MSN Messenger deal - vario on T-Mobile?

[tim_n]

Not posted for a while, been busy & hexus is displaying some big orange thing at the top of my screen... ;- )

Anyway, looking at a new contract so I can look at hexus at work and it seems T-mobile is offering a 2GB plan for £27.50 with 500 free texts p/month and 100 xnet minutes on a 12month contract. The vario is £49.99 on top which doesn't seem that bad for a phone with a full qwerty keyboard. It'll replace my old PDA which I barely use because the extra weight I have to lug around.

Obviously this phone was first introduced in nov 2005 afaik and I'm wondering if thats the best deal as it doesn't have 3G (mind you I like having _some_ battery time)

I like the wireless, hopefully I can use that with my WEP system at home.

Any thoughts/comments?

[tim_n]

I've made a couple of posts regarding this on the money saving expert forums over the last few days, today I rang T-mobile to check to see whether this was in their t&c - mainly because different websites say conflicting things. I can confirm:

The use of instant messaging software such as MSN Messenger and Skype on the T-Mobile web n' walk tarrif is against the terms and conditions.

So no basically, you can't use these services in any capacity on your shiny T-mobile phone.

Anyone know of any deal where I can do this?

[dancingmatt]

Which is b****y stupid when MSN Messenger comes with the phone. What, give me a phone with programs loaded into it then tell me I can't use them? You might as well give me a contacts book full of people I don't know, so that takes up wasted space too.

Particularly stupid when the original range of these phones (on Orange) also came with Messenger and tiny GPRS allowance...

The Vario is good BTW

DM

[Stubzz]

If you've got a wifi connection at home or are near a wifi hot spot you can use them. Not ideal I know but it's what I plan to do.

[RDL]

This phone is labelled XDA Mini-S under o2. I'm quite sure that you can use MSN for free with them.

[Tobeman]

Oh nads. I got this phone a couple of weeks ago on T-Mobile (upgrade) and I've been on MSN Messenger using my 3 months free web'n'walk all time, I hope this hasn't been eating away at my allowanced

Originally Posted by tim_n

I like the wireless, hopefully I can use that with my WEP system at home.

I had to drop my WPA2 down to WPA before it would connect on mine at home - nothing to do with WEP I know but I thought it'd let you know.

[mrbanana]

Has anyone tried messenger through webmessenger instead: http://webmessenger.msn.com/ I guess it'll go through port 80 and look like normal browsing to t-mobile?

[autopilot]

As well as a LOT of web browsing and email at work, I have my MDA do a regular RSS, updates, weather updates and a bit of small file downloading.

I dont think they will charge you or cancel your service, as long as you don't take the piss and use gigs an gigs. Really i think they are just covering thier backs. If they have a go, i will just play dumb and shout a bit. At the end of the day, a KB of data is a KB of data, no matter how it's used. And as it's paid for, i cant see how there should be a problem if i use my MDA less using IM, or something, than people just browsing web sites. Don't forget websites can contain a lot of data, we are not talking about wap here. Like i said, they are just covering thier backs.

What they are really coming down on is people using it as a free modem for laptops etc, and...

Use of Voice over Internet Protocol and Messaging over Internet Protocol is prohibited by T-Mobile.

Think about it. This has more to do with protecting thier existing business than bandwidth issues. They dont want people sending less texts and making less 'paid for' phone calls now do they

As far as i know, T-mobile's web'n'walk tarrif is still by far the best GPRS data tarrif available.

[mrbanana]

Originally Posted by dangerous_dom

Think about it. This has more to do with protecting thier existing business than bandwidth issues. They dont want people sending less texts and making less 'paid for' phone calls now do they

Yeah. They must be worried msn will cut into their texting revenues.

As for cheap calls the service providers can't win. I can already call home out of my inclusive minutes, punch in a code when my ata picks up, and route the call out again via voipcheap.com for free international calls. There's nothing they can do about that.

And they'll never beat the calling card companies. There's talk on MSE today that t-mobile are going to allow 07744 numbers to come out of inclusive minutes next month.

Voipfone.co.uk has a pretty cool option too where you text them the number you want to call, they then call you back, then call the number you put in the sms, and then join up the two calls. You pay for both ends of the call at voipfone's rates, but it shows as an incoming call to the mobile companies. Not the cheapest option but it's still a hell of a lot cheaper than a lot of international mobile rates.