It's quite surprising in our society of modern high speed mobile phone protocols that a simple task such as using your mobile phone as a web browser, or perhaps more practically using your phone as a modem for your laptop is so expensive in the UK?

With protocols like 3G's HSDPA offering huge broadband like data rates sometimes even up to 14.4Mbit/s it seems only natural that it should be integrated into laptops or at the very least offered on mobile phone contracts for a less than back breaking price.

So what are the providers offering and is the dream of always on Internet access for our laptops realisable?

Are all providers the same?

As it was coming up to a time where I really should be looking into getting a new phone contract I took a look around to see what deals were available. What I found was actually quite shocking, not only did the extra costs for having data vary between providers but they varied by a HUGE amount...

T-Mobile options
1) 0.73p per KB price capped at £1 per day with a fair use limit of 40MB
2) £7.50 per month with a fair use limit of 1GB (phone use only)
3) £12.50 per month with a fair use limit of 3GB (phone and phone as modem use)

Vodafone options
1) 25p per page price capped at £1 per day for up to 15MB then £2 per extra MB
2) £7.50 per month for up to 120MB then above rules

Orange options
1) £1.50 per day for unknown limit (searched high and low, no idea)
2) £8 per month for up to 40MB then above rules

O2
1MB per month free
1) £3 per month for first 2MB then £3 per extra MB
2) £5 per month for first 4MB then £3 per extra MB

Three
1) £2.50 per month for 10MB then £2 per extra MB
2) £45 per month for 512MB then £1 per extra 1MB

The obvious choice...

Looking at the information above (which after trawling through the various providers websites trying to find answers is to the best of my knowledge correct at the time of writing) really shows quite clearly that there aren't many sensible options out there if you want to use your phone for data.

T-Mobile is obviously the best offering a very reasonable 1GB of data for £7.50 a month but this is somewhat tainted by the fact the fee is upped to £12.50 a month if you wish to use it on your laptop as well. However its still very reasonable and makes them by far the best deal. Also lets face it the comparatively generous 3Gb allowance with this contract makes them the only real option if you want to do more than look at a couple of websites for fun.

Vodafone's £7.50 a month for 120MB comes at a poor second place. With only a fraction of the data it can only really be considered at all you wish to do is check the ebuyer price when you are standing in PCWorld looking to buy a wireless mouse.

I'm still unsure about Orange as even after many hours of trawling I still cant find any information of how much data use you would actually get for your £1.50 a day. Either way paying by day is not something I personally find appealing and their £8 for 40MB is next to useless.

As for the rest its almost comical. In days when the average web page is getting closer and closer to a MB how can O2 and Three even show their faces in public with such proposterous charges as £3 a MB? Calculating it back if I download 2GB in a month on T-Mobile it costs me £12.50, with O2 it would cost £5997. Not really a comparison there!

T-Mobile Web 'n' Walk

So after making a decision to use T-Mobile what does the typical contract look like?

Well obviously everyones requirements are different but for me personally I like a 12 month contract. These are quite noticeably more expensive than the 18 and 24 month contracts but with my hard use and abuse of phones reducing their life expectancy and with the next gizmo phone around the corner who can wait that extra 6 months!

The contract that caught my eye the most was the Flext 35. With that amount of free minutes and texts as well as free weekend and evening calls it would almost be impossible to me to actually get a bill, so its like a reassurance in a way that all my calls will be free. Heres a summary of Flext in combination with Web 'n' Walk to show how it works.

Flext 35
£35 per month 12 month contract
Free weekend and evening UK calls to landlines and mobiles
Additional 450 minutes/900 texts free
Unlimited Internet access charged at £1 every day used
(Subject to 40MB per day fair usage policy)

Flext 35 & Web'n'Walk
£42.50 per month 12 month contract
Free weekend and evening UK calls to landlines and mobiles
Additional 600 minutes/1200 texts free
Unlimited phone Internet access
(Subject to 1GB per month fair usage policy)

Flext 35 & Web'n'Walk plus phone as a modem
£47.50 per month 12 month contract
Free weekend and evening UK calls to landlines and mobiles
Additional 600 minutes/1200 texts free
Unlimited Internet access
(Subject to 3GB per month fair usage policy)

By the way I'd like to mention at this point I have no affiliation with T-Mobile, its just that their data contracts in my eyes seem the best value at the moment.

Conclusion

With all the other contracts offering such ridiculous data fees T-Mobile is not so much the best choice as the only option. However since their accompanying phone contracts are also very good it seems like a good choice to make.

However life is rarely simple and even after finding the perfect contract you still have to compromise. Chances are T-Mobile wont have the phone you want and the only person that does will be someone with an inappropriate contract, but hey thats another story...

Posted by Daniel: 19:50, Sun 19th Aug 2007