The phone I am currently looking at purchasing with my contract is the LG “Viewty”. It has a very good camera on it (far better than my compact) and I am always wanting to take pictures when I don’t have my compact camera with me, and have to suffer the 1MP of my current phone. It also has music support, video support and a decent browser which works similar to the version of Safari that the iPhone has. The only thing lacking is a direct way of uploading to Flickr like the Nokia N series does but this is no hardship as I can just use the mobile version of the Flickr site.

Next I need to decide on a network and price plan. I would say I am a medium user but that unlimited (or what they might call unlimited) data would be useful.

Orange don’t offer the phone on any package under £40 (that I can see), and only provide a option for 30meg unmetered data access with a AUP, besides the reason I am changing is that their service has become poor.

Next is T-Mobile which seem more reasonable on prices. To get the phone free I would have to sign up to their £30 package which includes £180 worth of calls and texts in a month. Plenty as I doubt, I would make that many calls and texts in a month. To add free data I would have to pay £7.50 extra in a month which gives me a 1gig limit with a AUP. This makes it a package in contention.

Next is O2 who recently won the contract to provide the Apple iPhone to the UK market. First look at their tarrif listings shows a higher price bracket than I would have liked, the basic package to get the phone free is £35 which gives 1000 texts / 600 mins inclusive. I then need to add a package onto that for £7.50 that adds 200mb of data. This makes £42.50 a month which is too much for me.

Last is Three of which I have heard mixed reviews of. Their prices seem far more realistic if lacking in inclusive text and and voice. The basic package is £18 for 50 inclusive texts or minutes but I am forced to add £9 a month onto this for phone and 90 minutes video call (which I would never use) making it £27, adding in an extra £5 for 1gig data. Making it £32.00 another in the running.

The package from Three interests me and not just because it is the cheapest. I know of no-one who are on the Three network and have only seen mixed reviews of them on the net. Over to you (my limited readership), have you used three ? how have you found them ? reliable ? fast ? Any info would be appreciated.