localzuk Posted March 25, 2013 Posted March 25, 2013 I've been asked to look into getting a contract or contracts to cover 2 mobile phones at work. The phones are used by our outreach team and will use a couple of hundred minutes and a couple of hundred texts a month. Not such an issue, but we want to get it as cheap as possible (obviously). Now, it can't be anything on the Three network - coverage is appalling here. Anyone got any thoughts? I see T-Mobile are doing a 25% off offer on SIM only contracts at the moment, so 2 of their cheapest would come in at £15.56 a month. Or Tesco Mobile do a suitable one at £7.50 each per month. Anyone know of any cheaper?
plexer Posted March 25, 2013 Posted March 25, 2013 Using Tesco mobile for business use breaks their T&C's Ben
elsiegee40 Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 Using Tesco mobile for ANYTHING bugs me to hell I'm with Tesco mobile and have no problems with it EXCEPT that I they won't allow tethering to my iPhone which is a pain.
hawc Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 I'm with Tesco mobile and have no problems with it EXCEPT that I they won't allow tethering to my iPhone which is a pain. How can they tell if you are tethering? I could see if they saw higher data usage. If it is within your data allowance then (if they contact you) tell them to mind their own business..... :-) :-)
elsiegee40 Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 How can they tell if you are tethering? I could see if they saw higher data usage. If it is within your data allowance then (if they contact you) tell them to mind their own business..... :-) :-) The option to do it is blocked on the phone.
Soulfish Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 Have a look at Buying Solutions (or if you're an academy Crescent Purchasing Consortium) government contracts. We have our phones (3 of them for facilities) through that. Costs around £1-2/mo and we get £50 credit towards a phone (2 year contract). Phone calls are then billed to the school, although since we're with Orange, Orange - Orange calls are free. There are other options if you're going to be doing lots of calling or data (ours all use Blackberrys to make use of UMA due to the shocking phone signal in this building so have blackberry data plans for not much more). When we were looking was the cheapest way to do things by far.
localzuk Posted March 26, 2013 Author Posted March 26, 2013 Struggling to find any mobile related frameworks on either the CPC or Government Procurement Service sites. Any hints as to where I should be looking?
FN-GM Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 I'm with Tesco mobile and have no problems with it EXCEPT that I they won't allow tethering to my iPhone which is a pain. Exactly the same here
Millgate Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 Hi guys, We do business/school mobile contracts. If you drop me an email/PM, I'll be happy to quote Luke
Guest Guest Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 Ask your staff which networks they are on and how coverage is around the school/area. A few people were talking about this yesterday and we came to the conclusion that O2 are the only choice if you want a reliable signal. The rest are noramlly useless but on top of that EE mast has been down for over a month and Vodafone are doing something to their network as full signal on 3G doesn't always load pages and even when it does it takes 1m+.
Soulfish Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 So the contract you now want is PSN Services Framework from the Government Procurement Service, specifically Lot 6 RN1498 - Find a Supplier | Government Procurement Service
localzuk Posted March 26, 2013 Author Posted March 26, 2013 Well, it appears that Vodafone are 100% useless. Asking them to give pricing under that framework has lead them to pass me from pillar to post. I now have 5 different phone numbers I've been given, none of which can deal with me. One gave me a price under their normal business pricing but mentioning the framework has lead them to put me through to someone else...
Soulfish Posted March 26, 2013 Posted March 26, 2013 Had similar issues with Orange/EE when we were signing up. Got passed from pillar to post, until I got the public sector/local government team contact details! Do they have a Public Sector or Local Government team? You may find their contact details on the GPS website normally - although that requires having a login!
localzuk Posted March 26, 2013 Author Posted March 26, 2013 Had similar issues with Orange/EE when we were signing up. Got passed from pillar to post, until I got the public sector/local government team contact details! Do they have a Public Sector or Local Government team? You may find their contact details on the GPS website normally - although that requires having a login! They do... But they refuse to deal with someone who wants a mere 2 connections. That's personal contracts dontcha know, where they don't know about such things. The fact its under a public sector framework agreement with hundreds of thousands of connections seems to mean nothing. I've found some email addresses now, and am using them instead.
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