The third mobile operator I experienced in the UK was Genie Mobile. Soon after signing up at genie.co.uk, it was announced that a merger would take place and all Genie and BT Cellnet operations would be taken over by O2. Almost a year on, the network selection reads “BT Genie” on the front of my Nokia. Well, until today.

Due to the combination nature of O2, there are online and offline tariffs available. Is this beneficial? It’s good and bad, really. The convenience of being able to view your bill at any time is nice. Conversely, the only way to contact them without paying is by sending email, which can take DAYS to get back to you.

Unlike Orange, O2 has a wide range of handsets available, and most are available for a low or free price upon connection to the network and the signing of a 12-month contract. Even better, once you have finished with your contract, the phones will generally accept any SIM cards so you can enjoy the continued use for your handset, especially if it is on a long-term insurance plan.

It is possible to order the phones online, although there is a number provided to call in order to buy the contract if you prefer to speak and not send your payment details electronically. Now unfortunately for me, this meant that when giving my email address, they misspelled it and I never got any confirmation email. When they finally added it to their system (about four months later) this email address was out of commission and I still received not contact.

Another problem I had was that I had to change my username when Genie became part of O2. Was there any reason? Probably not. Would it let me choose the same one? No, someone else had it. Except, someone else was me. Very confusing. Anyway, with an extra letter on the end of my username, I was able to check my monthly statement and also a statement in progress for the current part-month, whenever I felt the need.

With 600 inclusive “free” texts each month, one problem for me was not being able to discriminate which texts I sent to which number. For example, all messages just appeared with the message centre number and not the number of the recipient.

My 50 minutes of inclusive calls each evening to O2 and BT landline numbers seemed to be rather ambiguous, and sometimes I was charged and sometimes not, without any kind of explanation.

The final component of my tariff was free unlimited WAP (wireless application protocol) all the time. I found this really useful, things such as Yahoo Mail can be checked as frequently as wished for from anywhere within range of the transmitters.

When the phone dialled up to the WAP number, there were often connection difficulties. Either “network busy” or “check service settings” were present or about 75% of times I tried to connect and it would often be ten minutes before I could get through to the service. The built-in email account on the WAP homepage was difficult to use due to the cookies not working, i.e. after being set to remember my password I would be continually prompted to enter my word. Not satisfactory.

On the up side, I was only paying £20-a-month base rate plus peak rate calls and messages over my 600-a-month allowance. Difficult it may be to understand, but one month I set a personal record of some 880 messages, costing an extra 280x10p = £28 on top of my bill. Sometimes it can help to keep track of frequency of use. Most of my phone bills, which came on the same day of every month, were around the £23 mark, although this was not my primary communication tool.

The network coverage was mostly satisfactory, as one would expect in this age of mobile telecommunications, but all too often the phone would lose the signal for no apparent reason. The reception was mostly okay, but sometimes a little unclear. In the end I set the network selection to automatic, but beware of this draining the battery, as the phone continually searches for the signal.

Now usually when my 12-month contract period expires, I am harassed to upgrade or pay more money to my existing contract. Not with O2. They don’t seem the least bit interested. The first time I was offered an upgrade was when I called the national-rate number for disconnections. Don’t think I went there for an upgrade, really. After refusing the upgrade I was told my phone would stop working on March 11. 20 days later, when I turned my phone on just to check, it was still operating. This means I was still paying, three weeks after it was meant to have terminated and seven weeks after my original request. A heated call to O2 ensured my phone was actually scheduled for disconnection on March 11 and he would sort this out for me this afternoon. Well, it was eventually sorted out and now my SIM can be destroyed, whilst I make use of the phone any way I want to. At least something good has come out of it.

When contacting customer service, the number was premium rate and I had to pay 38p a minute just to ask what the status of my phone was. The people did not really seem to be on the ball or very willing to help. The waiting times were quite good, but having to make calls before 6pm meant peak rate costs, which didn’t impress me or make it convenient either.

Pay as you go, personal contract and business plans are all available with this company, details can be found in mobile communications outlets and at o2.co.uk, they seem to be updated regularly. A catch with the pay as you go requires a minimum amount of new credit on the phone every month in order to benefit from all available services.

I used the voicemail only a couple of times in 13 months, however it was unclear as to whether this would count in my inclusive minutes. I’m still not sure. The so-called 901 service is easy to use and possibly one of the better features of the network.

In conclusion I am disappointed with the lack of concern for customers that this network has demonstrated. My perception of apathy amongst the customer service representatives has persuaded me to choose against O2 for my most recent phone. Unless they can demonstrate to me that they are better than they have behaved over this past year, I won’t be purchasing from them again.

Not recommended, despite the prices being fairly impressive.