Smartphones and tablets are an essential part of a modern, digital life, but there are many people in our community who rely on this technology for more than sending tweets and cracking high scores on Candy Crush Saga. For the elderly and people with disabilities, a smartphone can be a life-line for when they are in trouble or just in need of general assistance.

Jeenee Mobile is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to provide important mobile services to members of our community living with a disability; but it goes way beyond selling the phone and network coverage. With a 24/7 Sydney-based call centre, Jeenee is also on hand to help subscribers with anything they need.

Best of all, anyone can sign up to Jeenee, and each new subscription goes towards providing free mobile services to Australians with disabilities, through its Make A Difference charity program.

Jeenee Mobile service highlights:

Affordable phone plans

Phones with specially designed interfaces

24/7 Australian call centre

Make A Difference charity program

Optus 4G nationwide coverage

Smarter, simpler phones

Buying a new smartphone and a plan is a confusing and daunting task for most of us. Learning to use your new phone can be almost as difficult, depending on how comfortable you are with new technology. With this in mind, Jeenee offers its customers a number of tailor-made solutions.

If you choose Jeenee as your phone provider, you also have the option of buying a specially configured smartphone, with clear, easy-to-use touchscreen buttons and an emergency button for quick access to the Jeenee call centre.

All phones come with a GPS Location app which helps the Jeenee team locate subscribers requiring assistance. This can be used to direct emergency services to someone, but it can also be used if a Jeenee customer is lost and needs help finding their destination.

Jeenee Mobile currently offers a number of different handset options, including Samsung Galaxy S3 4G smartphones, easy-to-use Doro Flip Phones and even 8- and 10-inch Samsung tablets with built-in calling functionality.

Customers who wish to bring their own Android devices may choose a SIM-only option, but Jeenee asks that these customers send in their phone to have the Jeenee apps installed and tested by the team.

Phoning home

Central to the Jeenee Mobile customer experience is an always-open Sydney-based call centre, which is manned 24/7 by staff trained in dealing with people with disabilities, either mental, physical or acquired.

To make accessing this important service as easy as possible, each ‘Jeenee phone’ comes with a dedicated ‘Help’ button which triggers a free-call to the call centre.

On its website, Jeenee points out that this service is not just for life-threatening emergencies, but that it’s staff are happy to speak to customers whenever they need them. Examples from the Jeenee site include:

Organising Emergency Services support

Contacting your family or friends for you

Reassuring you if you're feeling worried or panicked

Having a chat with you when you're lonely or wanting to hear a friendly voice

Locating you if you need assistance

You can make a difference too

Anyone can become a Jeenee Mobile customer and everyone who does contributes to its ‘Make a Difference’ program.

Each month, Jeenee nominates a Make A Difference Champion organisation — a community group supporting people with disabilities — to make a donation to. Jeenee then counts up how many new SIM-packs have been sold and passes on free phones and service to its Champion, who in turn pass the phones on to people who need them. The more new SIM-packs Jeenee sells, the more free services it provides.

In fact, just 5 x $40 SIM packs equals one free service each month, so there is scope for lots and lots of people to benefit from these program.

Perhaps most interesting about Jeenee Mobile is that its plans are really competitive compared to other Australian service providers. There are 3 SIM-only plans to choose from, ranging in price from $15 to $40 per month, and each comes with generous calls and data inclusions.

In a cost vs value comparison, Jeenee is in-line with many of the cheapest SIM-only telcos, plus it offers a 4G Optus service, while many of its competitors offer 3G service only.