Phone contracts can be a good way to save money on your mobile phone bills. Phone contracts can offer the consumer reduced rate phone calls, free text message bundles and data usage for browsing the web. Depending on the monthly contract amount and length a contract can give you the latest mobile phone free of charge including the choice of the latest Smartphone or tablet. The phone manufacturers also sometimes sweeten the deal further by throwing in free gifts too these may include items such as games consoles, TVs, laptops and cash back. How can the telecoms companies afford to give so much away for free? The answer is by tying you into long contracts. When mobile phones became popular the standard term for a contract phone was 12 months but as competition increased and the phone companies looked for ways to hold onto customers they brought in longer contract terms; including 18, 24 and recently 36 month contracts. Ofcom have now announced 36 month contracts are to be banned so the longest contract which is now available is 24 months. The ruling by Ofcom also states phone networks must offer 12 month contracts too. The reduction in contract lengths is likely to be passed onto UK customers as what appears to be a free handset was normally off set over the term of the contract. With the most popular phones increasing in price the availability of free phones could decrease and it is probable the upfront cost of top of the range mobiles will increase. The alternative is the monthly cost of the contract will increase to cover the cost of the phone. The decision by Ofcom brings the UK in line with the rest of Europe. Other terms which phone networks must also abide by include the ruling that mobile operators must transfer existing numbers to a new operator within one day, if the consumer wants to change networks. If a network fails to do this the network must pay reasonable compensation to the customer. Before the new ruling phone networks would provide you with your Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) within no specified time frame, which caused long delaos for consumers wishing to transfer their number to a new network. Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said, “These changes to the regulations should make it easier for consumers to take advantage of the wide range of competition in the UK communications market.” A contract phone provides good value to consumers who want to off-set the cost of their mobile handset over the life of the contract and get deals on call time and data usage by showing loyalty to their mobile network.