I am succumbing to the idea of an iPhone 4.  

I am one of those users causing problems for the mobile networks.  I stream music to my iPhone 3GS; not all the time, just when I am travelling in the UK.  I could do this with my “eat-all-you-want” data plan.  But such data plans now appear to be unavailable as the growth in data traffic needs to be managed by the mobile carriers.

Looking onto the internet, the offer from my current carrier is easy to understand as it states 1 GB data.  Wondering if this could be beaten, I started looking at the alternatives and spotted that I could get unlimited data for £75 per month.  My appetite for data appeared to be recognised and fulfilled.  But then I noticed the use of a footnote asterisk, Unltd * data.  Looking down the page it said:

* Separate Fair Usage policies of 750MB/month apply to both BT Openzone WiFi and Mobile Internet Browsing

 As you may imagine, I was more than a little frustrated.  I do not understand why companies take this approach.  That moment of elation is soon quashed when the reader spots the qualifying footnote.

I then wondered if I could find any instances of eTeams using footnote asterisks to qualify statements.

For instance - We can offer a 24/365 service. There is no qualifying asterisk to say “excludes Christmas day”.

Our Company Directors are available to our clients after office hours.  There is no qualifying asterisk stating “does not include hours between 18:00 and 08:00”.

In summary, we avoid using footnote asterisks to qualify statements.

Actually, there is one exception ... this blog, in which we are predicting the end of the earth due to an asteroid collision.  But, in this instance I hope that you will be comforted by its use.

* Or some date thereafter, maybe

“eTeams – Translations you can trust”