and money saving tips for O2 customers.

Related posts:

1. O2’s “Text and Web” PAYG tariff gives free, unlimited internet & texts
2. T-Mobile launch PAYG ‘Monthly Text and Internet Reward’ with free texts, internet on PAYG
3. Free texts on your Pay As You Go mobile

Giffgaff is a new mobile network which has been receiving quite a lot of hype in the mobile industry recently. They claim to be a “people-powered mobile service” and are aiming to launch before Christmas. Giffgaff runs off the O2 network and is owned by O2, although it doesn’t use the O2 brand.

How is Giffgaff different?

O2 have said that Giffgaff will be a user-generated brand with user-generated marketing. Customers will design the brand and do the marketing for the brand. The name Giffgaff was chosen to mean just that.

photo: fmc.nikon.d40

According to the Giffgaff website:

‘giffgaff’ is an old word from the olde worlde (well, olde Scotlande) that means ‘mutual giving’.

What do we know so far?

• Giffgaff will not spend any money on TV advertising and call centres. Marketing and support will be done by the users themselves. The reward scheme will give people back “up to 100%” of their topups.
• Giffgaff will not provide mobiles themselves: only SIM cards. So you’ll need an unlocked handset.
• Pricing is being discussed at the moment but we know that data will be free to start with (Giffgaff don’t have the billing systems in place for it!)

Will it work?

photo: TheeErin

Personally I’m skeptical. I think there are already some very cheap PAYG services around. Take ASDA Mobile – 8p/minute, 4p/text, 20p/MB. Pretty hard to beat. Or 3’s 3Pay which offers free texts, internet, Skype and voicemail. These PAYG services will be pretty hard to beat on price and they’re available to consumers today – you top up your phone at the start of the month and don’t need to worry about having to help out answering questions on support forums, etc. After a long shift at work, the last thing you want to do is to log on to an online support forum and start answering queries! I personally also appreciate having access to a customer service hotline – I usually always check forums first but there are some things that only customer services can help with.

Three also have a Free Agent scheme where they pay £5 if you refer a friend to join Three PAYG (e.g. see my Free Agent page). Presumably Giffgaff will end up doing something similar but they don’t have the established brand like Three.

So I’m personally skeptical that Giffgaff will take off. But with the support of O2 behind it and with many details still to be announced, it’s something we’ll be keeping a close eye on.

Related posts:

1. Orange to offer advertising funded mobile service
2. Free texts on your Pay As You Go mobile
3. Blyk – Free Mobile Network for Young People

If you make a lot of international calls or are planning to this Christmas, it might be worth getting a specialist international calling SIM such as that from LycaMobile. On a standard mobile tariff from the large networks, you could be paying up to £1.50/minute to call abroad. International calls cost from 4p/minute (depends on the country and if you’re calling a landline or mobile!) on LycaMobile.

How much does it cost?

• Calls to the US & Canada are 4p/min; calls to Europe are 2p/min. See full rates.
• International Texts are 10p
• Domestic LycaMobile to LycaMobile Calls & Texts are free
• Domestic UK calls are 5p/min to UK landlines and 10p/min to UK mobiles
• Domestic UK texts are 9p

Can I use LycaMobile alongside my existing network?

photo: Paulo Brandão

Of course, if you’ve got an unlocked phone. You might prefer to keep your existing network/tariff/contract but you just don’t want to pay a fortune for calls abroad this Christmas. Simply exchange your standard SIM card for your LycaMobile SIM card before you make an international call. Once you’ve finished, change back to the normal SIM card.

How do I switch for good?

1. Check if your existing mobile phone is locked to a network. If it isn’t, you’re ready to proceed to step 2. Otherwise you will need to either unlock your phone or buy a new phone which is unlocked.
2. Order a SIM card online from LycaMobile.
3. When the SIM card arrives, follow the instructions provided.
4. If you want to keep your phone number, you’ll need to call your old network and ask for a PAC code. You’ll then need to provide this to LycaMobile.

Related posts:

1. Mobile Phone Bills
2. EU to cut cost of roaming mobile phone texts & data
3. 10 Things To Know Before Using Your Phone Abroad This Summer