Here's an idea that can't possibly work. People used to pay-per-minute for telephone calls. Some numbers were "zero-rated". That is, if you called them you wouldn't be charged. At first it was calls to the emergency services which were free. Businesses and other organisations realised that it was good customer service to provide a free-to-call number. Generally speaking, this means that the called-party pays the phone company for incoming call rather than the caller paying. Thus 0800 numbers…
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I want to buy a big chunk of data and use it until it runs out. I'm not interested in a contract. I don't want a bundle of phone calls, SMS, or ringtones. Just give me DATA that lasts for as long as possible. Here's the best data deals that I could find. Stick them in your 2nd SIM slot, use them as broadband backup, or shove in a dongle and attach to a Raspberry Pi. Operator Cost Data Length £/GB £/Month Link EE £50 120GB 12 Months £0.42 £4.17 Amazon O2 …
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A couple of months into the pandemic, I realised that I was vastly overpaying for my mobile usage. I was paying £10/month for unlimited calls, texts, and 8GB data. That's a pretty reasonable price, but I was sat at home all day on WiFi - so I had no need for data. I don't send SMS any more - all my friends and family are on Signal / WhatsApp / Telegram etc. And, it turns out those services also do free video and voice calls. So why was I paying for stuff I didn't need? So I switched to a …
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In the last few months, I've received dozens of spam calls which appear to come from a similar phone number to mine. If my number is 07700 900 123 I get calls from 07700 900 124 or 07700 900 456 Here's my working theory on why spammers do this. Americans. In the UK, there's a separate "area code" for mobile phones. If a number starts 07 then it is mobile (it's a bit more complicated than that). In the USA, there's no cellular prefix. If you buy a SIM card in Las Vegas, you'll probably get…
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A few months ago, I wrote about how data is so cheap it is being given away. Mobile network Three were offering £10 data SIMs which came with 200MB of zero-cost data. Recently, I've found another free provider of data, with an intriguing price-plan. RWG Mobile are a Welsh MVNO who use EE as their backhaul. As well as the usual high-end plans, they also have this at the lower end. Yup! A free SIM with 50 UK minutes / SMS included. Think about how much calling and texting you do each month. …
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Like most of you, I'm inundated with spam calls. So I have a new solution. When an unknown number calls me, they get routed to this audio file. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. This was created with Amazon Polly which is free for casual use. I was pretty impressed with the voice quality. Although there are limits to how well you can control the speed and intonation. While there are a number of accents available, there are only a small number of distinct voices in British English. T…
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Like many of you, I'm inundated with spam calls. I've suffered endless car accidents, my National Insurance Number has been suspended multiple times, and my broadband will be cut off imminently. Wouldn't be nice to screen out all the fraudsters? So I've set up a Bananaphone. When people ring me, they get 30 seconds of my favourite song. Then the call is passed to me. The theory being that my friends get to enjoy a short ditty but con artists are likely to hang up before the call connects to…
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Here's a little telephony mystery for you - can you find out how much your phone provider charges for 056 calls? (Skip the background and jump to the survey) Background Way back in the mists of time - 2004 - Ofcom decreed that "Voice over Broadband" was going to be the next big thing. VoB (which is like VoIP, but specifically tied to a broadband line) would receive the prefix 056. In that document, they suggested a price cap of 5 pence per minute - considerably lower than other services -…
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I have only been on the periphery of this project - back from when I worked at a Mobile Operator - so it's incredibly exciting for me to see this come to life. This morning, my phone picked up an Emergency Alert test from the Cell Broadcast system. I had to specifically opt-in to receive test messages. Each phone is different, but on Android I unlocked developer options and found the alerts settings within notifications. Your phone will almost certainly have the option somewhere else. …
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A decade ago, Stephen Elop made the announcement that Nokia was adopting Windows Phone 7 as its platform of choice. Being the mobile nerd that I was, I live Tweeted the press conference. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentRight, where can I watch thus #Nokia press conference? Is there a mobile friendly live stream?❤️ 0💬 0♻️ 007:31 - Fri 11 February 2011 Let's take a look back to see what Elop and I got right or wrong. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentSo, looks like Microsoft kills another Linu…
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When I first started in the mobile industry, 3G had just launched. It was slow and expensive. Nowadays it is fast and free. UK Network Three are giving away free SIMs which comes with 200MB per month of free data. Visit three.co.uk/datareward to register. My SIM was delivered a few days later. Update - the SIM is now £10 but comes pre-loaded with 1GB for the first month. Then 200MB free for every subsequent month. The first byte is always free Obviously nothing in life is free. Three want …
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Another weird economic casualty of COVID19. I'm not wearing out my socks and shoes. I cancelled my train season ticket. And now, I'm giving up my mobile contract. For a decade, I worked in the mobile industry - and always had an unlimited SIM card. Rejoining the real world, some years ago, was a bit of a shock to the system. You mean people have to pay for phone calls?!? The pandemic has everyone reassessing their finances, right? Do I need that beer-of-the-month subscription? Should I move …
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