[Wolves] O/T 3G phones - 3 and the Nokia 7600

[Jon Farmer]

MatthewRevell.3247378 at bloglines.com wrote:
> 3 - crap network + ridiculous belief that people want walled-garden content
> - are offering 500 mins plus 100 texts for 15 quid a month (after cashback).
> A few sites are offering this deal with the Nokia 7600 plus a free Bluetooth
> headset.

Yes, this is the common notion about 3 that their network is crap. 
However give them time they are a new player to the UK and remember how 
long it took Vodafone, Cellnet et al to get decent coverage in the UK 
when they started.

> This sounds ideal to me. All I want are minutes are bundled texts
> ... couldn't give a damn about the idiotic notion that is video calling, which
> isn't supported by the 7600 anyway. So, is 3 as terrible as everyone says?
> Is the 7600 a decent phone? Will 3 let me use the 7600's XHTML browser to
> look at sites of my choice, of will they restrict me to their fricking walled-garden?

On UKTM there is a lot of discussion about the Nokia 7600. General 
opinion is its a very capable phone just looks a bit odd. Carphone 
Warehouse are selling them at £49.99 on 3Pay with £15 credit. They seem 
to be selling out within days of each new stock arrival. A lot of people 
are getting the 7600 unlocked and factory reset. This means you can use 
it on any network and more importantly the "hidden" 2g menu options 
appear which mean it doesn't constantly try a look for a 3g signal.

> The mins, texts and headset are almost too good to turn down. But I don't
> wanna get this deal, just for something with decent hardware, on a decent
> network, to come along later.

If you get the phone unlocked as I describe above you can tell the phone 
to only look for 2g networks and thus force it to lock onto O2's network 
  even when 3 has a signal. As you may or may not know 3 has a roaming 
agreement with O2 and your inclusive mins will work on O2.

How long 3 will tolerate people doing this is a matter of opinion but 
its good while it lasts.

HTH

Jon


-- 
Jon Farmer
Systems Programmer
Entanet International Ltd
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