On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 10:17:14 +0000, Mike Mitchell wrote:

I am a mobile phone virgin. I do not have a mobile phone. I hate
mobile phones. But now that I am selling the house and still want to
be reachable, I am resigned to getting one, albeit only for a
temporary period. The minute I am in my new house and it's all done
and dusted and the sparkling wine has been opened, I shall take great
pleasure in removing the mobile phone to a suitable flat surface,
whereupon I will take a number 2 sledgehammer to it.

I digress.

This group, I know, is not the right group to be asking this, but I
had a glimpse at the hardcore talk in uk.telecom.mobile and they just
frightened me away. So I'm asking the good, faithful uk.diy crowd what
is the absolute cheapest phone/package I can buy/rent which (a) allows
me to receive incoming calls from landline phones or mobile phones and
(b) can make call to BT landline phones?

Thanks.

Not so much of a virgin now, eh! But I'm not enjoying it.

MM

I think that the Virgin Tariffs are good value for money for low usage.

They can DD you for usage, but no monthly rental.

I got a Nokia 3410 from Curry's for £50 on T-Mobile. It worked fine with
the Virgin Sim (£10) even without unlocking. T-Mobile coverage is not
fantastic, but generally tolerable.

Virgin also have reasonable international rates for when you go abroad.

I am not trying to argue that this is the only option, so much depends on
how much you want to use the phone, and when (time of day).

Michael Chare