Feckoff.net

Today I switched my mobile phone contract over from O2 to 3. I’ve been using O2 for about five years but their lack of any upgrade offer or anything else as an incentive for me to renew my contract means they’re out the door

I joined 3 on their cheapest tarriff (€19 - 100 minutes to all networks) and got a lovely Sony Ericsson K800i from them. Surprisingly I actually get 3G coverage at home. I also went for the €5.99 mobile broadband add-on which gives me 100MB worth of internet traffic per month - perfect for frequent email/news access. They offer unlimited traffic for €20 a month on top of your tarriff, though I’m sure they mean unlimited in the ridiculous Irish ISP sense of the word - i.e. unlimited as long as we don’t think you’re using it too much.

Anyways - K800i - awesome phone. I had a K750i on O2 (who are dragging their heels about unlocking it) and that was a good phone, but this is a great step up. Lovely high-res screen and 3 megapixel camera. That’s nice, but as usual with phone cams and their tiny, tiny lenses the image quality is not comparable to a proper 3MP digital camera. The K750i’s charger and accessories are compatible with the K800i also.

3’s network coverage here in Kilkenny seems pretty good, I haven’t seen any non-3G spots yet, although I’d put money on it not being available where I work. Word has it that 3 users get serviced by Vodafone’s network in areas where they have no coverage, which suits me as Vodafone’s network has always had excellent coverage around here.

The only problem I’ve had so far is that the mobile broadband add-on wasn’t working at first, but that was quickly resolved by a call to customer service, where (*shock*) I didn’t have to hold in a queue before getting served.