More GPRS queries - UK coverage, costs, viability

[MedMan]

Re: GPRS setup

[ QUOTE ]
All good stuff. However, if his phone is really five years old, its unlikely that its got GPRS capability. Tell us what model the phone is, and we can probably help.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not the five-year old phone I'm wanting to use - it's the new Vodafone Data Card!

 

[Grehan]

Get Grehan!

Ah, you're not getting me PARANOID are you PANDROID? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif !!!!!

No seriously, if I really thought that any multinational company could actually tell one customer from another, then I guess you might have a point. Ha ha.

 

[MedMan]

Re: GPRS setup

[ QUOTE ]
Turkcell GPRS, once setup, is(was) fantastic. It works really well and is very cheap.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the information. Did you have a Turkcell PAYG SIM card? Did you have to do anything to get GPRS enabled on it?

 

[dart]

Re: GPRS setup

>Did you have a Turkcell PAYG SIM card?
Yes
>Did you have to do anything to get GPRS enabled on it?
No

In fact I had Turkcell PAYG for voice when I bumped into another yachtsman who showed me how to set it up. In 15 mins I was connected. Amazing. If only all GPRS was this good.

 

[MedMan]

Re: GPRS setup

Very many thanks dart. I shall give it a try!

 

[dk]

[ QUOTE ]

I believe the PAYG GPRS package is designed for WAP phones. If you want to use your laptop you really need a contract.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not true - you can now get PAYG GPRS from Vodafone - it was included in my datacard, along with £20's worth of free credit!

 

[pragmatist]

Thanks for all the useful info

Many thanks for all the replies - I now feel cheered in tackling the mobile phone companies to see if I can sort a contract for this season. Sounds as though Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile are all possibilities - its down to whether one can find some who has half a brain (and as I know from previous forays into mobile phones and data this is not usually easy).

And apologies as I'm about to post about mobile phone coverage and GPRS in Scotland ! Look forward to hearing from you all !

Penny

 

[Ships_Cat]

Maybe I should change my comment regarding perhaps being finger problems to "perhaps being an attitude problem for some". Your response smacks of being typical of those who routinely have difficulties dealing with service providers by confusedly complicating both the providers lives and their own.

Am pleased to say have just returned from 3 weeks sailing with a lot of GPRS use during that time - not a moments problem and service provider is your dreaded big "V" one. Seems many others experience is similar.

Where are you going wrong?

John

 

[Sea Devil]

Re: Thanks for all the useful info

so what does GRPS do? I can get weather in the UK from it?

I hope to be back in the UK shortly to collect my boat and sail along the south coast --- I have an oldish phone which I don't use and plan to buy a PAYas YOU Go sim card for it so I can use it instead of my French mobile for local UK calls....

So I can get a GRPS sim card and receive weather fax on it???? Email with it??? Can I access my wanadoo.fr email account with it?

 

[pragmatist]

How impolite ! I am a trained systems analyst by profession and my livelihood depends upon being able to obtain and communicate technical information. I have also spent a considerable part of my life over the last couple of years in implementing wireless broadband networks for a community with disparate skill levels. So "confusedly complicating" is pretty wide of the mark.

However, I telephoned Orange, my current provider this week - absence of signal in the office meant that the half hour call cost the princely sum of £4.40 when it was a sales call asking about upgrading - scandalous IMHO. Although this was a business response number the poor girl on the other end had been in the job 3 days and hadn't got a clue what GPRS was. After some considerable time where she referred every question to a colleague I managed to get put through to their technical department who were technically thoroughly helpful. However our current phone does not support GPRS and the technical dept had no pricing information beyond the data prices on their web site. So then I got put onto the upgrades dept who struggled to find phones which DID support GPRS and then were unable to give me the prices of USB cables/data kits. And since the Orange offering is in addition to your standard contract I asked if they had any improvement on the deal we've been using for the last 2 or 3 years. At which point they put me on hold and went away to find out ... and never came back.

