On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:09:44 +0000 (UTC), Michael Chare
wrote:

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).

I just want to be contactable locally for when I am out shopping or on
the internet (no broadband here, so when I'm connected via dialup, no
one can call) in case the estate agent gets a sudden prospect who
shows interest. I don't even want to make outgoing calls from the
thing, but mainly receive calls. No calls from abroad, no text
messages, no grooming of underage spaniels, just the absolute minimum
than can enable my agent to talk to me briefly and send me back home,
pronto.

MM