Yet another phone thread

[scottishtv]

Does anyone know if O2 has a detentions department

Is that where you're sent if you're too cheeky to the call centre agents?

[Nick Harvey]

Now, folks, does this go in "rebrands" or "phones"?

I see Microsoft has bought Nokia's phone division.

[cwathen]

Now, folks, does this go in "rebrands" or "phones"?

I see Microsoft has bought Nokia's phone division.

The deal makes a lot of sense for both companies. Nokia arguably took it's eye of the ball when it decided to carry on using Symbian well past it's sell by date rather than come up with anything new. I was a big fan of Symbian in it's day, but it was designed for non-touch devices, was never particularly elegant as a touch OS and doesn't support the high resolution displays you get in modern phones. It arguably reached the limits of what you could do with it when the N95 was released, but instead they continued to press on with it and drag it kicking and screaming into touchscreen devices which it was useless on - things like the N97 and N8 may well have succeeded had they run Android or the then Windows Mobile. When they finally decided to let Symbian go, the decision to go down the route of Windows Phone rather than Android was also a bit questionable, as by then a mobile OS was all about app support and Windows Phone has never got anywhere near the market share or app support of Android or iOS.

From Microsoft's point of view, they have struggled to get their mobile OS off the ground, with most manufacturers either ignoring it completely, or at best having it playing second fiddle to Android phones in their range. Nokia is pretty much the only manufacturer to use Windows phone exclusively (or rather, almost exclusively, if you ignore the low end handsets running Nokia Belle - which is essentially Symbian in it's final death throes).

The only way I can see Nokia's phones and Microsoft's mobile OS get anywhere is through greater collaboration in which case bringing the two within the same business is a possible way forward. What Microsoft should hopefully now do is realise there is no longer any market appeal in a Nokia phone and ditch the brand in favour of using Nokia's expertise to develop and market a Windows-branded phone to take on iPhone and the dominant Android using manufacturers.

Rather a sad end for Nokia Mobile Phones though, being that until not long ago their phones led the industry and some of their phones were the most desirable on the market in their day - who didn't have a 3310?

[JAS84]

Nokia's brand will only be on feature phones (under a 10 year licence) and not smartphones, which will now use Microsoft's brand.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a ... uyout.html

In other news, the new Android is called Kit-Kat.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a ... ounce.html

[Pete]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24636682

So Orange's sneaky "oh we're going to shove your contract up by £3 and no you can't leave because it's within inflation hahahaha fuck you" trick appears to have irked Ofcom a bit.

It may have only added £30 or so over the contract but it was a very unpleasant thing to do.

Meanwhile I've had nothing but excellent service from Vodafone since changing over, and the few times I've phoned customer services (mainly re: PAC codes / the odd bill that using the pac code generated) they've been utterly delightful and very helpful and not once have I been put through to India.

Orange sent me a £15 refund the other day which means after 13 years my account with them in closed. Twats.

[Pete]

Yup I remember the "Hi" text.

On a slightly different note I see the EE brand is becoming more and more pervasive which does me me wonder how much time Orange and T-Mobile have left before being canned.

One thing that is interesting is how Orange's branding hasn't changed for a good 15 years and yet has not really aged or dated. It's quite impressive.

[Pete]

Orange did seem desperate to shove me onto the EE plans despite my "but there is no 4G in Dundee yet" protestations.

[Philip]

Does this mean their home broadband will get another rebrand? Freeserve, Wanadoo, Orange Broadband and now EE Broadband.

[cwathen]

EE is very clear on their site that the price may increase over the length of the contract. And by "may" you can assume "will".

It was the way Orange first did it back in 2012 that irked most people: sending a jolly text saying "Hi, your price plan will be increasing from next month..." yes, it genuinely began with "Hi". Particularly sucked for me at the time - not because I was on Orange, but cos I worked for the bastards and had to address the public on their behalf basically to say "yep, the price has gone up; nope, there's nothing you can do about it, suckers".

A high point in my career, certainly.

A surprisingly ballsy move from OFCOM there - stating that if your provider wants to increase your price during the contract then you can exit the contract, during the contractual term, without penalty. Absolutely right, and absolutely the industry's own fault for what they have tried to get away with over the last couple of years.

Whether or not they can, it arguably is not at all in the spirit of reasonable expectation to increase a tarrif during the contractual term. A contract should work in both directions - Orange are guaranteed your custom for a certain period of time, but in turn you are guaranteed a fixed price for that amount of time, it makes negotiations at the start of a contract meaningless if Orange can just knock the price up whenever they want.

Granted, at present it's a percentage based increase and it applies equally to all customers, but if they can get away with that, how long before the increases are based on pound notes and/or can be applied discriminately? It doesn't seem at all beyond the realms of possibility that in the future you could work yourself a deal to get your tarrif for £30 / month, sign the contract on that basis but then a few months down the road Orange could decide the deal you got was too good and arbitrarily increase you to £35 / month, saying it's OK because it's in the contract and any deal you negotiated is irrelevant.

Consumers need protection from this, and it is entirely appropriate that they've got it - I wonder if they'll risk carrying on with their policy of mid-term price increases now?

Oh, and it was also exposed that the clause Orange relied on in their original 2012 price increase WAS dodgy as the increase was justified based on references to an index which ceased to exist in the mid-90's (something they subsequently fixed).

[Nick Harvey]

Have you noticed that, since they've become EE, they get far stroppier when you keep on calling it Freeserve on the phone? When they were Orange, and definitely when they were Wanadoo, they didn't particularly mind. Now they keep repeating "No sir, your contract is now with EE". Needless to say, the more they do that, the more times I call it Freeserve!

[Sput]

Have you noticed that, since they've become EE, they get far stroppier when you keep on calling it Freeserve on the phone? When they were Orange, and definitely when they were Wanadoo, they didn't particularly mind. Now they keep repeating "No sir, your contract is now with EE". Needless to say, the more they do that, the more times I call it Freeserve!

I assume EE is short for FrEEserve, no?