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Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK

#11

Post by blfr »

gambiting wrote: post #8

In Poland we had free data plans for a couple years now from company called Aero2 - they won the right to use a certain frequency,but only under the guarantee that they would offer free data usage on their network to everyone(for up to 5 years I think?). So I know a lot of people who bought cheap 3G modems and got their simcard with Aero2 just to have free internet at home, there are no usage limitations, except for…

There used to be no usage limitations except the 512Kb/s speed limit mandated by the regulator but later they introduced session length limits (60 minutes) and started requiring captchas on every connect. It's not very convenient or useful any more.

Re: Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK

#12

Post by maguirre »

Freedom Pop, ugh my experience with them has been one of bait and switch. I bought a hotspot from them and I ended up canceling a couple of months after that due to unauthorized charges and suspicious account upgrades. To add insult to injury you have to call them to cancel your account something that took me hours to finalize. The one bright spot is that their customer service do not contest at requests to drop fees/charges it must be a common request from customers

Re: Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK

#14

Post by StavrosK »

phelm wrote: post #13

This will be perfect for IOT devices

Oh wow, I didn't think of that when I saw this, but you're right. With this, I could place devices everywhere, in my car, my summer house, my garden, wherever, and they could all communicate with a central server.

I should probably work faster on that secure messaging protocol for embedded devices I wanted to design.

Re: Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK

#16

Post by jbrooksuk »

arethuza wrote: post #4

After my teenage son manage to run up £389 pounds of calls in one month on a package with "Free" calls I've been a bit wary of "Free" anything... :-) Mind you was all my fault - when he got his phone he didn't make calls, ever, so I didn't pay attention in the shop when they explained what "free" meant. However, teenage behaviour changes drastically at various points and suddenly vast amounts of calls were being made…

Usually they refund this kind of bill.

Re: Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK

#17

Post by keithpeter »

jonathonf wrote: post #5

There have been plenty of these sorts of MVNOs in the past. For example, Ovivo tried to stay afloat by offering subscription plans above its free tiers. Still went bust. When something is free there will always be huge uptake of it (see also: NHS). Some people will even get around the limits by having a collection of SIMs rather than pay for using the service (just like people will wait to go to the local GP to get a…

I share your skepticism about FreePop, and shall hang onto my GiffGaff sim with the £5 a month 'goodybag'. I'm your typical very low average monthly revenue customer.

On the NHS, I think we will need to disagree. Most people pay a prescription charge[1], to the extent that my own GP gives me a private prescription for the very low cost BP painkillers I use when my lower vertebrae are playing up as it is cheaper than paying the prescription charge.

The NHS is free at the point of need - I think most people in the UK know that it is paid for from general taxation, and very few people actively want to change that.

[1] http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/Prescriptionc...

Now: would there be any market for data on location/activity from the large number of SIMs registered with such a company?

Re: Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK

#18

Post by keithpeter »

blfr wrote: post #11
gambiting wrote: post #8

In Poland we had free data plans for a couple years now from company called Aero2 - they won the right to use a certain frequency,but only under the guarantee that they would offer free data usage on their network to everyone(for up to 5 years I think?). So I know a lot of people who bought cheap 3G modems and got their simcard with Aero2 just to have free internet at home, there are no usage limitations, except for…

There used to be no usage limitations except the 512Kb/s speed limit mandated by the regulator but later they introduced session length limits (60 minutes) and started requiring captchas on every connect. It's not very convenient or useful any more.

Just in case any entrepreneurs are reading this, I could live with that.

Such a package would also help my students a lot as well. We can probably find refurbished laptops from local recyclers the issue has always been the cost and faff factor of an Internet connection. A 3G mobile Internet pay as you go dongle is affordable now and again (£2 per 24 hour period, £4 for 3 days &c with low download caps for streaming content) but not all the time.

UK: I currently use a stunningly unreliable broadband connection which is around 6km from the local exchange, itself getting on in years but not scheduled for replacement. I have to pay a line rental and then a monthly fee for a broadband package on-top of that. About 2 miles from here they have fibre-to-cabinet and download speeds that max out the wifi card in my old Thinkpad (around 3Mbytes/sec).

A reliable half megabit even would be fine for remote desktop and email and wasting time on forums. I do big downloads from local cafe anyway because of the frustration factor.

Re: Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK

#20

Post by bucketsofdirt »

StavrosK wrote: post #14
phelm wrote: post #13

This will be perfect for IOT devices

Oh wow, I didn't think of that when I saw this, but you're right. With this, I could place devices everywhere, in my car, my summer house, my garden, wherever, and they could all communicate with a central server. I should probably work faster on that secure messaging protocol for embedded devices I wanted to design.

Something like shh?
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