Buying a mobile phone? Start here!
Before buying a mobile phone, please read the following advice. It is intended to help you make the choice that is right for you.

Existing User?
If you already have a mobile phone, you can switch to a different network and take your phone number with you, although you may need a different handset.
You could get a sim-only connection with a new number, using your existing handset.

O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-mobile and Three are networks. They supply the service, not the phone. Each network is basically a collection of radio towers all over the country, linked together and transmitting people's conversations.

There are also "virtual networks", which use one of the existing networks infrastructure, but sell under a different brand. For example, Virgin mobile and Value Telecom use T-mobile, OneTel uses Vodafone, NTL Mobile uses Orange and Sainsbury's uses O2. 3 has its own UMTS network, but until that has full coverage, they "borrow" from O2 to fill in coverage holes.

Strictly speaking, you don't have "a Vodafone". You have a Nokia or Motorola or Ericsson (or whatever) connected to Vodafone, O2 etc. Similar models are available on each network, sometimes under the network's brand name.

Who does what?
You buy your phone from the retailer (MobileShop.com, of course!) and have a contract with a Service Provider, who does the billing and customer service on behalf of the network (but doesn't provide the service!).

You can "sign up" direct with a network, and this is the only way that some networks work. You don't put pen to paper for most mobile phone contracts nowadays, but they are still legally binding.

Choose your network
The network should be the first thing you choose when you're starting out. Your choice of network will decide where you get good coverage, and how good the customer service is. Some networks have better coverage in particular areas than others, but customer service varies from day to day, depending on demand.

The networks all offer different features, and although none are vital, some are nice to have.

Prepay or Contract?
Next, decide whether you want a pay as you go phone or a traditional contract arrangement:

Pre-pay, where you pay (usually by buying vouchers) before you make calls. No risk of a bill, but sometimes this is an expensive option, and adding vouchers can be inconvenient.
Contract - where you get a bill each month, but the call charges are usually lower, and there are more facilities offered.
But it isn't as easy as that! Some Pay As You Go have monthly line rental to pay or topups that only last a month, even if you don't use the minutes you paid for. Some contract tariffs have no standing charges, and some offer free calls with no line rental for an up-front payment.

T-mobile offer 'Mix-it' where you pay the normal monthly line rental and get inclusive calls, but any additional (non-inclusive) calls have to come out of pre-paid top-ups. This is a rather good idea!

Choose your tariff
Generally, paying higher line rental gets you cheaper call charges.

Before you commit yourself, check whether you can change tariffs later. Your usage may change. At first you may make many calls checking out the phone and its capabilities (or you may take time to get used to using it). You may find it far more useful than you expected.

When you buy a phone, it is subsidised by the network or service provider. The higher the tariff, the bigger the subsidy. If you switch to a lower tariff within 3 or 4 months, the dealer may suffer a "clawback" where that subsidy is withdrawn. The dealer will probably recover this loss from you. This means that although you can switch tariffs early on, it may not be in your financial interests to do it!

Choosing the phone
There are lots of different phones to choose between.
Some users are far more interested in gadgets than others. If you enjoy programming your video recorder and your address book is a computer, don't choose a phone that uses the older analogue technology or one of the basic GSM models.

Some phones are very small and light, and others are more robust and weighty. Don't assume that a smaller phone is a better phone, particularly if you have aged eyes or large fingers.

You should also be careful before opting for some of the pay-as-you go deals. Some use phones that skimp on features for the sake of cost cutting.

Features more technologically informed users will look out for in a mobile handset include:

Address Book Lookup, which shows the name of your caller before you answer the phone if that caller is in your phone's address book. All mobile phones have this, but some make it easier to find entries than others, and some can only store information in the SIM card. The phone may also be capable of different ringing tones so you are aware of who is calling without looking at your phone.

Text messaging, which lets you send and receive pager-type messages to and from the screens of other mobile phones. This is available on all modern handsets, but how easy it is to enter messages or to read them on the display varies a lot.

Roaming. All the networks allow this to some extent. It's not a handset feature, but may depend on the deal you buy, and if you need a phone that will work in America, it has to be a "tri-band" handset.

Fax and data support. Some handsets can simply connect to a computer. Others need special software running on the computer, and some can't do it at all.

Wireless Application Protocol support. This allows you to access internet information services on the move.

GPRS support. GPRS gives an "always on" data connection that can operate at speeds similar to fixed line modems. GPRS data is charged by the kilobyte, not by how long you are connected.

Infra-red and Bluetooth communication with other devices. This is useful for data connections, and Bluetooth can also be used to connect to personal headsets or car kits, provided their bluetooth abilities are comprehensive.

Voice dialling - some mobiles will let you press one button and say "Joe Bloggs" instead of dialling the number.

Call logs. Detailed records of your last calls made and received, preferably with time and date stamps.

Bits and pieces - clocks, calculators, programmable ring tones and games are some of the recent extra features added to the latest phones.

FM radios and mp3 players. These can turn your mobile phone into something even more useful, especially if you are a commuter!

