From next Tuesday I'll be spending a week in New York. As I'm going to be using my phone for GPS, listening to music, taking pictures etc, I thought it might be a good time to see if I could get an early upgrade on my mobile contract. My current phone, the N73 was great but after 15 months of use and abuse it can behave erratically (to say the least). Trying to take pictures, especially, has become such a difficult proposition that I often don't bother any more (it's to do with that silly shutter and how the phone sometimes thinks it's closed when it's actually open).
It's not just that my phone is acting up in it's old age - I want, no NEED, WiFi in my phone! I'm sure it's something that will be immensely useful in a country that isn't included in 3's generous 3 Like Home offering.
So, after a bit of homework, I decided to try my luck with 3's upgrades team. I was told I could upgrade now but that I really should wait until the 11th April (the official start of my early upgrade period). I asked the nice lady how much a Nokia N95 8GB would cost today and she told me it would be £350. That would be the price of the handset itself. That would be on top of what I'm paying a month (which is quite a hefty amount I should add). What would the price be if today was the 11th April? She told me it would be free!
So I'm going to have to wait five more weeks and put up with my current dilapidated phone in the meantime. On a positive note it appears that 12 month contracts are still an option when dealing with them direct - I know I'm not going to get another 18 month contract if I can help it.