Many of us, if not all of us, now carry a mobile phone. We all have different methods of paying for the usage of these phones from "Pay as you go " or "Pay Monthly", I have been a pay monthly customer of Vodafone for a long time.

I decided to carry out a little analysis of my bills to see if I was getting the best value for money from the tarriff that I was on. When I was reviewing the data that I could get my hands on from Vodafones website I noticed that I was calling and continue to call 1890 numbers.

1890 numbers are shown on many advertisements and documentation to be low cost numbers, well they are not if you use your mobile.

My tarriff gives me a monthly allowance of 200 minutes of calls to any network and landlines in Ireland, and I find it hard to meet this on a monthly basis, and usually have minutes carried foward to the next month, yet I still get charged for calls that I have made to 1890 numbers at 25c per minute, which does'nt meet my defination of cheap or low cost.

When I called Vodafone to ask why this is the case, "Its always been like that" was the response, I asked could it be ascertained why 1890 numbers are not part of my monthly commitment? "I'll need to find out and get back to you" I'm still waiting, and have a feeling will be waiting for sometime to come.

Another thing I noticed that Companies and Government Agencies, such as the Revenue Commissioners, print these numbers so that you can contact them cheaply, but they never print an alternative number ie an ordinary landline number, which I can assure you is part of your monthly flat charge and you won't be charged extra.

One would have thought that 1890 would be part of "any network" but it would appear to be apart of "some other network".

Two things disturbed me about the recent Rolling Stones concert at the O2. The first being that Greenwich Council will not fine either Keith Richards or Ronnie Wood £50 for smoking on stage at the venue on the basis that no one at the concert complained about it. It would seem as if the smoking ban doesn't actually apply as long as no one complains. Does it set a precedent? Could landlords display signs like "this is a smoking pub" and have their  patrons agree. What exactly was the point of introducing the ban if it isn't applied? Isn't this just another message to the UK that you can get away with anything?

The second thing that disturbed me was someone describing the event (of them lighting up) as "being a great rock 'n' roll moment" (Evening Standard 22/08/07). Now pardon me for being a purist, but how does this non event compare to Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat?

Tesco are off again to capture more of your money, and they are'nt going to do this by providing fresh produce on their shelves, or employing helpful staff, no they are going to sell you mobile phone minutes along with your bread,milk,credit card,loans,cheap apartments and life assurance. They have just entered into an agreement with O2 to buy minutes on a wholesale basis and sell them onto you while you complete your weekly shop.

I suppose on the plus side this will open more competiton in the telecommunication sector, which hopefully will lead to the lowering of costs to the consumer, but as with all silver linings there needs to be a cloud. By indulging in this new initiative I can't help but think that resources will be diverted from the core business of providing us with food and a clean environment in which to do your weekly shop. I have a feeling that Marks Vanilla Cornet experience will become more frequent in the future.

As I move on through life would'nt it be nice to have the following,

• Supermarkets that sell you good fresh food as a fair price.
• Electricity companies that sell only electricity.
• Gas companies that sell only Gas.
• Airlines that actually fly you some where and treat you with respect.

I know I sound like a "grumpy old man " thats because these companies are over-complicating my life, and its my money that they want, and all I want in return is value and quality.

I wonder if this service will be free from bugs unlike Tescos petrol? I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

I suppose to amend Tesco's catch phrase "Every little piece of shite that we can sell, helps our bottom line, and increases our chances of world domination"