I’m a 3G Whiz

So after my little spat over the price of Internet, I started to do some research.

Consider the following:

  1. I’m paying $20/month for line rental I don’t use, entirely to have ADSL connected.
  2. I’m paying some extraordinarily dumb amount for an actual Internet connection. (I don’t even know, exactly. Ticket price is $70/month.)
  3. I’m paying somewhere in the ball park of $20-30 per month for a pre-paid mobile.

That rings up to give or take $110/month. Now consider:

  1. I do nothing of value/import on the Internet to warrant 20 gigabytes of transfer per month.
  2. I need a new phone, and would benefit from a “plan” over my current “pre-paid”.
  3. The Nokia 6120 has a built-in bluetooth/USB modem, well supported in Linux.
  4. Three has reasonably reasonable data plans.

My plan is to find a mobile phone & data provider that will break my reliance on a landline, and hopefully encourage me to stop being such a ‘net junkie. I’m just about to go insane trying to juggle the pros and cons of everything, not to mention every phone provider I’ve visited so far has done a remarkable job of inventing terminology, but I’m sticking it out in the vain hope I can come up with something before my DSL connection is disconnected on the 31st.

I’m kind of keen on Three, since from what I understand I can get my phone on an excruciatingly long contract, while remaining laissez faire on data. That said, I don’t even know the difference between the different “types” of data access they’re offering.

There’s some kind of bastardised extention of MMS, what sounds like a 3G handset specific set of data plans, and some currently half priced stand-alone modem-based options. It’s really very confusing, and I can bet if I walk into a store and start asking questions people are going to start crying.

In the same way I don’t understand why naked DSL is only just starting to take off, I don’t get why it has to be so god-forsakenly difficult for telecom providers to do up a simple table of monthly costs and included features. It’s been a truly harrowing experience finding a compatible handset, and even now I’m still not sure of which plans it’s compatible with. I guess I’ll just have to pop by the shop and straighten some things out.

Seriously, any sane input and experiences are welcome. I’m frazzled.

  1. Posted January 2, 2008

2 Comments

  1. Owen

    January 3, 2008 20:37

  2. Ash

    January 3, 2008 23:49

    Yeah, I’ve already covered those grounds (Though I love the name confusopoly. :-) I’m considering Three entirely because it’s the most reasonable, contract and to a lesser degree price-wise.

    The speed doesn’t bother me at all, since it’s really not all that big an issue. It does make me happy to hear that the network is being upgraded though.

    And to be really honest, there’s really only home, and possibly around the city I’d want the Internet anyway. So coverage for me is absolutely not an issue.

    Thanks for the awesome write-up. :-)