richard_munro@yahoo.co.uk

Evening all,

Hope someone can help me out with some advice (or ideally
experience...) Here's the situation:

I'm at the end of an O2 contract.
I have a Samsung i620, which I bought SIM-free, so it's unlocked and I
am free to move to whichever network I like.
I don't want to use any other phone.
I'm not too bothered about entering into a contract (18 month if need
be), though if I can avoid it so much the better.

What I'm after is:
About 200-300 minutes per month
About 50 texts per month
A big fat pipe for data, both to use with the phone, and occasionally
with a laptop (connected via Bluetooth).

As I see it, the ideal tariff is the 3 (three) Mix & Match 500 tariff
at £18, plus the Broadband Lite add on at £10, giving me 500 minutes/
texts and 1GB of data. Broadband Lite specifically includes use with
a laptop as a modem, so I think I should be fine on that score.

The only difficulties I foresee is that I don't want to use a Three
phone. Is this going to cause me a problem? Given that the data
package is designed to be used with a laptop, I presume (always
dangerous) that it's just an open internet connection, so I should be
able to use my Windows Mobile apps as well as a laptop. I know Three
used to object to people using non-3 phones (I believe due to people
roaming onto O2), but I will be using a 3G phone so I don't see a
problem for them. Also, they are now encouraging people to bring
their own phone to 3 Pay as you go, so I presume they have relaxed
their stance on this.

Is there any special software, or some sort of certificate, on a 3
phone that is necessary to use Broadband Lite? Are the 3 internet
settings available (I can only find automatic configurators for Nokias
etc on their web site)?

The other possibility might be one of the T-Mobile 'Just SIM'
tariffs. The £20 is fine from a minutes/texts point of view, but can
one add Web 'n Walk to one of those tariffs?

Any comments very welcome.

Thanks all.

Richie