mobile phone contracts...

[shirt]

having managed to avoid having a personal phone in the last 3.5yrs, i now feel the need to get one. works blackberry's seem to last 5 minutes before breaking and my last month's phone bill was 9500aed... i'm on the hit list now so being scrutinised, think it's best to take all personal traffic on to a new device.

looking at an iphone, prob the 5s as they should hopefully be available at discount. just wondering what you guys pay per month and what that includes. it'll be mainly data and international calls. cheap roaming will be a plus.

[Fats25]

Bookmarked - as every package I have looked at here so far is a nightmare.

I also cannot cope with my blackberry much longer, but for different reasons.

[Psychobert]

I'm probably paying more than I need to per month on a PAYG rather than contract, but I guess I put in about 300 a month for calls, texts and the odd bit of internet..

iphone 5c seems capable enough and as you said should be dropping in price now the 6 has come out once the hysteria has died down and people have upgraded. Never bought a handset in my life before I came here as I had so many minutes on a post paid contract, but my head hurt too much trying to work out which one actually worked here..

[Chilli]

Don't get me fking started on mobile phone companies here. I've had 3 home visits as i refuse to visit a shop, and a week later they tell me I need to visit a shop, despite them having all my paperwork and several signed forms.

bks to the lot of them,

[e21jason]

Phill

You think the monopoly gives a choice of good contracts

[TNW]

Mine is via work, but I pay the personal calls. I don't make a huge number of calls on it - all in with a data package it's about 300 AED p/m on Etisalat, I doubt there's any massive corporate discount being applied.

[shirt]

e21jason said:

Phill

You think the monopoly gives a choice of good contracts

not a hugeaount no but there seems to be a huge difference in upfront and monthly costs even across the same provider. what do you pay?

fed up with blackberry's lasting 5 minutes, i'm on my 3rd this year and each time it loses all contacts. pile of crap

[K50 DEL]

I have mine on a monthly contract through Du, no complaints from me... I pay around 300 chips per month, can't remember exactly what that gives me but I know there are no SMS messages included so about 50 of that bill is SMS charges, other than that I never run out of data and all my calls are free.

Recommended.

[shirt]

have any of you owned more than one variant of the iphone 5? is there a noticeable difference in performance and/or usability? how much memory do you think is needed as a minimum?

currently some stonking deals on souq but even more so with the older or lesser specced units. e.g. iphone 5 in black, 64gb for 1700, 16gb white 5c for 1300 etc.

i can't see me needing massive storage for apps and i usually back up photos regularly, but the main draw of the iphone is itunes and spotify which i use a lot when i'm away.

[yorky500]

I would recommend Samsung or LG (nearly the same phone). Far nicer and much more user friendly.

[Chilli]

I recently ot a galaxy s5 via Etisalat. No up-front payment (Du wanted 1500) and I pay 300 all-in. Very happy with it.

[shirt]

i am aware of android and other options but i didn't ask about that did i

i need a new ipod to replace my smashed up one [don't ask]. that's 1k so an extra 300 to be able to use it as a phone isn't bad at all.

i found out yesterday if a director signs it as ok work will allow us to use a self purchased iphone instead of the dreaded blackberry and add all the email/directory gubbins so i can then get work to pay for the line rental. seems an ideal solution.

[IanUAE]

shirt said:

i am aware of android and other options but i didn't ask about that did i

i need a new ipod to replace my smashed up one [don't ask]. that's 1k so an extra 300 to be able to use it as a phone isn't bad at all.

i found out yesterday if a director signs it as ok work will allow us to use a self purchased iphone instead of the dreaded blackberry and add all the email/directory gubbins so i can then get work to pay for the line rental. seems an ideal solution.

Phil if you are going to be travelling a lot then having international roaming on a Blackberry is the way to go. My company pays AED 295 a month for unlimted data for my Blackberry (we sign up a few years ago mind you). I would hate to think how much they would pay if we had to have data packages.

A good friend of mine who travels almost as much as I do used to have a company Blackberry but they recently switched to iPhones. The air turns blue if you ask him about iPhone + roaming.

Just my 2 fils worth.

[shirt]

we have a ridiculously good corporate deal with etisalat, both BB and iphone are supported.

a blackberry does one thing well and is piss poor for everything else.

[velocitas]

Hey Shirt,

I just got back from Etisalat - they'd a pretty good deal.... iPhone 6 for 2149 on a 12 month contract for 250 a month with 10GB of data. They also setup it up with my company blackberry so I have one number for incoming calls.

Ideal situation for me as I need access to emails but my company only allows the blackberry. I tried using the blackberry when I moved here but it's shockingly useless compared to my iPhone 4S with no decent Maps, Facebook etc.