Are there any Mobile Phone Tariffs for Deaf Users? I have for 20 years now put up with buying into phone plans that supply 1,000 of free talk time to attract customers and have for years paid punitive rates for SMS messages. At home I use FREE e-mail and various FREE Instant messenger systems to contact my mainly hearing friends and family. My BT phone bill is always expensive and so complicated to understand I don't even bother opening it to see how I need to pay £50 but only made £5 worth of "calls" - mostly visitors borrowing a cheap call because like 99% of people with a flashy mobile these days they have "run out of credit" . A New era is finally upon us, Smart phones - The flashy TV commercials - web-sites promise at last MSN LIVE MESSENGER - GOOGLEMAIL - SKYPE - YAHOO MESSENGER and of course many others available now 24 hours a day. At home but far more importantly for the deaf for almost the first time there is an easy way to communicate beyond specialist closed devices - The SmartPhone promises universal communications - that is something the hearing world have taken advantage of almost since the invention of the telephone and never more so than in the age of the mobile. Three's X series looks compelling - but even as an IT professional I found it almost impossible to establish exactly what "fair usage" of their bandwidth really meant - but hey - they have loads worthless free "hearing minutes" I'm not knocking THREE I'm sure in the hearing world its a fantastic deal - I just resent committing myself to an outrageous 18 month contract paying for stuff I cannot use, The Orange site is no better but they thoughtfully provide to completely useless telephone numbers on their disability access page. GRRRR - A quick scan of all the major telephone networks paint a similar picture. Well Im not going to take it any more! And if I have made you question for a moment that the phone in your pocket represents excellent value for money to a deaf user then I invite you to get vocal about it too. So Phone companies - Stuff your Free Hearing Mins - Music Downloads - Ringtones - FM Radios - 18 month contracts - and fat-cat price plans. STOP RIPPING US OFF. Its now technologically simple for any phone network to create a Deaf Price Plan that would allow us to communicate easily with the hearing world through a universal device with internationally recognised standards - yet its being excluded from a large community - is it not time for the phone companies to take our voice seriously - or will the regulators OFCOM do it for us? - don't bank on it - their website advice to Deaf users is "look at the service providers price lists on- line" and confusingly recommends the w3c.org web-site - really useful if you are a budding website designer. The RNID site sections on mobile phone is little more than a buyers guide that reads like it was written when mobiles were first introduced but I guess if you don't know what an SMS message is - its the place to go. So has ANYONE out there found a better deal - a provider that understands the problems deaf people have using phones - and more importantly can do it so that the most disadvantaged in our society are not penalised any longer for being disabled.
Hi David Have a look at the T-Mobile Flext tarriffs. The monthly fee pays for a fix allowance which you can chose how you spend it. For example £15 per month get you £34 worth of calls/text. If you do texts only you will be able to send 340 of them without having to pay another penny. If you need more texts go for a higher tarrif. £20 per month will give you 600 texts. There is a special offer on at the moment, £5 per month off on all tarriffs if purchased online. The only downside is that they are 18 month contracts. See link for details:- http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/price-plans/pay-monthly/flext/plans/ Regards John "DavidDB" wrote in message news:1182908229.440948.270990@o61g2000hsh.googlegroups.com... Are there any Mobile Phone Tariffs for Deaf Users? I have for 20 years now put up with buying into phone plans that supply 1,000 of free talk time to attract customers and have for years paid punitive rates for SMS messages. At home I use FREE e-mail and various FREE Instant messenger systems to contact my mainly hearing friends and family. My BT phone bill is always expensive and so complicated to understand I don't even bother opening it to see how I need to pay £50 but only made £5 worth of "calls" - mostly visitors borrowing a cheap call because like 99% of people with a flashy mobile these days they have "run out of credit" . A New era is finally upon us, Smart phones - The flashy TV commercials - web-sites promise at last MSN LIVE MESSENGER - GOOGLEMAIL - SKYPE - YAHOO MESSENGER and of course many others available now 24 hours a day. At home but far more importantly for the deaf for almost the first time there is an easy way to communicate beyond specialist closed devices - The SmartPhone promises universal communications - that is something the hearing world have taken advantage of almost since the invention of the telephone and never more so than in the age of the mobile. Three's X series looks compelling - but even as an IT professional I found it almost impossible to establish exactly what "fair usage" of their bandwidth really meant - but hey - they have loads worthless free "hearing minutes" I'm not knocking THREE I'm sure in the hearing world its a fantastic deal - I just resent committing myself to an outrageous 18 month contract paying for stuff I cannot use, The Orange site is no better but they thoughtfully provide to completely useless telephone numbers on their disability access page. GRRRR - A quick scan of all the major telephone networks paint a similar picture. Well Im not going to take it any more! And if I have made you question for a moment that the phone in your pocket represents excellent value for money to a deaf user then I invite you to get vocal about it too. So Phone companies - Stuff your Free Hearing Mins - Music Downloads - Ringtones - FM Radios - 18 month contracts - and fat-cat price plans. STOP RIPPING US OFF. Its now technologically simple for any phone network to create a Deaf Price Plan that would allow us to communicate easily with the hearing world through a universal device with internationally recognised standards - yet its being excluded from a large community - is it not time for the phone companies to take our voice seriously - or will the regulators OFCOM do it for us? - don't bank on it - their website advice to Deaf users is "look at the service providers price lists on- line" and confusingly recommends the w3c.org web-site - really useful if you are a budding website designer. The RNID site sections on mobile phone is little more than a buyers guide that reads like it was written when mobiles were first introduced but I guess if you don't know what an SMS message is - its the place to go. So has ANYONE out there found a better deal - a provider that understands the problems deaf people have using phones - and more importantly can do it so that the most disadvantaged in our society are not penalised any longer for being disabled.
