Information Research Weblog

Mobile Phones

I see that the European Commission is getting exercised about international roaming rates of mobile phone companies - not before time. Apparently it can cost, per minute, between 58 cents per minute (Cyprus to Finland with a Finnish phone) and €5.01 (Malta to Poland with a Polish phone).

Of course, high charges and lack of transparency in pricing is just one problem of the phone companies. Another is lousy customer service - largely as a result of the computer-based response systems for handling telephone calls.

Recently, I ditched T-Mobile for just this reason - I was trying to find someone to talk to about their monthly packages, to see if I could find anything cheaper, but after going through about four levels of menus, I was getting nowhere, except mad.

I then got a package from Vodafone - but they sent me a text message while I was on holiday (I didn't have the phone with me, because I don't use international roaming) and, as they did not get a reply, they "unregistered" the SIM card. Then they did not communicate with me in any other way to tell me about the problem - no e-mail message, no call to my home phone, no letter. Today, I got the service restored, but only after three calls to different Vodafone numbers, eventually threatening to abandon the contract and sue them for non-supply of service. Fifteen minutes later the phone was working.

Does anyone have a UK mobile provider they can recommend?

CD lifetimes

Thanks to Charles Knight for a useful link. If you have ever wondered about the probable lifetimes of CDs, the answer appears to lie in the dyes employed. And you can pick up a piece of software that will tell you what dye is used on your CDs.