FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 008 (04/06/96)

CELLULAR CONFUSION

I would like to purchase a mobile phone, mainly for safety reasons, and probably wouldn’t use it very often to make outgoing calls.

Can you please advise which phone would be the most economical, I’m totally confused by the ads!

J.M.G., Northants

A

Several cell-phone service providers offer low-cost, low-usage contracts. They’re available with a wide range of digital and analogue handsets, that either cost nothing, or a fairly nominal sum (£5 to £50). Line rental for the Peoples Phone ‘Emergency’ tariff costs £11.69 per month, call charges are 80 pence per minute at all times, and there’s a one-off connection fee of £23.50. Ford Cellular have an ‘Economy’ tariff that works out £11.75 per month, calls are charged at 81 pence a minute. Connection to the Cellnet network is usually free, Vodaphone charge £25. If you buy a new Ford car from one of their dealerships, you will get a free phone on the Ford Time tariff. Line rental is £9.99 each month and call charges are 50 pence a minute at peak times, 20 pence off-peak. The phones supplied have two dedicated buttons, one automatically dials the RAC (free membership is included), the other puts you straight through to Ford’s Customer Care Centre, who give users free travel advice, help with hotel booking and even send and receive faxes.

Dealers should be able to advise you on the most suitable network and system for your local area. All of the prices quoted include VAT. It’s worth bearing in mind that you will normally have to sign up for a minimum of 12 months, pay by direct debit and there may be compulsory extras, like itemised billing and insurance, so read the small print!

Contacts: Peoples Phone, telephone 0181-208 6000; Ford Cellular, telephone (0345) 919293; RAC

INTERNAL EXAMINATION

I’m about to buy a PC and want to be able to access the Internet but I’m not sure which type of modem is most suitable. I realise that speed is important, but what are the differences between internal and external types?

G.H., Leith

A

The price for a start. Internal modems are generally around 25% cheaper for any given speed, and you may even be able to use it as a negotiating tool when buying a new PC. Internal modems can be swines to configure -- less so these days with ‘plug-and-play’ Windows 95 -- but if you buy a machine with one fitted, make sure it has been properly set up, before you take it home. Internal modems also take up one of the PCs spare expansion slots, which may cause problems if you later decide to add further devices, such as sound or multimedia video cards. External modems plug into one of the PC’s serial communications ports and are usually quite easy to set up and use, but the box takes up desk space and they’re powered by plug-in mains adaptors. As far as speed is concerned you’re right, the faster the better; 14,400 bps (bit per second) is the minimum you should use for Internet applications, 28,800 bps is far better, though you may find that some Internet Service providers have slightly higher on-line charges for faster modems. Incidentally, most models come supplied with free communications, fax and Internet software.

MEMORY UPGRADE

Last year I brought a 486/100Mhz PC with 4 megabytes of RAM, which I now want to increase to 8Mb as I’m planning to upgrade to Windows 95. The motherboard has four memory slots, which are filled with 1 Mb SIMMs modules. Do you know of anyone that will take these in part exchange for two 4Mb SIMMs, or will I have to throw them away?

A

Some companies will give you a trade-in allowance on your SIMMs (serial in-line memory module), though it’s unlikely to be very much. Alternatively you could use a device called a SIMM Swapper, that turns your four 1meg SIMMs into a 4 megabyte module, so you only have to buy one 4Mb SIMM. Swappers cost around £20 to £25 and are available from most computer hardware dealers. The only point to watch out for is the extra space they take up, which might be a problem inside some slimline desktop cases.