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Retro: First PAYG mobile phones |
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#1 |
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Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 4,240
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Retro: First PAYG mobile phones
When did the first PAYG mobiles come out? I remember buying my first one in 2000 but they were down to 50 quid by that point. When did PAYG start, and how much did it cost?
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jun 2008
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I am not sure. My first payg phone was a nokia something on orange where you could send 10 free texts a day and that was all even if you had credit.
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#3 |
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: London, UK
Posts: 8,759
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Vodafone offered pay as you go back in 1996 as an alternative to contract.
One2One (T-Mobile) launched their own service in 1997 to rival Vodafone's service. Orange followed shortly after in the same year. Both Orange and One2One just offered one option for £179.99. One2One pushed the Nortel m900 where as Orange pushed the Motorola MR201 Vodafone offered either the Nokia Ringo or Motorola a130 for £99. It wasn't until around 1999/2000 that prices started to drop and we saw other pay as you go phones launch. e.g Motorola C250 for £49.99. Call costs were around 40-60p per minute on pay as you go. Even higher in some cases if you went for a different pay as you go plan. Orange for example charged over £1 per minute on their JustTalk plan when it first launched. (It's worth bearing in mind that Vodafone launched pay as you go on the old analogue network (1G) where as T-Mobile and Orange launched their services on the new digital 2G service) |
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#4 |
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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Pretty sure the first proper PAYG was a Peoples Phone branded handset on Vodafone, sometime around '97/'98.
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#5 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
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Can't remember the year, but mine was a Teletal Mobile on Vodafone and £1 per-minute to make a call. Those were the days! Pretty sure it was one of the first PAYG offers.
Mark
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#6 |
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Quote:
Can't remember the year, but mine was a Teletal Mobile on Vodafone and £1 per-minute to make a call. Those were the days! Pretty sure it was one of the first PAYG offers.
MarkTelital PV129 http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps2ccad54b.jpg |
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#7 |
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Quote:
Mark
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#8 |
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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Found a photo of the one I was thinking of, model was Peoples Phone PP800.
http://i57.tinypic.com/o714yq.jpg I remember them arriving boxed and labelled as PAYG, £1 a minute sounds right as well. |
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#9 |
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Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 4,240
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Quote:
Can't remember the year, but mine was a Teletal Mobile on Vodafone and £1 per-minute to make a call.
![]() My first phone was a Motorola with a stubby anttena. Nice phone but I soon jumped ship to One 2 One where calls were 5ppm after the first two minutes,,,, |
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#10 |
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Scotland
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My first one was a Motorola M3588 on BT Cellnet in 2000, it was on a plan called "Best Friend" where if I topped up £15 a month, I would get unlimited calls to my selected number, which I thought was amazing (at the time) and saved me having to use a phone box to phone my girlfriend. Oh the good old days.
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#11 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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Quote:
My first one was a Motorola M3588 on BT Cellnet in 2000, it was on a plan called "Best Friend" where if I topped up £15 a month, I would get unlimited calls to my selected number, which I thought was amazing (at the time) and saved me having to use a phone box to phone my girlfriend. Oh the good old days.
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#12 |
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Join Date: Sep 2002
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Quote:
Found a photo of the one I was thinking of, model was Peoples Phone PP800.
http://i57.tinypic.com/o714yq.jpg I remember them arriving boxed and labelled as PAYG, £1 a minute sounds right as well. It seems expensive now, but my previous contract had been £15 per month + VAT with no inclusive calls. Calls were 50p a minute. Then 1997 Vodafone introduced Pay as You Talk, along with the phrase Top Up and famous card top up vouchers. |
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#13 |
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My first was a Philips Diga on BT Cellnet in 1997 or 1998 - £10 every 3 months PAYG and 49p a minute for calls.
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#14 |
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Join Date: May 2007
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Quote:
My first was a Philips Diga on BT Cellnet in 1997 or 1998 - £10 every 3 months PAYG and 49p a minute for calls.
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#15 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
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Someone should fill out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...d_mobile_phone as there's no UK info in there.
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#16 |
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My first was a Nokia nk402 (basically an 1800MHz 5110) on Orange JustTalk.
Topped up using a £50 voucher, and got 25p/12.5p calls which wasn't too bad. The major pain was that it got 10 free texts a day, but that was it. Try an 11th, and you got the cryptic "message not sent this time" error.... About 6 months after this, they removed this and texts cost 5p (with the £50 top up). |
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#17 |
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Join Date: Nov 2013
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Mine was a Motorola C520 on Orange Just Talk back in 1999, Cost £59.99 if I remember correctly and came with £10 Just Talk voucher
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#18 |
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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Quote:
My first was a Nokia nk402 (basically an 1800MHz 5110) on Orange JustTalk.
Topped up using a £50 voucher, and got 25p/12.5p calls which wasn't too bad. The major pain was that it got 10 free texts a day, but that was it. Try an 11th, and you got the cryptic "message not sent this time" error.... About 6 months after this, they removed this and texts cost 5p (with the £50 top up). .They weren't cheap either, they were either £229 or £179 at launch (that useless memory again...) |
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#19 |
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Join Date: Jan 2014
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Quote:
I remember selling those by the box load, probably the best selling single PAYG item on orange in the '90s and early '00s, for the life of me I don't remember the 10 text limit and I was there when they launched (I've even got a "medal" that came with the first batch designed to be used to change the fascia). Memory is not what it used to be it seems
.They weren't cheap either, they were either £229 or £179 at launch (that useless memory again...) They removed the 10 text limit in April 2000. I remember the day - I sent 65
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#20 |
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Join Date: Jan 2002
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Quote:
My first was a Philips Diga on BT Cellnet in 1997 or 1998 - £10 every 3 months PAYG and 49p a minute for calls.
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#21 |
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I think I got mine for around £90 in late '99.
They removed the 10 text limit in April 2000. I remember the day - I sent 65 ![]() I'm not doubting you had a text limit, I only sold them, I never used them, at dealer price the All in One packages were far better value for money. |
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#22 |
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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Quote:
It was the Philips Diga that a lot of people had on the pay-nothing-as-you-go plan, was it not?
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#23 |
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Location: Sussex
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Quote:
Mine was a Motorola C520 on Orange Just Talk back in 1999, Cost £59.99 if I remember correctly and came with £10 Just Talk voucher
When I renovated a house in 2006 I wrapped up this phone in a newspaper and buried under the floorboards for someone to discover in the future
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#24 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
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I had what I guess might be the slightly upgraded C520, the M3788 also on Orange.
I don't remember it being a bad phone. Eventually upgraded to some tiny Sony thing (J70?) and then onto numerous Ericssons and Nokias (mostly contract hand-me-downs). Smartphones are probably better all round but I do miss the clearly superior build quality and attention to detail that Nokia/Ericsson and friends all had. They made phones that actually made phone calls properly, rather than being an oversight. |
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 42
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Quote:
Yes, Philips Diga, badged as "Easy Life" or "U", one of them could be modified and the credit never went down.
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Mark
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