Buyers Guide

Pay monthly contract tariffs incur a monthly line rental. Customers must sign a contract with the mobile provider stating that they agree to pay the monthly line rental for at least the initial contract period. This is normally 12, 18 or 24 months.

As part of the deal, most providers will give you free minutes. If the free minutes are “cross network”, you can call people on other mobile networks for free. If the free minutes are “same network”, you can only call people on the same network for free and you must pay a per minute rate to call people on other networks. In most cases, you can call a landline (01 or 02 UK number) as part of your free minutes. The mobile provider will give you a fixed amount of free minutes that you can use per month. In some cases, you can carry unused minutes over to the next month. Outside of the free minutes, the rate you pay per minute is usually much lower than a pay as you go tariff. You can even get a set amount of free text messages per month with some mobile tariffs.

Pay as you go tariffs are available to customers who do not want to sign up to a monthly contract. With pay as you go you buy credit in advance and then use the credit as you make phone calls and send text messages. You can buy the credit in the form of a top up card from high street stores such as book shops and newsagents or you can buy credit online or by calling a dedicated phone number.

The rates that you pay are usually more expensive than paying a monthly contract tariff. In most cases, you will not get any free minutes.

Pay as you go mobile tariffs are ideal for customers who are low users and who do not want to, or are unable to, sign a fixed term contract. If you are a medium or high mobile user, you are likely to get a better deal by signing up to a pay monthly contract tariff.

You can sign up to a mobile package direct with the mobile network provider. However, you will often get a much better deal by signing up with a mobile retailer.

A mobile retailer is a company that will sell a mobile package direct to you. This will include one of the latest mobile handsets, a tariff from one of the mobile networks and often a discount like free line rental for a period of time.

How can mobile retailers be cheaper than the mobile networks?

Mobile retailers buy mobile phones from manufacturers in bulk. And they are bulk customers of a mobile network, so they are able to obtain huge discounts from both the mobile handset manufacturer and the mobile network. These two factors, combined with the fact that there is intense competition between mobile retailers, ensure that you will get a truly stellar deal from a mobile retailer.

Where do I find a mobile retailer?

Mobile network providers are the companies that own and run the physical mobile infrastructure. There are five network providers in the UK: Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile and 3 (Hutchison 3G). Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile run a GSM network and a 3G network. 3 runs just a 3G network.

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is the most common mobile phone standard in the world. GSM delivers high quality digital voice at a relatively low cost. Because GSM is so common around the world, it makes it particularly easy for roaming.

3G (3rd Generation) mobile is a much newer technology than GSM. 3G supports much greater capacity than GSM and also has broadband capabilities, allowing users to surf the internet at broadband speed from their mobile phone. The most marketed feature of 3G is the ability to make video calls where both users can see a live video picture of each other as part of the telephone conversation.

Mobile phone buyers guide.