The British press yesterday trumpeted Tesco Mobile for introducing the supposedly the cheapest SIM-only deal in the market, but a little research shows our colleagues are wrong...here's the deal.
Tesco Mobile
Available online and over the phone, the Tesco SIM-only tariff costs £6 a month for unlimited texts and 100 minutes of …
O2 also now offer a pay and go simplicity tariff for 5.00 /month that gives you unlimited UK text - no minutes though but I think it is a good deal for a fiver (and no credit check)
I have just found a deal, which is a cash back deal, 24 month contract, 23 months refunded, 300 minutes, unlimited text, and 500mb of data, go look on the web it can be found, £25/24=£1.04 per month, beat that? oh and a free tocco lite phone
Is that one of those cashback deals where you have to send all the original bills in a green envelope, and then apply online between 23:18 and 23:21 on a wet thursday using the password given to you just once during the registration process by a Bengali whose pronunciation makes you get it wrong?
If you are looking at the £10 per month tariff which boasts "unlimited internet", be forewarned that "unlimited" actually means "500MB inclusive plus £4 per additional MB".
reality: giffgaff have a half price sale till Aug31, what's described above is the £10 goodybag, it's only available for £5 for the next 2.5 weeks, though you can buy 2 months worth.
Now the competition is beginning to kick in giffgaff's edge is rapidly vanishing so maybe they'll be forced to extend the sale or reduce prices more.
The UK market only looks as though there is competition
#
My tariff here in Norway with Tele2 lets me use up to 170kr (about 19GBP at current exchange rates) a month of talk and text without paying anything. OneCall has a plan where you get 120 texts and 90 minutes a month for nothing except the 0.59kr (about 7p) start fee for each call. And so on. So Tesco and the others might look good in the UK but I think they might find it a bit harder to compete here in the original home of the GSM mobile.
Just a note that "unlimited texts" does *not* mean unlimited in the dictionary sense, but "limited by our fair use policy". Yes, Tesco SIM deals are subject to a fair use policy, but good luck finding what that policy actually is!
Best I could find was on http://www.tesco.com/mobilenetwork/content.aspx?page=37 - which reads:
"Fair Use: Tesco Mobile is a consumer service. Profligate use of the Tesco Mobile Network and Services is prohibited."
I think it's horrendous that Tesco use the vague "profligate" wording - we need to know exact figures of "unlimited" w.r.t. text/calls/data, otherwise Tesco could cut you off for one text or call!
So the 6 quid deal says "unlimited texts", but are restricted by "profligate use". How many texts make up one profligate unit then? 100, 1000, 10000 a month? It's clearly a ridiculous policy that Ofcom should tackle - disallow the word "unlimited" if there is a fair use policy and force providers to actually exactly spell out the limits of their fair use policies. Ofcom should hang their head in utter shame in not doing this for Net/mobile contracts.
. . . t-mobile SIM only PAYG, top up £10 per month for unlimited texts, text MONTHWEB or something similar once a month to get unlimited interent for a month, spend remaining £5 on whatever calls you want to make, foreign texts etc etc.
Register
Tesco touts budget textaholic SIM-only deal
The British press yesterday trumpeted Tesco Mobile for introducing the supposedly the cheapest SIM-only deal in the market, but a little research shows our colleagues are wrong...here's the deal. Tesco Mobile Available online and over the phone, the Tesco SIM-only tariff costs £6 a month for unlimited texts and 100 minutes of …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 13:21 GMT
Chris Eaton
Text addictions #
O2 also now offer a pay and go simplicity tariff for 5.00 /month that gives you unlimited UK text - no minutes though but I think it is a good deal for a fiver (and no credit check)
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 13:28 GMT
cmg
Cheaper still #
I have just found a deal, which is a cash back deal, 24 month contract, 23 months refunded, 300 minutes, unlimited text, and 500mb of data, go look on the web it can be found, £25/24=£1.04 per month, beat that? oh and a free tocco lite phone
Posted Saturday 14th August 2010 01:36 GMT
Robert E A Harvey
suspicious #
Is that one of those cashback deals where you have to send all the original bills in a green envelope, and then apply online between 23:18 and 23:21 on a wet thursday using the password given to you just once during the registration process by a Bengali whose pronunciation makes you get it wrong?
