As an Apple geek and someone who runs his emails through Apple Mail it made complete sense to buy into the iPhone as it syncs all your Apple applications together. 24 months ago I was looking for an iPhone 4s and the only shop in East Kilbride shopping centre who had one was ORANGE.
Over that 24 month period I was paying on average £50 per month on mobile phone bills but the hard lesson was the lack of signal strength and total black spots using Orange. Over at IBC in Amsterdam 2011 my Orange iPhone was useless, Arran just off the West Coast of Scotland…no Orange signal.
The best was yet to come after my 24 month period I decided to swap my 600 minutes of talk time and 200 texts £50 a month for a THREE plan costing me £25 for 2000 minutes talktime and 5000 texts and all you can eat internet data on a one month rolling contract.
I phoned Orange with my IMEI number and asked them for my PAC code, this allows my number to be used on my THREE network.
ORANGE asked me for my IMEI number but it was different from the number they had on record I told them it was a different iPhone because the other one went faulty and Apple replaced it, the stock reply was “We will need Apple to confirm this and this can take up to 28 days”.
So thats were I am now, with an iPhone 4S switched off on my desk, fortunately I had an iPhone 3s which was unlocked within 24 hours from VODAFONE so I could connect my business phone up again which was in it’s 3rd day of no service !
APPLE could not help me, they insist it’s an ORANGE problem, ORANGE could not care less and are willing to have me wait 28 days with no business phone, if it was not for the fact of having the spare iPhone my business line would have been seriously compromised.
This brings me onto the new iPhone 5 coming out this September as you can see good old Apple are changing the dock port to a smaller 8pin connector, fortunately Apple are not changing the micro SIM card as the swap over from SIM to micro SIM was a pig. PS. The reason I can use my micro SIM in my 3s iPhone is because I am using a micro SIM to SIM adapter.
Your phone number doesn’t suddenly stop working when you ask for your PAC so what is your problem? Waiting the 28 days might be inconvenient but there is no reason why your business phone number would be unavailable.
& another thing. Wouldn’t you need to give 30 days notice of cancellation anyway. Plenty of time to get your PAC.
Are you aware that T-Mobile, Orange and Three are all essentially the same air side network under the combined Everything Everywhere brand? Don’t commit to Three without trying pay as you go first to check coverage and data rates.
In my experience the most robust data network is Vodaphone’s, probably why it’s expensive but it would be my first choice if my business depended on it.