Mobile Phone Wi-Fi

[Half-Dead]

Hello guys. First of all, I am looking for a new mobile phone but dont want to go on contract or pay more than £200. This is where it gets tricky, i want GPS & Wi-Fi as well as a reasonably good camera.

I walked into the o2 shop and asked if they had any phones on pay as you go with these features. He said oh... no, if you want wi-fi you have to go on contact. I thought a bit... oh well . I appreciated it because of the rip off prices of mobile phones at the moment with this type of features.

Then i asked him if in the future he knows if any of these will be on pay as you go... he said no because if you want your wi-fi to work you have to get a special sim (contract). I said why, i mean if it was one of these BT cloud networks where you have to pay then i get yer but what abouts when i connect to my own wi-fi router running in my house. He said ohh.... no... on a normal pay as you go sim your wi-fi will not work... Period! I said why and he said.... well.... o2 needs money too you know. you dont think you can get internet on your phone free do you? (even if its your own router/connection)

I looked at the guy a little strange as if to say... thats shit! you dont know what the heck you are on about! haha. But... thinking about it now, i have realised that 02 may have one of their own stupid locks to disable your wi-fi transciever if you are not on contract. Is this true? if i get a sim free or 02 pay as you go phone will i still be able to use my Wi-fi feature on my phone free of charge, even if its in a pub that offers internet access 100% free from their connection without having the damn thing unlocked??? (as it may be a problem at the moment because these phones are quite new... like the C905 or experia etc).

Cheers for your feedback guys, i know this may sound like a really noob question. If it is true, 02 are shits & if it isnt true then that guy dont know what hes talking about and shouldnt be a salesman!

[localzuk]

I'd recommend one of these: HTC Touch Diamond Unlocked SIM FREE 4GB Smartphone Pay As You Go PAYG Mobile Phone RRP £389.95 - Our Price REDUCED TO Just £269.95

Just turn off the HTC software on it.

And to comment on the other question, about whether they turn off wifi for payg customers... this sounds very much like nonsense being spouted by a sales rep who is a) trying to make a sale, and b) they don't have a clue.

[jamesb]

Cheap pay as you go mobile, maybe £20. Cheap GPS unit, £40. Nintendo DS plus internet browser cartridge (not DS lite) which can connect to Wi-Fi, £100. Total about £160.

[powdarrmonkey]

Cheap pay as you go mobile, maybe £20. Cheap GPS unit, £40. Nintendo DS plus internet browser cartridge (not DS lite) which can connect to Wi-Fi, £100. Total about £160.

...being able to facebook from the beach: priceless.

[somabc]

it isnt true then that guy dont know what hes talking about and shouldnt be a salesman!

You have not met many mobile phone salesmen have you, i think its a prerequisite to not know any technical details

Get an unlocked iphone, you know you want one!

[jamesb]

...being able to facebook from the beach: priceless.

But then he'd be relying on mobile internet. Besides, there's better things to do on the beach.

Sheltering from the rain in the nearest pub being a prime one.

[Ric_]

/me bought HTC Touch Pro off flea-bay for £250 delivered... plus it came with a PAYT SIM (which I don't use)!

[pscott]

Sony Erricsson C905

Use one here and can't fault it! Excellent camera as well

[plexer]

If a phone has wifi it should work wether it's on a contract or pay and go it's not down to the sim therefore yes you could have one and use it to connect to your wifi internet at home.

What about something like the INQ1 on three £89 on pay and go, don't think it's got gps though.

Ben

[Half-Dead]

If a phone has wifi it should work wether it's on a contract or pay and go it's not down to the sim therefore yes you could have one and use it to connect to your wifi internet at home.

What about something like the INQ1 on three £89 on pay and go, don't think it's got gps though.

Ben

Yeah, thats what one would think. I still think he is babbling on but doesnt know what hes on about. Although it wouldnt at all suprise me if 02 was to deliberatly disable wi-fi on their firmware to prevent internet access through your own or any free services so you have to connect to this cloud thing.

[broc]

If a phone has wifi it should work wether it's on a contract or pay and go it's not down to the sim therefore yes you could have one and use it to connect to your wifi internet at home.

What about something like the INQ1 on three £89 on pay and go, don't think it's got gps though.

Ben

A lot of 'smartphones' will happily talk 'bluetooth' to an external GPS receiver, you can pick these up for <£50.

[EduTech]

The Blackberry Perl 8120 is only 150.00, that has wifi etc

James.

[browolf]

mobile providers tend to disable wifi on phones when they offer them as their own, to guarantee wifi with windows mobile you need a 3rd party mobile, thats HTC, I-mate or the new Benq E72 phone (all are sold off the shelf unlocked)

I've got an I-mate sp5, i got off ebay a few years ago for £60 which has wifi.

[plexer]

Or the HP ipaqs, my 514 may be for sale now I've got my new nokia 5800.

Ben

[wesleyw]

I think he was getting confused with 3G which does need an updated SIM I believe my Wife recently got a new Blackberry (she's got a better phone than me at present ) the 3G wouldn't work with her old sim card.


Wes