Pick holes in my plan, please!!!

[Guest pedd]

Hi,

This is a really general point, but I'm hoping there will be some folk out there willing to help:

My work have recently offered me a mobile - a really nice Orange SPV E650 - I really like it, but the really frustrating thing is that they (quite reasonably) won't pay for a data package for it or allow me to pay the difference.

I'm currently battering an MDA Vario on T-Mobile Flext with Web n Walk. (Including using it as a modem for my laptop pretty regularly)

The offer of calls and texts paid for by work is too good to turn down, so I'm going to be moving to my work phone for most usage, but I really don't think I'm going to be able to live without my mobile data usage. For the sake of convenience I'd also like to be able to keep on my old personal number and have that forwarding calls (lots of people and organisations have my old mobile number, and I may well be going back to it one day).

SO - here's my plan:

1) Port my number to 3 pay as you go and bolt on their £5 monthly data package

2) Hopefully find a second hand handset on ebay for up to £100. I only really have 2 requiements for this handset : high speed data and a nice browser (decent email client would be nice)

I'm wondering if anyone had any better ideas. The cheapest deal with T-mobile for keeping hold of web and walk is working out at £18 a month (and that leaves me on my GPRS Vario 1 which is a little slow by today's standards). I've read that mobile usage through 3 is possible as long as you keep it to port 80 stuff (so I lose outlook, but can use webmail).

...I'm also wondering which handsets offer the best browsing experience? My last 4 phones have been QWERTY keyboard touchscreen deals but I'm resigned to losing that sort of functionality (although some Vario 2s are going for just outside my budget :-)

...Any and all ideas gratefully accepted!