After 12 years with Vodafone, I made the decision to change network provider when my contract was due for renewal. This is how I come to be typing up this post on a new HTC Desire Z, connected to the internet via Orange.
It wasn’t that Vodafone hadn’t been good to me – for the most, they had been – it was just a feeling that I should at least explore my options.
The last time I changed my phone I’d recieved some very bad advice from the commission chasing salesman in the Vodafone store, so I was mindful of this in the decision making process. I called Vodafone and told them that when I was asking for my Port Authorisation Code. In fairness, I was given an apology and told they would do their best to give me a good deal when I’d decided on a phone.
By that point I already knew which phone I wanted – what I hadn’t decided on was a network. There was no sense making life difficult for myself, though. I knew full well that Vodaphone had the best network coverage and best 3.5G infrastructure. So I wasn’t going to romp off with, say, T-Mobile, for example, when I knew their coverage in my home town was sparse at best.
In that regard, it became clear after a bit of research that that my only options were staying with Vodafone or switching to Orange. Their network coverage was pretty similar, at least it was where I’d be using it, although the red & white team had the advantage.
Still, I fancied a change. There were lots of little niggles I’d been tolerating with Vodafone, such as the awful account management on their website, and some misleading and brutal roaming charges.
So here we are, just a few weeks after I requested my PAC, I’m now an Orange customer and this morning my number was successfully ported. It’s all in the head, for sure, but using this phone does feel quite different.
Maybe it’s the fact I’m ditching Nokia, too? Because the HTC Desire Z feels like a well built (and weighty) piece of hardware in comparison to the plastic fare with built in obsolesence that Nokia have furnished me with for over a decade, now.
With a now ubiquitous 24 month contract, I’m all set for what I hope will be good quality coverage and service from Orange until this time in 2010. I do hope the future is as bright as they promised.
