e.mail on board

[sundance]

Has anyone any experience of the vodafone mobile connect card for e.mail and internet access on board using a laptop. Any info on this much appreciated.

Cheers
James

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[stretch33]

Was in PC world yesterday talking about exactly the same thing with one of the boffins there, have to say i'm even more confused about e mail / laptops / mobiles now. In the end the guy was more interested in selling me the 5 year cover. Is there any one out there that can give a computer numb person some simple advice on the subject of laptop / e mail etc in simple plain lingo. In my case would like to do passage planning on laptop transfer this to Navman 5600 and send odd e mail maybe once/twice a week. Sorry sundance if l poached your post. In the end the chappy said to speak to Vodafone and funny enouigh they're 49.95 deal finished yesterday while l was talking to him.

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[ChrisE]

I am replying to this email via such a set up using a 3G/GPRS card. I rely upon it for my work and find it a generally reliable service. However it is not cheap. I paid £150 for the card and £40 a month for the data connection for up to 150 mB of data transferred. If you are interested go into a vodafone shop and find out more.

I will be taking this set up on my sailing hols to W France in three weeks time. I shall be interested to see how it works there.

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[DavidJ]

The card is very neat but expensive. Why not upgrade your mobile to GPRS and use that.

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[sundance]

Thats interesting. We will be cruising France and Italy in two weeks time. Have you any idea what the "roaming" charges will be when you are in France?

Cheers
James

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[pandroid]

Generally, the card is convienient but expensive and uneccessary. You would need to have a separate mobile account (or keep switching sim cards) which only makes sense if you buy them locally when abroad, and there are many pitfalls to that. You cans earch on thisboard for further info. Its far simpler to use an ordinary UK mobile phone with bluetooth or IRdA, which most of them have these days.

Mobile data is expensive which ever way you look at it, but it can be tamed if you use it right. I wrote a guide on how to do all this stuff <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.kissen.co.uk/communications.htm>here</A>


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[ChrisE]

I have just checked with vodafone. I am told that as a contract user there are no additional charges for GPRS/3G roaming. The preferred supplier is SFR. Voice call charges are £0.75/min to/from UK £1.50/min to other countries, text message £0.35p each.

I'll be interested to see how far offshore data services extend. In the UK I regularly get weather forecasts offshore whilst coastal cruising, once we have crossed the ditch we will be mostly 5-10 miles offshore from Chanel de Four to Isle d'Yeu.


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[MedMan]

There is a detailed paper on Communications in European Waters on my website - link below. It was written a couple of years ago and so does not cover GPRS, but it contains quite a lot of background information some may find useful.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtretreat.com>http://www.yachtretreat.com</A>

 

[mkay47]

James,
we have used a Vodafone GPRS card for a year now. Connected to a laptop it works just great. We have used it in Scandinavia without any problems. Although we can all access e-mail and even the net via our phones, the benefit of viewing on the laptop screen makes this a far better proposition. Great for weather forecasts, charts et al. etc. As someone else has said, it's quite expensive. There again, the 'cheapest isn't always the cheapest' as they say.



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[pandroid]

But of course the 'bundled' Megabytes dont count when you access from abroad. I've calculated the rate this year on Vodafone 200 (no bundled Mb, but no up front GPRS fee) and it works out at £9.10 a Mb. (Denmark)

Its usually better to get a local sim card that has data enabled, but few PAYG cards do and are still sometimes exorbitant (£10 a MB for Vodafone Sweden), and contract cards are dificult to get without a local address. I understand its a bit better in the Med

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[DavidJ]

A lot of the livaboards in Porto di Roma had GPRS phones with a local Vodaphone SIM, paid only €20 per month and internet usage after 6pm and all weekend were free.

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[ChrisE]

Re bundled, your comments contradict what I have been told by Vodafone. I'm not going to argue, will use my datacard anyway and report back as to the charges.

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[pandroid]

Well there you go. I've just asked Vodafone the same question. They are adamant that none of their price plans have bundled megabytes which count abroad, and that includes Mobile Connect. From my studies this is the same for Orange too. It's be interesting to see who's right.

Voda's website currently lists GPRS charges as £5.88 per Mb from favoured networks (i.e Vodafone owned). This compares with £2.30 for unbundled UK calls. Mind you, I've found that the website usually bears little resemblance to reality.

There was a lot of discussion on this board a few months ago on how to get round this with local sim cards.

I cant quite see the point of the card. Sure, its convienient, but on top of the cost of the card, its another fiver a month before you make the calls.

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[mocruising]

I see your posts quite often on the forum, have you written a book about the Med. as one who will be spending some time there over the next few years I should like to read it.

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[MedMan]

Yes, I have - well, about getting there anyway. It's called Brighton to the Mediterranean and it is available from the Cruising Association or direct from me. If you would like to buy a copy, send me a PM and I will give you the details.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtretreat.com>http://www.yachtretreat.com</A>

 

[dart]

I have been using Vodafone GPRS roaming throughout the med for the last 8 months and its been frustrating. It was fine until I reached Italy and then I had alot of connection problems in Malta and Greece too. Vodafone have admitted a problem but don't seem to have resolved it. What they don't tell you in the shop is that there is a 1 euro minimum connection charge so if you get a bad connection you may still get stung a euro. I have yet to have this out with Vodafone now I am back in the UK.

One thing I did discover is that if you get a Turcell SIM in Turkey you can use GRPS under pay as you go and it works really well and is amazingly cheap. In fact its 1/25 the cost of Vodafone roaming GPRS costs!


<hr width=100% size=1>Marine weather maps by mobile: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.zipget.com>ZipGet</A>