Vodafone datacard & GPRS

PeterStone

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Re: Vodafone datacard & GPRS (spit)

Vodafone were pretty awful when I bought the Blackberry. We were away for a month and it was vital that I had email on the boat. The Blackberry appealed to me, not just because it could send and receive email and had the facility to redirect email from other accounts like Hotmail but also because it has a querty keyboard and is easily transportable. So far so good except that we failed to find out from the shop staff how much the data was going to cost us when abroad. No amount of computer searching by them produced an answer. Amazing thing is they know exactly what the cost is when they bill you!

We needn't have worried about the cost in the event. Despite our repeated requests that there be no international call bar and assurances that because it was tagged onto an existing mobile contract the bar would be lifted, when we got to France the phone didn't work because the bar was still there!

We did lever a refund for the wasted month's contract from Vodafone but it was so frustrating.

However it got sorted in the end and worked brilliantly next time but they do seem to have a serious organisation problem
 

MedMan

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If you are interested in a Vodafone Datacard you can buy one here for £43 inc VAT. They are sourced from Vodafone UK but sold SIM-free and unlocked.

It will not do anything that a GPRS-compatible handset connected by cable, infra-red or bluetooth won't do, but you may consider the ease of connection worthwhile.

Once bought, you can use it with any PAYG SIM card, though not necessarily in GPRS mode. Very few companies offer GPRS on a PAYG contract, though Turkcell in Turkey are one who do. If you cannot get a sensibly priced contract to use GPRS, use a dial-up service to send and receive your email on-board. I have done this for the last seven years. I log on twice a week and I am on line for between 2 and three minutes each time.

You do not need an ISP to get youself an email address - get youself a domain and have a personal one. My domain costs about £20 per year and gives me 50 different addresses, 5 POP3 mailboxes all with virus filtering, access to a password-protected SMTP server and Web Access to my mailboxes. You can find out more about the service here. If you sign up using this link I will get a small commission.

There are several specialist International ISPs that provide telephone numbers throughout the world that can be used for dial-up access to the Internet but do not provide any other services such as the provision of mailboxes. Once you are on-line with such a company you can surf the internet (still slow if you have connected using a mobile phone dial-up connection) or access any email account in the world. One such company that I have used with great success is Tempest Telecom who provide such a service charged on a per second basis with no standing charge and no minimum payment. They also provide use of a secure, password-protected SMTP server to avoid problems when sending emails. Information on Tempest Telecom can be found here.

I have no link with any of these companies other than as a satisfied customer of each one.
 

Grehan

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Re: Vodafone datacard & GPRS (spit)

Well Ships Cat, you don't say where you are, but by implication it's outside Europe. To reiterate a number of points I have made earlier on, the GPRS technology is just fine. It's the company that sells it that's total crap (remember Gerald Ratner?).
Europe may or not be in the Dark Ages, but let me again reiterate the points I have made and that others have experienced, too.

Customers certainly do not know what they are letting themselves in for. That's exactly the problem, but it's not through fault of not asking I can assure you. We are only mere customers, intelligent or not, but we seem to be at the mercy of others. However well-versed we might think we are in the 'new technology', the new solution to mobile communications, we are probably better versed than many we come into contact with in shops and on the phone, who just depend on reading things off-screen to customers on the phone. I spoke to many at Vodafone who had obviously never heard of GPRS and assumed it was some new flavour of normal mobile phone voice service.

Just like others here, I specifically purchased the Vodafone GPRS product on the basis that I was travelling abroad and went into detail about this in the shop at the time. On that basis I was told what the tariff was, and bought it. When I got to France it would not work. After a week of thinking I had made myself some mistake in installing it (i.e the customer is always the idiot) and after 4 international callbox phone calls to Vodafone (each time being told it was a different problem that was to blame) I discovered that I was indeed the idiot, for not going into a Vodafone shop and getting a product I had bought to go abroad, specifically released and authorised for that use. Nobody told me that at the time I bought it Oxford.

