The Dark Furie

The guy serving me asks which operating system I want and I can't help but smile at his way of putting it. Phones only have one operating system behind them now thanks to an open source standard becoming popular a while ago. What he actually means is which selection of basic applications, ringtones and wallpapers do I want to have loaded onto the phone. I have a look at the current list. All of them come with a basic messaging application, basic phonebook, and basic web browser. The Professional one has a load of office applications included but I've got most of them in my files at home. However the Media package has newer versions of the media players than I've been able to find so far so I opt for that and he enters the choice into his computer. Most of the stuff in the "operating system" will be deleted and replaced when I get home anyway.

Now comes the fun part, time to build my contract. Fashionable exclusives almost destroyed competition between the mobile phone networks quite a few years back and since then the regulating bodies have stepped in and revolutionised the way phones are bought on contract. There are no exclusive phones anymore, in fact the networks have nothing to do with the handsets. You pick your model and pay full price for it now that the networks are no longer allowed to subsidise the handsets. This small change has meant that manufacturers had to adapt to a single underlying operating system just to stay afloat. They also couldn't rely on a single phone selling millions so they started producing them in lesser numbers. Nowadays while almost everyone still has a phone, we don't chop and change them as often as we used to. Even I usually wait two or three years before upgrading.

I explain to the guy behind the counter that I don't make many outgoing calls and he offers me an incoming calls only deal from Vodafone for three pounds a month. A raised eyebrow tells him that I like to have the option even if I don't make the calls often and he finds a 20 minute basic call package for four pounds a month from Orange which I take. Next is messaging which I do a lot so we settle on a package from T-Mobile to fulfil all my instant messaging, e-mail, and enhanced MMS needs. Text messages were a persistant mobile technology but as the rates of instant messaging and the other services dropped it was slowly phased out. Web browsing is the easiest one to choose from as I'm always on the web. I opt for the highest speed, unlimited download service which happens to be from Three. That's odd, it was o2 last time I upgraded. A few more options later and I'm done. The guy goes to the back of the shop to get my smart SIM card and I spend a few idle moments flicking through a brochure.

The networks have all got loyalty deals going on where if you get all your services from them you save some money. It's kind of like the old days where you were restricted to contracts from one network. I always wonder how we got conned into that one and as a matter of principle I never go for the loyalty deals. Besides, by picking and choosing I can build just the right deal for me. Still it's surprising how many people don't use seperate networks. I had a guy at the door a couple of nights ago trying to get me to switch networks, and treating me like I didn't know phones. Soon sent him packing. They always come during dinner.

Ah, he's back with my SIM card. I love the way these things work now, it's so much better than the old ways. He just pops it into his card writer and everything I've selected is preloaded onto the card from my tariff choices all the way down to the "operating system" I chose. He puts the SIM card into the phone I chose and I'm ready to go, but first I've gotta buy credit. Mixing the pay and go services with the contract ones has been tried so many times but it just didn't work until the smart SIMs came into the equation. Now you top up your phone and it allocates a percentage of each top up to the different companies that give you services according to how much you should pay them. Only when you've topped up enough can you make use of the services themselves and have some money in reserve for when you exceed the limits of your contract choice. I buy enough credit to last me three months and have it all put on as service instead of free credit. As I leave the shop I smile to myself. The future is bright, but it's certainly not orange.

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