 

[pandroid]

[ QUOTE ]
I am a trained systems analyst by profession and my livelihood depends upon being able to obtain and communicate technical information.

[/ QUOTE ]

<u>Now</u> we understand why he's having so much trouble... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[BrendanS]

Forget going to the providers. They provide realatively untrained people, who have no idea when it comes to the realities of usage when it goes anything beyond the norm, and are there to sell you their particular service. Ask people here for relevant information, or links to sites where you can compare

 

[Ships_Cat]

I suggest that you get your facts right Pragmatist before you go calling people impolite. If you look at my post you will see that it specifically referred to another poster. However, your inattention to that is probably an example of exactly what I was referring to and so may account for the problems you seem to have had.

As Brendan has said, sort out the approach to GPRS to match your needs with people who know what it is about. As an example:-

A number of years ago when I first needed to become dependant upon it (mainly for email) I referred to the helpful advice on the internet site of a poster on this forum (and one, I think the same poster, has also recently referred others to his excellent site in order to assist them - I wonder if you and others have used his helpful and simply presented advice) and spoke to the technical people at the supplier of the fixed cellular terminal (FCT) to go on the boat.

As I had imported the FCT they were unable to directly help but sent me electronic copies of all the technical manuals and stated that they would clarify anything I did not understand (they were so helpful that I will plug them - it was Ericsson). I also cruised the different country internet sites of the big "V" around the world (they have much complimentary as well as duplicated information on them) and put together a package of advice found on those for both setting up and billing practises (usually found then in the setting up instructions for GPRS for various handhelds but a quick check now shows a wealth of more general information both on setting up and billing). On billing, understanding the practises enabled me to talk sensibly to my own big "V" when I sought clarification as to exactly what I was in for with them.

Setting up a handheld (infra-red to email client on notebook) just followed suit.

From all that I was able to do exactly what I wanted, which was more complicated than just casual informal use as for business reasons I needed all mail to be reliably managed with all in and out mail ending up residing on one machine (so webmail was out). Along the way I learnt the security driven difficulties of send/receive email ex one ISP's servers via internet access from another ISP - my own ISP denies such access.

So all incoming mail needed to arrive broadband to my home office ex my ISP as normal, auto forward from there to my cellular provider's mail servers for me to retrieve using normal email client (I find IMAP the most cost effective as can just download headers as often my mail has large attachments which I do not need to immediately action). Email I send from my FCT or handheld gets BCC'd back to my home office email account with my ISP where it becomes received mail (to avoid it then getting forwarded to my mobile account again I send it to an alias address so that it can be filtered from mail received from others) and all mail sent while mobile is headed with my home email address (as is possible in the mail client setup for the account) so that all mail where-ever I send is responded to by the recipient to my normal ISP's server, not the cellular one. Thus all sent and received mail automatically ends up residing as copies in one email account on one machine at home as well as on the notebook used when sailing.

So you see, it can be done and I have never had a problem with operation or billing even though I am just a cat with no specialist knowledge at all on the subject. It would therefore seem to me a simple thing for an IT technicrat to achieve their own objectives, especially if the needs are the commonly more casual use ones.

It just takes a little common sense and use of the very helpful advice available from people who are actually to be found if one does not approach them in a negative rage. I suspect a little politeness is a great help when seeking advice and judging from the cooperation I had from the people I referred to when I set mine up, I must have plenty of it /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

If you are still having difficulties I trust that you may find something helpful in this post.

John

 

[Grehan]

Precis

So you see folks.
Anyone who has a problem, or who is given wrong information, repeatedly, or is overcharged, gigantically . . is an idiot and only has themselves to blame.

 

[Ships_Cat]

Re: Precis

Did you read this bit - It just takes a little common sense and use of the very helpful advice available from people who are actually to be found if one does not approach them in a negative rage.?

Calm down and listen to what people who have had no problems are actually saying, rather than making up your own negative interpetation of it. Then you might get somewhere.

Have fun

John