Mobile v Landline

Thanks, Paul. I've noticed, when pricing plans, that it costs more per call to link with a mobile than a landline. Interesting. Does this mean that mobiles never pay for incoming, only outgoing calls?

Does this mean that mobiles never pay for incoming, only outgoing calls?

Yes.   The caller pays a much higher rate, but there is no incoming charge on the cellphone.    This arrangement applies right across Europe, and indeed in most places outside of North America.

I was looking into T-Mobile's services and they were the only vendor to offer quad-band phones, that I can remember. Guess I'll go back to those sites and recheck.

I have a quad-band phone on Orange that I got through The Link.

We have a BT landline and pay £1 per month for special international rates. Can't recall exactly how much we pay, but our bills are very reasonable even though I do call my mom relatively often.... We have AOL broadband and pay a yearly rate - I think we got a month free for paying up front. I have an Orange mobile which I love - service is very, very good and you get 2 for 1 cinema tickets every Wednesday. DH has a 3 Mobile and it's HORENDOUS - terrible reception, terrible phone - I have NOTHING good to say about 3....

Yes.   The caller pays a much higher rate, but there is no incoming charge on the cellphone.    This arrangement applies right across Europe, and indeed in most places outside of North America.

I heard somewhere that this may change at some point in the future, so get it while the gettin's good! lol

Thanks, all, for the info. I can see that I must do much more extensive research before coming over!

Do the companies run "specials" like they do here? You know, sign up now and you get X free for X.

Definitely!  I got 200 minutes plus 500 texts.  A bunch of companies will give you double the minutes or double the texts...lots of offers out there.  What I would do is ask people who live or work where you do what service they like - Orange is really the only service that works in my work building and it's been great where I live.  Some others aren't as strong here.

Unfortunately, the competition between carriers has become something of a three-ring circus as they all try to outdo each other.   You know the deal:  One company offers 240 free minutes, so another offers discounted calls on weekends, then the first retaliates by offering free calls to Outer Mongolia every other Thursday if there's an "R"  in the month, and so on.   

To pick up on a point from further up the thread:
 

They even have quad-band phones although I'm not sure where the 4th frequency band is required!

The four bands are 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz.   The 900 and 1800 bands are the ones used in the U.K. and Europe.     850 and 1900 are used in North America, although the 850 band is a relative newcomer for GSM service. 

I'm writing some posts on telephones for the Technical Issues thread at the moment, so I'll try to cover the GSM band issue in more detail there.

Thanks, everyone, this has all been really helpful. Paul, I'll check out the Tech threads as soon as I get a chance.