Talkmobile, a new mobile network from Carphone Warehouse, will focus on short-term contract deals and a very tasty looking pay as you go tariff. We like to pronounce it all as one word, rather than 'talk mobile', and imagine it's what Oprah calls her car, like the Batmobile.
But anyway -- Talkmobile's Essentials tariff charges 8p a minute for calls and 4p for texts to any network, as well as so-called 'unlimited' broadband. It's actually very limited, with a fair usage policy of 25MB a day, but at least it's reasonably priced at 30p, which works out at around £9 a month for 750MB.
This does look like a pretty good deal if you just want a cheap and simple no-frills connection. Talkmobile is what's known as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), piggybacking on the Vodafone network, so you'll get the same coverage as a Vodafone customer. You'll just need an unlocked phone -- buying a Talkmobile SIM card will give you £10 of credit.
SIM-only deals have boomed ever since they were introduced by networks, allowing people to keep their old phone and not be tied in to another costly contract with a phone the network deems you should be upgraded to. They're often much cheaper, particularly for those who don't use all the hundreds of minutes and texts contract deals usually offer.
For people looking for a contract phone there's the availability of 12-month Talkmobile contracts, a conscious effort to pull in punters looking for a phone that doesn't tie them up for a long spell.
Phones very quickly go out of date, so these shorter contracts look fairer and less frustrating to be on. Prices are quoted at £15 or £20 a month depending on usage.
Talkmobile is not be confused with TalkTalk's own Vodafone MVNO, which was announced this week to give the home phone provider a foothold in the mobile phone market. It's easy to mix them up as TalkTalk and Carphone Warehouse used to be part of the same company and have the same boss, but TalkTalk users are going to have to wait further into the year to get their own cheap mobile deals.
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Comments 12
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Anonymous 4 August, 2010 16:02
People looking for a cheap network should google giffgaff.
trick202 5 August, 2010 12:59
Yep, I'm a happy giffgaff user - but this seems worth a look too.
Anonymous 11 October, 2010 14:48
DO NOT RECOMEND TALKMOBILE.
ABSOLUTE RUBBISH.
Anonymous 1 November, 2010 16:14
TalkMobile is a very good network, a lot better than giffgaff.
Anonymous 20 December, 2010 14:18
Stay away from these robbers, I have used Talkmobile since they started and have had a reasonably good service, but for the last month they are total rubbish, first none of my calls to anywhere would connect until the third or fourth time of trying, now they connect but you cannot hear each other talking, called TM customer service, first they tried the line and everything seemed fine, the following day was back to very bad connection, called cs again to be told that they will send a new sim card, after a week no new card, called again was told that it had not been sent but will send straight away that was last Tuesday, just called again and was told and they was so ignorant and arrogant I asked for my money back, no luck again, three times now they have blamed Vodafone but when I tried a new vodafone sim it works perfectly.
Just be advised Talk Mobile do and will rob you of your money just like the main company Carphone warehouse do.
Anonymous 6 February, 2011 21:33
I've been on Giffgaff for the last few months but o2's 3G network just isn't up to scratch. I live in the centre of town and my phone keeps switching from 1 or 2 bars of 3G to 3 bars of GPRS. It's really annoying. This only happens when I'm upstairs, when I'm downstairs I generally get 1 or 2 bars of GPRS. I'm looking at talk mobile because they use Vodafone and I have 5 bars of Vodafone 3G at my house and Talkmobile has some great deals on data! Although saying that, Vodafone seems to have left my town in a sea of 2G so I'll pretty much only be able to use the 3G data when at home... the Three network seems to have it sussed for 3G, though I was with them a couple of years ago and after the gales on numerous occasions they would have outages in my area. It was the same when we had blizzards, though I still had signal, my phone was about as useful as a paperweight as the network was jammed. Whereas on Vodafone, calls and texts were going through even during the morning rush hour after a night of heavy snowfall. (o2 was still running a service, albeit a very slow and patchy one) SOOOOOO.......I think I will go with Talkmobile after all, they have better deals than you can get directly from Vodafone so why not?
Anonymous 23 April, 2011 00:32
I'm leaving giffgaff now for a £12/month talkmobile contract with unlimited internet and free HTC wildfire. I'm going to sell the wildfire, making the deal very good value (effectively around £7/month)
Anonymous 13 May, 2011 16:33
Dreadful incompetent organisation. Completely incapable of fulfilling the order. Had to ring them to enquire why the order hadn't proceeded and was told they didn't have my date of birth. They didn't contact me because they claimed (incorrectly) they didn't have any contact details for me.
Don't waste your time with them.
Anonymous 15 June, 2011 14:57
There a terrible network and totally un organised you will regret it if you use these cowboys so dont say you was not warned
Anonymous 29 June, 2011 18:30
Talkmobile KEEP AWAY. I joined talkmobile on a pay monthly contract £12 per month 200 text and 200 mins. After 6 days could not use my phone as I received an audio message saying "you are unable to make calls as your maximum call credit has been reached, press 1 to make a payment"I was horrified when I was told by CS that I had sent 1990 text over a two day period. I stated that this was simply not true and that obviously there was a fault with their system but the girl at CS insists that I had used this amount (1990 text sent at 20 second intervals!) and that the £379 was not that bad! Rang today and they say that after investigation they still believe I sent these text so it looks like I will have to start a small claim against them. There is cheap and cheerful and then there is cheap and dishonest, keep away from them they are nothing but thieves who will bully you into paying money for services you have not used. I was luck that I was within the 14 day cooling off period otherwise I would also have to £12 per month for 24 months in addition to the £379 they are currently charging me (or should I say conning out of me). Use a reputable provide not these cowboys!
Anonymous 6 July, 2011 23:16
SHORT STORY IS - THEY ARE ROBBERS!!! My advice - STAY AWAY.....From the day one I took contract from them - they had shown nothing other than their incompetencies. THE LONG STORY.....I took 1 month rolling contract from TM (over the phone) on 16-May-2011 and gave a PAC Code while signing up. I was told the transfer will happen on 23-May which never happened. On 25-May when I went to Carphonewarehouse (CPW) store they said due to some technical problem they have to cancel the existing contract and issue a new contract (I had to visit CPW twice for this and mind that they did another credit check on my file). After promised 2 days of transferring the number (which happened indeed), the other problem cropped up that their customer service number 5888 wouldn't work from this new SIM so I couldn't check my remaining allowance. After almost 3 visits to CPW store and 3 weeks of waiting it finally worked. But to my surprise - now I was told that I have no minutes remaining and I have a huge unbilled amount. Then I spoke to TM customer service advisor on 21-June, he advised me that the tariff of 500 mins and 500MB was never applied to my contract and I was charged for every call I made, any data that I used and any text msg I had sent - again due to some technical problems. He assured that he had sent some remedy form and my account will be setup properly within few days. Till today, problem still persists and my unbilled figure has mounted to more than £150. I wrote an email to them on 3-July to remind this which they haven't replied back. On top of everything - they havent even sent me a bill. Now I am really fed up with this company after making so many calls/visits as if they think I have the whole time in this world and nothing else to do other than chasing them. I dont know who gives them licences to operate this business. If not sorted out I am definitly complaining to OFCOM. My sincere advice whosoever is reading this - dont even think of taking a contract with them - IT WOULD BE A WASTE OF YOUR TIME & MONEY. MIND IT!!!
Anonymous 3 August, 2011 19:29
For those that are using Giff Gaff sims yet say O2's 3G network is poor may want to lay the blame with Giff Gaff.