Hi Jackie, As I understand it, Vodafone provide Talks free of charge so consequently they pay! Now they are only prepared to offer this on a couple of older phones. I know it's a bit of a pain as you can't have it free from them on say newer phones but that's how it is I'm afraid. Regards, Tony Sweeney ----- Original Message ----- From: Jackie mcbrearty To: vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 6:50 AM Subject: [vip_students] Re: talks question Yeah john i'm depending on my best friend an old teacher actually master card to pay the remaining few hundred once i pay him back he's happy enough. If only vodafone would give us more options. Jackie -original message- Subject: [vip_students] Re: talks question From: "John O'Regan" <john.a.oregan@xxxxxxxxx> Date: 22/09/2010 10:41 pm Dear Eleanor, The one thing stopping Jackie from buying her own phone would be the price. If you want to purchase a handset without an airtime contract, the cost can be prohibitively expensive. And then she'd have to buy and install the TALKS software herself. A daunting prospect for many non-techies, John