As our friend Flora at CNET comments, if you get a cold call from another network offering you a deal when your contract is about to run out, not only is it unsolicited and potentially rather annoying but they could have actually paid to steal your data in the first place!
One of our stellar software developers on a T-Mobile tariff was caught up in this fracas and recently pelted by all manner of calls from out of the blue. Little did we know that was only the tip of the iceberg!
Luckily using a comparison service like ours, which actually tracks your usage month by month and reminds you when your contract is about to expire, or another price comparison calculator, allows you to take your mobile matters into your own hands and find the best deal for you without the “help” of those data cowboys.

And as we’ve said from the beginning in our privacy policy: “We do not and will not sell or rent your personal information to anyone, for any reason, at any time.”

The Telegraph reports rumours that Virgin Mobile are also attempting to secure the right to sell the iPhone.

Competition for iPhone customers may lower the price of an iPhone plan; in foreign markets with multiple operators offering the device, the cost of an iPhone contract was lowered by around £5/month.

We wonder when T-Mobile will also announce offering the iPhone to their customers.  As T-Mobile and Orange announced earlier this month, they will be merging their companies and the signing is expected to take place at the end of October.  The merger will probably give T-Mobile the right to offer the iPhone.  We imagine that T-Mobile will not announce adding it to their offerings until after the signing.

First off, we now support full monthly bill tracking. You can sign up and have the system automatically build your personalised assessment each month, instead of having to resubmit it manually. This is just a baby step towards something much more powerful that we are working on, but signing up now will start to build a much more accurate recommendation as you continue to use the service. The system will still use your last three monthly bills for the moment, but we will be crafting some powerful new algorithms to stitch them together and create a complete tapestry of your usage.

Coincidentally, if you are looking to get a new contract this Christmas, now is the perfect time to sign up with BillMonitor. By the time your contract ends you’ll have enough data to get a great forecast for your next purchase.

Secondly, we are currently running a trial of a new version of the homepage. If you are lucky enough to be picked at random by our testing software you will be presented with a slightly reorganized front page. Feel free to drop us an email to feedback at billmonitor.com with any comments on either design.

We’re having a little technical trouble at the moment, however, so we’ve had to temporarily remove mobiles.co.uk from our offerings. We’ll get them back in as soon as possible. Without them, we’re down a few options, but don’t panic: while we can’t offer you as many places to buy them, we still offer the same range of tariffs

Gift selection

When you find a plan that offers free gifts, you’ll see an option to choose between any that are available next to the buy button. We automatically pick the one that is likely to save you the most money on your bill by default. But if you’ve got your heart set on that PlayStation 3, you can search for it specifically using the filters at the top of the results page!

Gift Filter

Don’t forget, however, that buying into a contract because you want a Wii may not be the most efficient way to use your hard-earned cash! We don’t take the value of the extra into account when we rank each contract, so you can be sure that our results will not be tainted by these deals. We aim to get you the cheapest possible mobile phone contract first and foremost – that’s one thing that makes us different and we intend to keep at it.

Yesterday OFCOM released their “Mobile Sector Assessment“(PDF). Billmonitor is in a unique position to comment at a consumer level view of the market, through the analysis of hundreds of anonymised actual user bills.

Despite a significant increase in the choice of tariffs and services available, BillMonitor’s research shows that 88% of UK contract mobile users could save on average 42.6% (£211 annually) on their mobile bill by choosing the right tariff. This suggests that the 26 million UK mobile contract users could make £4.4 billion in savings each year.

OFCOM’s Mobile Sector Assessment (MSA) states that ‘competition in the mobile sector has, on the whole, been a success for UK consumers.’ BillMonitor agrees this is true in terms of available choice, however from the numbers above it’s clear that consumers are struggling to make the right choice. Consumer Focus, the independent campaign organisation, in their recent assessment found that the mobile sector had the lowest rating in terms of consumer confidence.

It’s not hard to see why this is the case; BillMonitor is tracking 228,532 tariffs and add-ons which represents significant and meaningful choice. However, as mobile consumers, our usage patterns are changing continuously as new services become available. The MSA highlights the increasing amount of calls made as well as the rise in usage of new services, especially data and text; BillMonitor sees evidence this makes it hard for consumers to keep up with suitable tariffs. Compounding this, BillMonitor has found that 70% of consumers are not confident in estimating their usage with 36% saying they have ‘no idea’.

BillMonitor has found substantiating evidence. As seen in actual user bills, 82% of users have a plan that is too big for them, and while some extra inclusive usage is desirable, usually the consumer is paying for many minutes and texts they never use. At the same time consumers are failing to take advantage of bundles available to them for the new data or other services they are starting to use (BillMonitor is currently tracking 163 bundles).

Do consumers really need to switch provider?
Although the MSA highlights the importance of switching provider in driving healthy competition, finding the right tariff does not necessarily mean switching. Indeed as the MSA highlights 74% of mobile users are not interested in switching provider currently and 60% have never switched.

Summary Statistics
88% of BillMonitor users save money by switching to the tariff most suitable for them – an average saving of £17.56. a month – that’s £211 a year! In percentage terms, the average mobile contract user seen by BillMonitor saves 42.6% on deals that include a free phone.

• There is no need to change provider – 91% still save £17.64 on average by changing to their most suitable tariff with their current provider (including SIM-only tariffs)
• If they are willing to keep their existing handset then 92% can save £19.47 on average per month using a SIM-only tariff most without changing provider. The MSA highlights the growing popularity of this type of contract, particularly due to the lack of any lock-in period.
• If everyone used BillMonitor to find their ideal tariff, the UK average monthly bill would drop from £39.27 to £21.28.

Conclusion
BillMonitor agrees that there is sufficient and growing choice in the mobile market, however we believe the significant inefficiency evidenced by consumer choices requires attention. BillMonitor is aiming to provide the information the consumer needs to navigate the huge choice available and we would welcome specific initiatives by OFCOM on this front.

These stores often offer free gifts with tariffs, and we’ve included those too. Currently we pick the gift for you based on which provides the highest straight-up monetary value. In our next update, we’ll be providing a choice of gifts, so if you’re set on that free Playstation 3, we’ll be able to help you out.

In addition to the new deals, we’ve sped up the site significantly. We hope that you’ll notice the difference! We’ve also been working hard under the hood to prepare the system for even more tariffs. The mobile market is an incredibly complicated place, and we’re just getting started!