O2 to Withdraw First Generation Pay as you Go Mobile Phones

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O2 will be disconnecting several old mobile phone models by June 30th - find out what to do if you still own one of these.

From June 30th, O2 will be withdrawing service for a range of it's original pay as you go mobile phones, sold when they were named Cellnet. The mobiles in question are the Philips C12, Philips C13, Philips Diga and Motorola M3588.

Spokesman for O2, Dave Massey refers to these phones as "first generation pre-pay" and states that customers "have had very good value for money out of these phones" which are up to 10 years old.

Up to 50,000 of these mobile phone models are still in circulation and being used by consumers, often just kept in case of needing to make an emergency call and as such are not used very often, though are vital to their owners.

O2 are offering discounts on new mobile phones to placate customers, however the amount they pay each customer depends on the amount that they use their mobile phone, and with many of these only being used in emergencies it means that in some cases customers are only being offered a discount of £5 off a new phone angering consumers.

The technical reason behind the O2 "switch off" of these mobile phones is because they differ from current mobile phones in the way that they communicate with the network. In modern pre-pay mobile phones the SIM card and network holds all of the information on how much credit is on the phone, whereas in these older models it is the phone itself that holds it. This requires a seperate part of O2's network infrastructure to maintain which O2 want to shut down to continue to improve on their modern network infrastructure for pay as you go mobiles.

There is however a possibility that some consumers may still be able to use their existing phones with new SIM cards. After an investigation by BBC television program Working Lunch, O2 have conceeded to send out new SIM cards free of charge for any of the customers who own these mobile phones if they contact the networks customer service team. However Dave Massey notes that this is "more good luck than anything else" and that "some features may not work correctly with the new SIM card installed. Later models of the Philips C12 and C13 and the Motorola M3588 may work with the new SIM card, however the Philips Diga will not as it pre-dates the current smaller SIM cards and instead contains a credit card sized SIM card.

Advice to owners of the Philips C12, Philips C13 and Motorola M3588

There is a possibility that owners of these phones will still be able to use them with modern SIM cards. The way to test this would be to try placing another SIM card in it from a friends phone of another phone of your own. If it turns on and you are able to make a call then the free SIM card offered when you contact O2 should be able to work.

The tariff that the free SIM card will be on is Pay and Go Talkalot. This may not be the best tariff for those who wish to keep their phones for emergencies and recieve the cheapest rates. Take a look below at our quick table highlighting some of the rates on offer. Even though you would have to purchase a new SIM card in this case it may work out cheaper in the long run or you may be able to get some excellent discounts, for example Fresh are offering their SIM card free when you top it up with £10.

Advice to owners of the Philips Diga

Barring a last minute change of heart from O2, unfortunately this mobile phone will cease to work on June 30th. This is because it contains a credit card sized SIM card as opposed to the modern chip sized SIM cards. If you still have one of these phones the only option is to upgrade.

You can purchase a new standard pay as you go mobile phone for between £20-30 in many high street retailers, though bigger discounts are generally available online if you purchase a certain amount of credit with the phone. The other alternative is to see whether O2 will offer you a good amount of cashback for them to send you out a new phone with a new SIM card.