Price plan and network advice

Okay here's the drill,

I have a Nokia N86 at the moment, bought it last year as I'm a bit touch screen phobic, but the web browsing performance has been sickening as of late, with the S60 browser crashing for no reason and having to jump between the S60 browser and Opera for different sites. I'm also very disappointed with the app support on S60 so want to move on. I've decided against Android as I've a history of obsessively modding phones and would rather not catch that bug again - and I know I would if I was holding a Desire or Galaxy S in my hand. So that leaves me with the iPhone.

Needless to say I'm lost. I'm with Vodafone at the moment on Simply 100 with the 1GB data addon. Last month I sent 298 texts, of which 88 were to other Vodafone users (therefore free), so I went well over my 100 text allowance... women eh? Most of my calls go to Vodafone users while most of my texts seem to go to O2 or Meteor users. Having just read through 11 pages over in the Apple forum of Vodafone users reporting dropped calls has made me uncomfortable with the idea of signing into an 18 month contract with Vodafone for an iPhone - it seems Vodafone are blaming Apple and vice versa.

I suppose I've 5 options:

1: Vodafone, on Perfect Choice Access Plus 150. 50% drop in data allowance and I risk having dropped calls. 50 more texts than my current plan. The coverage hasn't been great for me in Fairview either, drops back to GPRS in my bedroom and I've virtually nothing in work.

2: O2, on Advance 250. 75% drop in data allowance but significantly more texts than my current plan (250 vs 100). If I could stomach the paltry data allowance this would be the best option I'd think.

3: 3, on Classic Flex Max. 50 more texts than my current plan and unlimited data. The thing is, I really don't trust 3 based on what I've read on here over the last few years. Plus I only know one other person on 3 so free calls to 3 users isn't particularly useful to me.

4: Buy SIM free from Apple and experiment with SIM only plans from all providers, including Meteor. No contract or risk, and I could afford it, but it means I'm paying more for the iPhone than I did for my TV and that's hard to swallow!

5: Forget about the smartphones and just get a cheapy netbook.

Is there anything I'm missing here or any suggestions that anyone could make?

metalmessiah88

well meteor offer for €35 a month on a 12 month contract 200 mins 200 texts 1gb of data and free meteor to meteor calls and texts if u move across to them and there are quite a selection of android handsets available from them the HTC Desire S ..... or if u decide to get the sim free iphone you can get there sim only plan 30day contract 200mins 200 texts 1gb data and free meteor calls and texts for €30 per months .... hope this helps