The Return of Pay As You Go

During the previous decade, contract telephones became the next big thing. More expensive phones led to businesses selling longer deals at higher cost, so unless you wanted to pay out a lot up front, a contract was the only solution.

Things are different now however, mostly as a result of the cost of the handsets. If you bought a really good handset, and you've cared for it properly over twenty four months, why get a new phone when to do so you'll shut yourself to a different long term deal?

So people are turning back to pay as you go Sims. Pay as you go offers greater fleixibility and operators such as GiffGaff are taking advantage of this flexibility to sell customers cheaper deals.

Further to this is the increased ability to unlock a handset in recent years, you only really make the most of these deals if you are able to change from operator to operator, or if you get hold of a truly fantastic offer and keep hold of it.

Then, there's the problem that contracts are horribly tricky to get out of, what to do if you have a change of circumstances? What if you get a perfect job abroad? Most British phone companies won't allow you out of a contract unless you're in the armed forces, and still it's pretty difficult, for a lot of people, contracts are too binding.

Possibly the biggest issue of them all, of course, is that you get loads more choice with pay as you go. There are a lot of virtual mobile network operators around, and most don't sell contracts, why limit yourself when there's lots of great deals to be found? And from operators working with modern business models.

If the first ten years of this century were all about good handsets and long contracts, these days the handsets are just as smart, but this decade is about the return of pay as you go.