3G Phone Hell!
After two years with Vodafone, I switched to Hutchison’s 3 mobile service. It was only after that I was to realise that this was a BIG step backwards. Read on for more details.
Soon after moving to London, I got myself a mobile contract with Vodafone. After a year with no misadventures, I extended the contract by another year, this time switching to a cross-network (X-net), anytime deal. Close to the end of this second contract, I started looking around to see what new options are available in the world of mobile phone contracts.
One morning, on the way to college, I saw an ad in the Metro for ChatterBox - a company that offers cashback if you purchase a contract through them, effectively giving you monthly contract costs averaging anywhere from £15 upwards, for very attractive cross-network, anytime options with many many minutes. Investigating more, found that there were several sites that offer similar deals, and most all of them having solid reputations with customer’s posting confirmation of receiving these cashbacks. Other such providers were Forward Cellular and Dial-a-phone. And so, after many days of searching, Arlene and I both decided to get 3 contracts with an NEC e228 phone with Dial-a-phone (the same phone that Zoran has). And so began my 3 mis-adventure!
Compared with the Siemens SL55 I had before, all the 3 phones are HUGE and like a brick. Battery life, too, is terrible, with it barely lasting 2 days. Another very annoying habit of the NEC phone series seems to be that if the battery is running very low, it will start beeping incessantly, flashing everything on the screen, thus causing the battery to drain even faster, and the only option you have available being to switch off the phone! The phone also does NOT seem to have the ability to be used while it is being charged. The phone discharges faster than it charges. Oh boy.
Another reason for the terrible battery life is the fact that when the handset is locked, and if any key is pressed, the entire screen lights up and stays lit for a minute or two, until it switches the screen off again. So if you carry this phone around in your pocket, and you unknowingly hit any buttons on the phone, you’re draining the battery even more.
The phone also doesn’t have any kind of Infra-red or Bluetooth capabilities, and even if it did, it would be totally useless as Hutchison 3 in UK have completely barred any kind of data-calls via their network! The only data access you have is to their “walled garden” — a very restricted Intranet containing solely 3 content, with no possibility of accessing the Internet itself. And this on a phone which has an XHTML browser with javascript functionality built into it. How stupid can one get?
After much frustration with the phone and its terrible battery life, I decided to get a different 3 handset, and so opted for the NEC e616V. This phone has a clamshell design, which automatically shuts off the screen when the clamshell is closed (and thus helps preserve battery life), and also is not susceptible to stray keystrokes waking up the phone when it is in your pocket, due to its clamshell design. And this brings us to the second part of my story: 3 have MISLABELED e616 phones as e616V phones, by putting an extra sleeve on the phone box. The sleeve incorrectly states the phone to be an e616V. Many dealers seem to even be unaware that there the e616 and e616V are two different phones, and try and claim that the only difference is that the e616V has newer firmware/software on it. But in addition to the newer (more stable) firmware, the e616V also has a VGA resolution camera (640×480), while the e616 only has a 352×288 resolution camera. I am currently in the process of getting Carphone Warehouse to exchange the phone and to provide me with the phone that I actually bought!
Now, for the 3 network itself: it is a BIG step backward. If the area you are in does not have 3 signal coverage, the phone will switch to a 2.5G signal if that’s available. This swapping, though, is not seamless, and results in any call you may be conducting being dropped! In the flat that I live in, 3 signal coverage oscilates between 4 full bars of coverage, to 1 bar or sometimes even NO coverage, and switching itself over to the 2.5G network. Call quality is abysmal. And since very recently, I have started experiencing something even MORE frustrating: any attempt to place a call results in a “Service is not available” error message, DESPITE having full 4-bar signal coverage!
I will terminate my 3-contract as soon as it is possible, and will be returning to the much-more reliable realms of Vodafone. 3 initially sounds great, but it still needs a lot of work before it’s suitable for prime-time.
