SMS Text News: powered by Vodafone
Last Friday I made the ultimate switch over.
Oh yes indeedo.
After quite a long on-off love affair, I have committed to Vodafone.
I decided that, whilst I am a huge fan of data services, and in particular, 3UK’s X-Series Gold/Silver offerings, I prized call quality and the Vodafone spectrum above all else.
The sham that was the X-Series blog really struck home to me. Yes 3UK were always just a mobile operator — but the blog there gave me the impression — the absolutely false impression — that the people there ‘lived it’ — that a small dedicated ‘X-Series’ team really believed in open data, smart applications and so on. Then, come January, they just switched the blog off, catapulting them from my ‘shit hot’ to ‘how not to do it’ slide on my How To Do Blog Relations presentation I regularly give. So I was freed from the dilemma of switching to 3UK full time.
The only other decision in my head was whether or not to consider the other networks. I gave serious consideration to o2. I didn’t bother thinking about Orange.
T-Mobile… meh… well, I think it’s only fair that I finally dump them after the amount of ridiculous, ridiculous reporting that I’ve done on the site here over the years.
Data is good and it’s really nice to have unlimited data — but the nail in the coffin for T-Mobile came when I phoned up to ask how I could get a proper unrestricted all-ports-free data service (I wondered if Web’N’Walk Max would let me use IM, properly), and the helpful yet entirely, entirely unknowledgeable customer support lady mangled the issue. She didn’t understand what I meant by unrestricted. Not her fault at all. Network policy. Next.
My decision was ultimately made when, sitting in front of the very helpful Saj, in the Vodafone Oxford Street store, I discovered that my credit check with Vodafone had been approved. After three or four years of wrangling, the system has finally forgotten the issue we shared. I paid up fully after running up a 1,200 data bill … my attempt to object to it caused goodness knows how many problems with Vodafone’s credit people — so much so I was persona-non-grata for years. All fixed now.
Instead of getting a 30-day rolling contract, as I originally intended, I made an executive decision with Saj and hopped on to an 18 month contract. Unlimited landline calls. A paltry 120mb of data per month. 250 text messages. We. Shall. See.
This wasn’t a half baked switch. Oh no. I even took out a 15 quid a month USB broadband modem (3gb allowance). Done.
Here’s Saj sorting out approval for my new modem:
I am lock, stock and barrel Vodafone. And I love it. You can actually PHONE me and you will, provided I’m around, be able to speak to me without crackling, hissing or my calls inexplicably dropping.
I didn’t bother taking my existing number. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see just how well Plaxo works. If you’ve got me in Plaxo, you’ll already have my new number (Add me to your plaxo by searching for ewan@smstextnews.com, I’ll approve you).
If you don’t have my new number, here it is: 07769 658 104
Or, if you’re international, you want: +44 7769 658 104
And what handset did I get?
