_________   SWAT MAGAZINE ISSUE EIGHTEEN: JUNE 1999   __________
  /         \___________________________________________/          \
 /	          Info on some pre-pay mobile fones    	            \
/                      By -=The Firestarter=-                        \
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Brakis and myself have been looking into mobile phones over the past
few months, I don't mean cloning them or carding PAYT services, or even
generating the numbers for free calls. I simply mean, looking into them
for the legit reason (well most of the time it'll be legit) of owning
a mobile fone so that communication with people will be a little easier
that if we didn't own cell fones. Since we'd use landlines if a pay
fone was nearby (because neither of us like paying for calls, and
call dodging is a little difficult on a mobile, well so they say...)
it's always good if people can get hold of us whenever possible.
So we both wandered about verious high streets, gathering a varity of
leaflets on a number of pre-pay mobile fones. In the end we narrowed
down out choices, from One2One, Cellnet, Vodafone and Orange, we had
Vodaphone and Cellnet. Finally we chose Cellnet, it was tough to choose
which one, but in the end it was decided that Cellnet was the one to
go for, why? well Vodaphone doesn't work where i live.
So here's some brief information that was obtained on the fones we
looked at:

One2One - Up2You
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Very expensive. That was my first opinion, I mean the standard tarif
was 40p a minute at anytime. It did however have a few different tarifs
that looked interesting, such as there "anytime daily" that would not
only leech 50p from your credit each day, it would actually give you
cheaper calls, from 2p a minute evening/weekend calls and 10p a minute
for daytime calls. What was pretty shit though was the calls to other
One2one users was (on the normal tarif) still 40p a minute, and on the
"anytime tarif" was 10p a minute evening/weekend and 20p a minute day-
time. They did however offer two other tarifs that gave you 2 free
minutes for 60p a day, or for 83p a day you would get 40 minutes free.
In my opinion, One2One are money grabbing bastards (but then again
isn't everyone?)

Orange - Just Talk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Orange was going to be my choice to start with, mainly because it is
(as far as i know, i might be wrong though) the only PAYG fone that
allows free 0800/0500 calls, in a way that would be a massive saving
due to certain factors. But it would cost 50p a minute all the time.
More expensive than One2One, but atleast it gave you the chance to get
free calls via PBX's and such like.

VodaPhone - Pay as you talk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These where the ones i looked into, they do have a nice range of fones
that you can chose from (most of which are data compatible). There call
costs are fairly cheap at 5p off peak and 35p peak rate, by far one
the cheaper fones out there. Even with there "service credit" it works
out cheaper than a lot of the other fones. A host of nice options, such
as SMS at only 12p a message and a few other cool features. This is one
fone that i'd most definatly go for.

Cellnet U and Easylife
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brakis was looking into these fones, so he'll probably have more info
on them, from what i gathered they have a host of features (which is
what Brakis was attracted to). They also have a lot of cheaper features
compared to Vodaphone, for example, there SMS messages are only 5p,
and calls to other U "subscribers" is only 5p, no matter what time of
the day or night, otherwise it was 35p a minute flat rate. 
The Easylife option was slightly more expensive (well for us it would 
be), calls where 49p a minute all the time, but you would only need to
buy a £20 voucher each year, where as with cellnet-U you must by a £10
voucher every three months. You'll also get free internet software.
So it was decided, we both got Cellnet-U fones.

So if your wanting to get ripped off, buy a One2One fone.
If you want to abuse freefone numbers, get an Orange fone.
If you want cheap calls get a Vodafone.
If you want cheap calls to your mates (with the same fone) and want
a load of features, go for a Cellnet-U fone.

Well I hope that this little article has come as some handy piece of
information to all of you. Ok so I could go into some depth, but i'm no
salesman, if i'd have wanted to sell mobile fones i wouldn't be working
in the lesure industry.