Virgin Mobile, a UK MVNO (virtual network), is selling the Nokia E63 for £149 PAYG. The news is worthy of note, both because of the low price and its availability on a 'pay as you go' basis (rather than a contact). A similar example is the Nokia 6124 available on Vodafone for £75. Both of these demonstrates how Symbian devices are becoming more affordable as they are further pushed down into the mid tier market, potentially increasing their addressable market.
Read on in the full article.
It is a good deal apart from two problems.
The phone will be locked and it will be software branded so unless you are a virgin mobile customer it's a waste of time, unless you want to switch to virgin (I certainly wouldn't).
Virgin are also often very slow to approve updates too leaving you stuck with old firmware.
I'd rather pay �30 extra and get the proper sim free model from play.com if I wanted that model (which I don't).
It will probably work on T-Mobile as well; or you could get it unlocked down your local market for a tenner.
If we're on the subject of bargains, Verkkokauppa.com have the 6220 SIM-free for 240 euros, the E51 SIM-free for 199 euros, and the 6120 SIM-free for 154 euros (all including Finland's rather high VAT rate). They only ship to Finland, Sweden and Estonia though...
(Obviously those prices won't look so great when converted into pounds, but that's largely due to the pound's severe weakening.)
Looks like a good deal to me for someone who would want the "business" type phone or who wants a good phone for texting and emailing. In my experience, locked T-Mobile phones, also work with Virgin simcards, so i am sure the same would apply vice versa, just like a Tesco sim would work in an o2 phone, and an o2 sim would work in a Tesco phone.
Tend to agree with the first unregistered that for an extra thirty quid you are getting a pukka sim-free model.
I would be a bit worried about going down the local market and spending a tenner on some code that might damage the phone. However, if people have experience of doing this and it works that's up to them.
I've spent twenty pounds a couple of times getting phones unlocked and it's a lovely feeling when you are free of the network. I'm happily currently using an unlocked N95 8Gb on the O2 simplicity set-up where I'm tied in for one month only. No counting down the months for me at the moment.
However, who's to say I won't be tempted back into the contract fold when the N97 (or whatever) comes out?
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.