United Mobile has free phone offer with sim purchase
 

Sounds like a good offer for someone that needs a basic unlocked quad band Motorola V180 phone and a United Mobile sim. Only 30 euros for a package of a sim card and phone. Email they sent me:

United Mobile offers you a free mobile phone
Dear United Mobile Customer,

The ideal Christmas present to save up to 80% on phone costs is now available on our web site www.united-mobile.com.

The attractive, foldable mobile phone Motorola V180 comes as a gift when you order a SIM card*.

Place your order for the Travel Phone Bundle right now, to have it delivered before Christmas Eve. We are looking forward to receiving your order!

United Mobile wishes you happy holidays and all the best for the year 2009.

With best regards
Your United Mobile Team


PS. Don't forget: while on the road you can surf the internet with a United Mobile SIM Card for 0.99 Euro per megabyte.

* as long as stock lasts

The UM website says "triband(*) mobile Phone" (and also "Refurbished".)

But the real show-stopper for me is they want a whopping €47 for shipping to Canada.

(*) Does triband mean 900/1800/1900 (European version) or 850/1800/1900 (NA version)? I suspect it's the former, which makes the phone less than useful on this side of the pond.

I should have read it more carefully...thought it was a quad and it's a triband. I suspect a European triband unless they are stocking both versions(wouldn't be a problem likely in Canada but in the US some GSM areas are AT&T 850 mhz with no 1900 mhz coverage). Refurbished can be OK if it's done professionally, but they sort of hide that fact in the fine print. Cnet review:
http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/....html?tag=rnav
I bought the US version of this for my mother on an AT&T MVNO called Beyond Wireless. It's a very basic plastic case flip phone with a small internal color display. Voice quality is decent.

47 Euros for shipping sounds way too high unless they are using overnight shipping for the holidays.
I agree it's more likely to be the Euro-triband version....although I've sometimes seen some ebay phone dealers offer a choice of versions.

Instead of this mobile with sim purchase, I'd prefer a promotion on the sim cost itself...has UM ever made such an offer? I think so but I can't remember very well...