Mobile e-Mail again!

[MikeKopman]

Hi all,

This mobile comms thing seems to be a regular topic... maybe it should have it's own forum!!

I have been trying to find out more about GPRS and all the 'help desks' and 'customer service' lines I've called, as well as the retailer I bought my phone from, tell me different things.
So, could someone that actually uses it tell me.... is it possible to use your laptop and GPRS to connect to your existing ISP or do you have to sign up with eg Voda as your ISP?
Or, is GPRS only for use on mobiles alone?

Mike

 

[gtmoore]

My mobile is on Orange and I use my PDA with GPRS. Virtually instant connection times and download speeds sometimes approaching that of a conventional modem but V. expensive if you're surfing extensively as it's charged by the volume of data moved as opposed to connection time. GPRS is a lot more tolerant of weak signal areas. It's also very expensive.

Did I say it was expensive ?? £8 a Mb on the lowest tarif which is almost as much of a rip off as SMS Text messages at 10p per 160 bytes (£64 per Mb!!)

I actually find it of more use with a PDA such as an iPAQ for emails on the move and accessing low graphics sites such as the BBC (shipping forecast etc), news, and what with NAVTEX being on the web too (sort of) it's all good stuff.

Regarding accessing your ISP using GPRS, I set up a freebie Orange account to get onto the net (not sure if Voda have a similar method of access) but once there I can use the pop mail services of my normal ISP.

GPRS is a packet switched method of transferring data over a GSM mobile network. Your base station is allocated a certain 'bandwith' (actually number of timeslots) for this transfer method and these are shared between all the other users in your area so performance is variable. Lots more techie stuff on this and High Speed switched data at http://www.gcrsoft.com/data.html. It's horses for courses really as to which is best to use.

HTH

Gavin

 

[Gunfleet]

I'm puzzled by this. Orange offer 10 MB at £25 per month, then £2.50 per MB. I'd have thought that wasdecent enough for email as long as the world and his bro isn't clogging your box with spam. Also, till September, they're making it available in France & a couple of other places for no extra charge. I'm going to try it in August. All I have to do now is find a way to keep my laptop running all day on a sailing boat!

 

[gtmoore]

The price I used was the "entry level" 0.5Mb a month for £4 subscription. You are quite correct that it gets cheaper the more you buy up front. However, for your £25 you could have something like 100 minutes on HSCSD at pretty much GPRS speeds or umpteen minutes on conventional 14400 connections (specially if you use an ISP with a geographical or 0870 number therefore using inclusive minutes) which would probably be fine for email and would only be used whilst connected.

As discussed, GPRS does have some other advantages, and £25 a month isn't a fortune I guess but I can probably think of better things to spend it on.

Also note that none of this applies when roaming and if other European countries are included then it sounds a fairer deal. I would recommend you have conventional data dial-up configured too incase the GPRS coverage is a bit patchy or your roaming network doesn't support it.

Gavin