I phone 4

mother_hen_2

I wish to buy one of these without a contract (as they wouldn't give me one due to debt), if I was to buy 'one off the shelf' ie from Apple and buy the mini sim card thats needed would I still get the full service ie. access to emails, internet browsing etc..?

thankyou

Exhortation

Yes. Just make sure that any deal you get includes a data bundle. Since the mini-sim is only required for the iPhone 4 at the moment, however, this shouldn't even be an issue.

mother_hen_2

Hya
I just phoned Orange and was quoted two different amounts that I have to top up each month with first call said £5 a month (to get access to the internet) second caller said £10 and that would give me 250mb (think mb is what he said)... then I phoned a 3rd time and was given a different answer.. what a mighmare...

Help.. what should I be asking for - I thought it was easier just pay for what u wanted when u wanted but seems not so..

Exhortation

It really depends on what you're looking for. How many minutes and texts do you want? I was just reading an article a few minutes ago that said that Orange's cheapest sim-only iPhone4 deal was Monkey for £10 per month. Sorry, I don't have the link handy but if you Google 'iPhone 4 sim-only comparison deals' and look for a link to the Telegraph online, the article is there. It's dated the 18th of June but it must have been updated as it has Three's details on there and they weren't selling the 4 back then.

Here's the link...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7838843/Apple-iPhone-4-The-ultimate-price-guide-SIM-only-deals.html

mother_hen_2

thankyou
I have looked at that I think I must be so nieve as I was thinking that I could paygo for 'browsing the internet and making calls' (not bothered about the texing bit, however, the restrictions ie 250mb a month worries me as I love to play going between social networking ie facebook/martins website :j and checking emails throughout the day guess I'm anxious that I wouldn't have enough usage but perhaps I'm wrong and I guess I would just have to take the chance and give it a go.
Quick question u mentioned 'date bundle' does that mean 'type of package?
thankyou

Oscar_The_Grouch

"Data Bundle" is referring to some tariffs where you can use some of the money you have just topped up with to buy a "Bundle". This can be unlimited texts for a month, a set number of "free" calls to landline numbers or a "Data Bundle" of usually 500mb of download allowance.

My view is that if you are going to have a phone like the iPhone, you need to have the largest possible data allowance you can. I've just ordered my iPhone 4 from Apple. I'm in the middle of a contract, but have a data allowance included. When I get to the end of my contract, I'm moving to Three (clicky) because they give 1Gb of data (1,000Mb approximately) with their £15 a month tariff. Their PAYG tariff allows you to buy a Data Bundle, but I don't know how much it costs.

boliston

I think that the main things that eat data on an iphone is using it for multimedia such as viewing movies online (eg youtube etc) and downloading lots of music tracks. I do quite a bit of surfing websites but have not noticed massive amounts of data being used, typically about 200mb/month which costs me about a fiver on payg. As I only spend a couple of quid a month on voice calls (mostly about 5p-10p per minute) it's not worth me going on any sort of bundle really. Also remember that 3g data is only used when out of range of wifi so if you surf at home or anywhere that has free wifi then it help keeps data costs down.

mother_hen_2

Wow- thankyou to you all for your helpful guidance - its not easy understaning it at my level!.. the information will prove to be invaluable as I continue to trawl through the options, PAYG is the only option I have, so its important to get all in the info before I buy..

mother_hen_2

Boliston,
Could I ask are you with Orange or did u find a better deal on PAYG?
thankyou

encoded

Tariffs change all the time. It's so time consuming finding the right deal.

boliston

mother_hen wrote: »

Boliston,
Could I ask are you with Orange or did u find a better deal on PAYG?
thankyou

I'm on PAYG through my broadband provider AAISP. They use the "three" 3G network and I simply pay 2.5p+vat per mb which works well for me as I do not use much data and don't want to have to buy any "bundles" or pay any sort of minimum daily rate (eg 50p per day) like some providers charge on PAYG for data.