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Retro: First PAYG mobile phones
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BMR
21-04-2014
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?
MGS4SnakeRulez
21-04-2014
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.
jabbamk1
21-04-2014
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)
d123
21-04-2014
Pretty sure the first proper PAYG was a Peoples Phone branded handset on Vodafone, sometime around '97/'98.
scooby1970
21-04-2014
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
jabbamk1
21-04-2014
Originally Posted by scooby1970:
“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”

You mean this right?
Telital PV129
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps2ccad54b.jpg
scooby1970
21-04-2014
Originally Posted by jabbamk1:
“You mean this right?
Telital PV129
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps2ccad54b.jpg”

That's the one! Cool, was a great phone!

Mark
d123
21-04-2014
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.
BMR
21-04-2014
Originally Posted by scooby1970:
“Can't remember the year, but mine was a Teletal Mobile on Vodafone and £1 per-minute to make a call.”

Good grief, I thought 30ppm on my BT Cellnet phone was dear. You could ring one landline number for free though

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,,,,
Rush
21-04-2014
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.
BMR
21-04-2014
Originally Posted by Rush:
“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.”

Yes that's exactly the plan I had
prking
21-04-2014
Originally Posted by d123:
“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.”

You're right, it would have been about 1995. People's Phone launched Vodafone Prepay. I had an NEC P2. It cost £28 for 28 days service and 28 minutes of calls. You prepaid by going into a People's Phone , they filled in a form and faxed it. Your payment was added within 24 hours. Or you could take a plastic card (no magnetic strip) to the post office, they would imprint it and your payment would be applied within 5 days.


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.
ShaunIOW
21-04-2014
My first was a Philips Diga on BT Cellnet in 1997 or 1998 - £10 every 3 months PAYG and 49p a minute for calls.
BMR
21-04-2014
Originally Posted by ShaunIOW:
“My first was a Philips Diga on BT Cellnet in 1997 or 1998 - £10 every 3 months PAYG and 49p a minute for calls.”

I think my sister had one of those, although I think her call plan was 35ppm and only 5p for texts, which was quite cheap back then. No free number for her though. I think this was called the 'U' plan....
qasdfdsaq
22-04-2014
Someone should fill out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...d_mobile_phone as there's no UK info in there.
de525ma
22-04-2014
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).
happy-camper
22-04-2014
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
d123
22-04-2014
Originally Posted by de525ma:
“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).”

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...)
de525ma
22-04-2014
Originally Posted by d123:
“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...)”

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
binary
22-04-2014
Originally Posted by ShaunIOW:
“My first was a Philips Diga on BT Cellnet in 1997 or 1998 - £10 every 3 months PAYG and 49p a minute for calls.”

It was the Philips Diga that a lot of people had on the pay-nothing-as-you-go plan, was it not?
d123
22-04-2014
Originally Posted by de525ma:
“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 ”

The NK401 launched late '97 or '98. Cheapest "Just Talk" was the Dancall DC01, horrible little phone.

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.
d123
22-04-2014
Originally Posted by binary:
“It was the Philips Diga that a lot of people had on the pay-nothing-as-you-go plan, was it not?”

Yes, Philips Diga, badged as "Easy Life" or "U", one of them could be modified and the credit never went down.
Orbitalzone
22-04-2014
Originally Posted by happy-camper:
“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”

Same here, I found the phone was never very good with signals or maybe just patchy reception wherever I used it.

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
moox
22-04-2014
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.
randolf105
22-04-2014
Originally Posted by d123:
“Yes, Philips Diga, badged as "Easy Life" or "U", one of them could be modified and the credit never went down.”

If you sent a text then switched the phone off at the right time whilst the text was sending you used to get them free...
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