Colour screen. You don't need a colour screen on a mobile phone, but it looks pretty, and makes them easier to use.

Built-in camera. Although the quality may not be wonderful, having a camera to hand can be a real boon in everyday situations.

Vibrating alert, so that you know your phone is "ringing" in noisy or quiet environments.

Signal indicators (as fitted to some Ericsson and Motorola handsets) which flash to show that the phone has suitable service. However, in a dark room, this can be an irritating distraction.

 
Note that you probably won't find all these features in any one handset. You have to decide what matters most to you, and how much money you want to pay for them.

No matter how many attached gadgets a phone has, it's no good to you when it runs out of steam. So look for a decent battery life. At the very least the phone should get you reliably through a full day, with the sort of use you expect to make of it.

Remember to judge by talktime as well as standby time; some phones can sit on standby for a week or two but still give up the ghost after an hour or two of calls.

Cheap phones once used NiCad batteries, middle ranking ones NiMh and good ones lithium ion. The last is by far the best because it can be topped up. NiCad and NiMh batteries can be damaged if you charge them before they've gone completely flat, or if you fail to charge them fully.

Insuring it
Because it is subsidised by the service Provider when you sign a contract, the phone is worth more than you paid for it: if it is damaged, lost or stolen, the replacement cost will be higher. Consider the insurance position carefully.

Buying
Once you have seen all the information here, and decided what you want, find a good retailer. Here's a hint: MobileShop.com offers excellent value, superb service, and provided you with this information!

Number Portability
If you already have a mobile phone, the inconvenience of changing your mobile number can be a real deterrent to switching to a different mobile network, and if you have advertising or business cards or letterheads with your mobile number, a considerable cost.

Luckily, you can take your mobile number with you to another network.

Pitfalls
Hidden costs
Some contracts require you to pay every month for itemised billing or insurance whether you want it or not.

Some call charges are far higher than you'd expect especially to mobiles on other networks or calls to other countries. Some networks (particularly the "Virtual networks") have few users, so almost all calls to mobiles are to other networks.

Calls to 0845 numbers are not normally included in "inclusive" airtime. Ringing Customer Services is a chargeable call on some networks. Apart from Orange contract phones, you pay for calls to "freephone" 0800 numbers. For an overview of call charges, see the Costs page of this section. For full details, see the main Costs section of this site.

Pushy sales methods
Some high street dealers will try to sell you expensive (and unnecessary) extended warranties, even though they offer very poor value.

There are companies using pushy telesales methods to get you to buy, but the deals they are selling don't match the promises. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true!

Price matching
Some dealers offer to match any competitor's price. They present this as evidence that they offer good value, but the opposite is the truth! Price matching is a means of selling at the highest price they can get away with, and only offering competitive prices to people who know about good deals. Help keep prices down for everyone, by shopping from dealers offering consistent good value to everyone.

Split packs
Many dealers selling sim-only deals are splitting "handset and sim" packages, and selling the handset separately, often overseas. The Service Providers do not allow this, and buyers may run the risk of being disconnected if the SP finds out what has happened.

Insecure transactions
Not all e-commerce web sites use proper secure servers, so your details are passed over an insecure link. This is probably no riskier than letting a waiter take your credit card to a restaurant till, but to be safe, use a dealer (MobileShop.com, for instance) with a proper secure server. A secure server is indicated at the time of purchase by seeing a small golden padlock in the bottom right hand side of your web browser.

Postal charges
Some mail order companies make more profit from the Post & Packing than they do from the sale. Beware the postage charges!

Ignorance
Some shops selling mobile phones really specialise in records, dishwashers, TVs, groceries or HiFi's. Their knowledge of mobile phones is not all it could be. Buy from a good specialist mobile phone dealer and you'll be buying from people who know what they're talking about.

Buyers Guide : Special Needs

Do you have a particular requirement?
People don't all want or need the same thing.

If you have difficulties with your eyesight, you may be best with a handset with a particularly clear display, and well marked buttons on the keypad. Note that a big display doesn't always mean larger text: some squeeze more, smaller, text on instead.

If you have large (or not so nimble) fingers, you may find that a small handset has buttons too small to be easy to use.

If you have hearing loss, a loud ringer and a vibrating alert, as well as a loud earpiece, are vital.

If you use a hearing aid, you will probably find that a GSM phone makes it buzz unbearably. The alternative of an analogue phone is less and less practical, so you may find that the inductive coupler loop attachment for your mobile phone your only practical solution.

A profoundly deaf person will want a phone designed for text messaging. Choose a handset that makes it easy to type and read text messages. The handsets with proper keypads, the Ericsson SmartBoard keypad attachment, or a handset with Predictive Text input would help with this.

You may have particular requirements because of what you want the phone for. If you plan to keep it solely for emergencies, you may need a model that can take (or be recharged from) "ordinary" batteries, in case you forget to recharge the one in the phone.

Some people solely want mobile fax facilities. The common solution is to link the mobile handset to a portable computer, but there are also PCMCIA card slot phones designed for the purpose, and new models of these give better fax and data speeds.