Vodafone

Vodafone Pay as You Go was the first mobile service I ever used. I now use several networks, since my phone is not locked.

Vodafone Pay as You Go has two tariffs: Smartstep and Allcalls. If you're on one, it costs £5 to change to the other. However, you can change free of charge within 7 days of purchasing your phone, so it doesn't matter what your phone is initially set to.

THE TARIFFS

Standard calls are calls to land lines or Vodafone mobiles, or calls to the voicemail service.

SMARTSTEP

Standard calls
First 3 minutes each day 25p/min
Additional calls 5p/min

Calls to other networks 40p/min all times

SMS messages 12p all times


ALLCALLS

Peak time is 7:30am to 7:30pm

Weekdays

Standard calls 35p/min peak
10p/min off peak

Weekends

Standard calls 10p/min peak
5p/min off peak

Calls to other networks 50p/min weekdays on peak
30p/min all other times

WAP calls 10p/min all times

SMS messages 12p all times

As you can probably see, the tariffs aren't as cheap as other networks. Virgin beats the Smartstep tariff, whilst also offering free voicemail retrieval, and BT Cellnet is, in my opinion, cheaper than Allcalls. So it may seem like Vodafone is a bad choice on price alone. However, the Vodafone network does has its redeeming features.

The best thing about Vodafone is its free information service 'Scoot'. By calling 333 you get through to someone to whom you can ask cinema times, taxi booking numbers, and many other things its useful to know when you're out and about. These calls are totally free. I find this service very useful, since other networks often charge for a similar service. You can check out Scoot's website at www.scoot.co.uk.

Vodafone also has great network coverage - in fact, I can't remember when I've not been able to get reception, even on train journeys. One 2 One has often left me without a signal, even in city areas. So Vodafone is good if you need reliability.

Topping up is easy - just buy a TopUp card from a shop, phone the creditline and enter the code on the card. Or you can set up an electronic TopUp card. This is a card which contains your phone details. You take it into a shop and pay them, they swipe your card and the amount you payed is added to your calling credit. You can also pay by credit or debit card, but you first need to register your card.

With mobile phones I feel that its not a case of which network is best, but rather which one suits you the best. For reliability Vodafone is great, and Scoot is a massive bonus as far as I'm concerned. If, like me, you don't make many calls, it might just be that Vodafone is the best network for you.