I call my current provider to ask them, honestly, why I should stay with them. I need a new phone because my old phone, initially wonderful but now old, patchy and unreliable (Treo 600), needs prelacing. I’m opting for a Nokia 6822 because my main function of a phone is SMS messaging on the move, and occasionally calls. Talking is just so expensive, I don’t normally do it, but I’ll arrange a meetup and then everyone can gabber on as much as they like. The 6822 is a flip out phone that has a full size keyboard. In fact, its big sister, the 6820, was one of the phones that I looked at last year before settling for the Treo because of its larger screen. What good that did me, I don’t know.

Anyway, I called my provider, Orange, to ask them why it is that I should stay with them. If I want to switch phones today, to upgrade to a new phone, it would cost me £228. On another network, O2, I would have almost double the minutes and exactly double the text messages per month, but would pay less each month. The catch is that with O2, I wouldn’t have any upgrade fee, an £88 pound addition that Orange want to slap on me, and I wouldn’t have to pay for the phone.

In summary, Orange want me to spend £228 to get a replacement phone, whilst O2 want to give it to me for free and then charge me less for a better contract. And I’ll still have the same number.

Orange isn’t going to be with me for long I fear.

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