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 13:28 GMT
Chris Hills
Unlimited internet #
If you are looking at the £10 per month tariff which boasts "unlimited internet", be forewarned that "unlimited" actually means "500MB inclusive plus £4 per additional MB".
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 13:34 GMT
Anonymous Coward
3 sims don't work with all phones #
As a 3 user (happy) I think I'm right in saying that a 3 sim only works with a 3g handset so that rules out quite a few people.
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 14:09 GMT
DB2k
correct #
yes, but then the tesco deal is probably only for people with a tesco handset, or at most an O2 handset (who tesco use for network).
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 15:48 GMT
Dave Bell
Unlocked Handsets #
The Tesco SIM-only deals will work with unlocked handsets. And there are other supermarkets which sell cheap handsets, without a SIM.
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 15:50 GMT
JAK 1
they work on vodafone branded phones #
as I have a SE C905 vodafone branded phone in front of me with a cheapo tesco sim
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 13:54 GMT
Anonymous Coward
the important thing here is... #
the definition of 'unlimited'
i think the 3 deal is probably better
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 14:09 GMT
I've_got_a_ruddy_gun
GifGaf #
GifGaf have a goodie bag for £5
100 minutes
Unlimited texts
Unlimited Internet
http://giffgaff.com/index/pricing
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 15:50 GMT
Anonymous Coward
for another month #
reality: giffgaff have a half price sale till Aug31, what's described above is the £10 goodybag, it's only available for £5 for the next 2.5 weeks, though you can buy 2 months worth.
Now the competition is beginning to kick in giffgaff's edge is rapidly vanishing so maybe they'll be forced to extend the sale or reduce prices more.
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 15:50 GMT
Mark Jan
Good Luck With Getting Your Cashback #
@cmg Good luck in getting any more than a month or two of your 23 months worth of cash back!
Posted Friday 13th August 2010 15:50 GMT
Nigel R
but thanks for the ad anyway #
erm.. GiffGaff "Unlimited Internet"... until October that is.
Posted Tuesday 17th August 2010 11:02 GMT
kwhitefoot
The UK market only looks as though there is competition #
My tariff here in Norway with Tele2 lets me use up to 170kr (about 19GBP at current exchange rates) a month of talk and text without paying anything. OneCall has a plan where you get 120 texts and 90 minutes a month for nothing except the 0.59kr (about 7p) start fee for each call. And so on. So Tesco and the others might look good in the UK but I think they might find it a bit harder to compete here in the original home of the GSM mobile.
Posted Tuesday 17th August 2010 11:05 GMT
Richard Lloyd
Tesco SIM deals have a fair use policy #
Just a note that "unlimited texts" does *not* mean unlimited in the dictionary sense, but "limited by our fair use policy". Yes, Tesco SIM deals are subject to a fair use policy, but good luck finding what that policy actually is!
Best I could find was on http://www.tesco.com/mobilenetwork/content.aspx?page=37 - which reads:
"Fair Use: Tesco Mobile is a consumer service. Profligate use of the Tesco Mobile Network and Services is prohibited."
I think it's horrendous that Tesco use the vague "profligate" wording - we need to know exact figures of "unlimited" w.r.t. text/calls/data, otherwise Tesco could cut you off for one text or call!
So the 6 quid deal says "unlimited texts", but are restricted by "profligate use". How many texts make up one profligate unit then? 100, 1000, 10000 a month? It's clearly a ridiculous policy that Ofcom should tackle - disallow the word "unlimited" if there is a fair use policy and force providers to actually exactly spell out the limits of their fair use policies. Ofcom should hang their head in utter shame in not doing this for Net/mobile contracts.
Posted Tuesday 17th August 2010 11:13 GMT
EvilGav 1
Or . . . #
. . . t-mobile SIM only PAYG, top up £10 per month for unlimited texts, text MONTHWEB or something similar once a month to get unlimited interent for a month, spend remaining £5 on whatever calls you want to make, foreign texts etc etc.
No contract at all.
This topic is closed for new posts.