Mobile Network Comparison

Bemilo is a new mobile network that is aimed at worried parents. It markets itself as child-friendly and claims to enable parents to keep track of their children’s mobile phone usage and avoid cyber-bullying.

The swish introductory video throws out all sorts of scare statistics (with no citations, naturally) asserting that children across the country are sleep-deprived because they can’t bear to tear their innocent little eyes away from their BBMs and text messages. It goes on to argue that they spend most of their waking hours browsing the internet on smartphones, getting texts or calls from bullies or avoiding schoolwork with their phone.

In contrast, Bemilo aims to be a “safe and secure” mobile network. However, it sounds more like an authoritarian nightmare from Orwell’s seminal 1984. Parents can control not only who can and cannot contact their children but they can also put time-locks on access to the network. Even more chilling is the promise to give parents access to the content of all the calls and texts made on the phone.

All of this is a terrifying encroachment into children’s private lives and way beyond what should be deemed reasonable. If children are so young and immature that mobile access is a problem to this extent, they should not have their own phones to begin with. If they are old enough to deserve some responsibility, this nannying approach will prove to be counterproductive and give them a disturbed view of authority figures.

It’s also pretty obvious that it will all be completely ineffective. No intelligent child will let their parents read their text messages or control who they talk to. Luckily, even the most technophobic or slow child knows dozens of workarounds to get past the restrictions or can easily outsmart their parents anyway. An obvious solution is simply to order a free PAYG SIM card from a different provider (some even give free calls and texts to friends on the same network) and swap that out when they want to use their phone.

So, overall, Bemilo looks like a pointless con. And worse, one that costs £3.95/month for a PAYG admin fee and is more expensive than most budget MVNOs. The icing on the crapcake is the fact that you can’t even port numbers into Bemilo at the moment so not only will you be taking away your child’s autonomy and teaching them an awful lesson about independence and responsibility, you’ll force them to change to a new number (or provide another incentive to keep their old one).

So what do you think about Bemilo? Would you force your kids to use it? Do you think it can even be effective? Are we being too harsh? Let us know in the comments below.

We get a lot of emails and enquiries from Giffgaff users about using voicemail and the various features on offer. Rather than adding another huge section to our comprehensive review, this short post aims to outline everything you can and can’t do with Giffgaff voicemail.

First things first, simply accessing your voicemail is really easy. You just need to dial 443 from your phone. You can remember this easily as it spells “Gif” on your keypad. Alternatively, you can dial your own bumber. All calls cost a flat rate of 8p each no matter how long it takes. If you are on a goodybag with included minutes remaining, all voicemail calls will use up one minute of your allowance. This is the case anywhere on a UK network. If you are roaming abroad, you can still access your voicemail by dialling 443 but you will be charged a per minute roaming rate instead of the flat fee.

If you are on an iPhone, Apple have made it so that the voicemail button doesn’t work. Instead you’ll have to dial 443 manually. Visual voicemail also won’t work but there are superior apps you can use as an alternative. You can also set up text alerts for your voicemails by dialling 443 then pressing * then 4 then 1 then 1.

Turning voicemail on and off can be done on your handset. To turn it on, all you need to do is dial *004# and hit the call button. You should get some sort of on-screen notification that the command has worked. To turn it off again, just type #004# and press the call button. As before, you’ll get a notification. If you don’t know how your voicemail is currently set, you can check the status instantly by dialling *#004#. Then you’ll get a message telling you whether you have it off or on. If your voicemail is currently diverted to another number, you should first divert to Giffgaff voicemail by dialling **004#443# then press the call button. If at any time you get a command error trying to use these codes, trying switching your voicemail off and then on again.

When you first join Giffgaff, your voicemail will be turned on but you will need to set it up. When you first call the voicemail number, you will be able to leave a personalised message. You can also set up a PIN code which will allow you to access your voicemail from another phone. To change your pin at any time, call your voicemail number on 443 then press * then 4 then 4 then 1. After inputting your old PIN, you’ll then be able to enter a new replacement PIN. If you ever forget your PIN code, you can reset it by logging into your account and asking an agent. To use your PIN to access your voicemail from another phone line, just dial 443 as usual then press * to enter your PIN and hear your voicemails.

All voicemails remain on your phone for 30 days. If you have any other questions about Giffgaff voicemail, please ask below.

Challenging even the best-value networks and hot on the heels of a new ad-supported data network, it now looks like the cheapest mobile offer is £0/month!

A brand new virtual mobile network called Ovivo has just launched and they pledge to give you calls, texts and mobile internet absolutely free. No more wasting £30/month on an iPhone contract – now you can get a mobile for nothing at all. They claim that smartphone users will get 200 minutes, 200 texts and half a gigabyte of data every month and won’t have to pay for it at all. Even tablet users are catered for with 1GB of free mobile internet on offer at no cost whatsoever.

So what’s the catch? We’re not sure yet. You have to order your SIM for £5 initially but you get this balance back as credit straight away. Even if you go over the included amounts, the prices seem great value at just 6p/minute for calls and 6p per text message. We’re still not convinced this business model is viable even in this day and age but we’ll be looking to get in touch with Ovivo to find out a bit more. Please check back soon as we want to run an in-depth interview with the people behind this very soon.

So what do you think? Are you tempted by the rock-bottom prices? Do you think the advertising will be too intrusive? And do you think you’ll sign up or do you not see it working in the long term?