Then, having been told on what basis I would be charged, I was charged a great deal more. This was because I was not in the UK, but the tariff I was told, was told to me on the basis that I would not be in the UK . . When I discussed this with Vodafone I was told (by a supervisor) that there was no additional charge for using the GPRS product outside the UK. Then eventually I was told that there was indeed an additional cost, but they couldn't tell me what it was exactly because it depended on what they were being charged by their foreign 'partners'.

For four months Vodafone Spain tried to charge by the minute instead of by the kilobyte. Each time I complained they admitted the mistake and said they would correct it, but they never did. Of course, the company has no 'public' offices where one can talk to someone face-to-face, they only have shops. When one goes into a shop their only recourse is to phone Vodafone because they have no clue as to what one is talking about. They have to wait in a telephone queue just like us poor punters. I have spent hours waiting to 'get through' actually in the shop. In the end I obtained a special dispensation to visit an non-public office and received another (face-to-face) apology, a substantial refund, and a tearing-up of the contract.

All of these contacts and complaints were at my expense, either in time or money or both.

As for " . . habit of hiding costs or cooking the books there would be many that would soon complain and initiate action . . ", well there seem to be many that very soon complain (like me) but initiating action is extremely difficult when one is out on a limb on a boat in some foreign land, trying to deal with a global multinational staffed by people whose information is limited and whose understanding of the technology they are selling is zilch.

I have no knowledge of whether they're cooking the books and have never implied that. But I have often wondered about Vodafone shares. Are they a good buy because they must be making zillions out of folk like me, or are they ultimately destined for a fall because the company has feet of clay?

I may or may not be a mug, but I've certainly been mugged . . .
 

brett01

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We have been using the GPRS system for four years in France, Italy Greece and Spain. All have offered deals at some time - the going rate varies between 20 and 30 Euros a month for unlimited 24hour internet access. We are currently in Italy and paying 25Euros a month for 24 hour access but limited to 500MB a month download (a huge amount at GPRS speeds). We leave it on regularly for 24 hours at a time - last year during passages around the italian coast from Sardinia to Croatia we only had a couple of windows of no coverage so could read the paper in the UK and the USA as well as listen to Radio five and Radio four as we sailed. In croatia we bought a SIM card and it worked out roughyl twice that to check our email twice a day, get the weather and maps in and a little bit of surfing - I understand they now offer a motnhly plan.
 

brett01

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We have been using the GPRS system for about four years in France Italy, Spain and Greece. Most places now offer a deal for a fixed monthly fee of unlimited access with sometimes a dowload limit - we are currently paying 25Euros a month in Italy for unlimited 24 hour access and a 500MB download limit - you will never reach it at GPRS speeds. Last year we were able to read the paper, listen to radio four and five most of the way form Sardinia to Croatia. In Croatia we bought a SIM card and paid for the data sent and recieved. They reportedly now also offer a deal similar to our current Italian one. These monthly fees are the best system as we are able at time -eg overnighters to have it going 24 hours a day - breaks up a long night watch listening to the radio from the UK. France and Greece both offer this type of deal although sometimes not well advertised.
 

Grehan

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Brett, your experience sounds MUCH better than mine. In fact it sounds exactly what I would hoped mine would have been . .

- What company/ies are you/were you with?
- Is this contract or P.A.Y.G?
- If contract, did you need an Italian/whatever bank account to set up the contract?
 

dk

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Re: Vodafone datacard & GPRS

I've used Iridium with a laptop on my last two Atlantic crossings and it's been fine. A tad slow maybe, but it still only took around 4-5 mins to download 4-5 text emails, send 3-4 pages of A4 text, download a simple Atlantic weather chart and browse a couple of other web pages for weather. This was done daily and the cost is just 99cents/minute - good value I think. We never had any trouble getting/remaining connected, although setting it up initially was a mind bending operation!
I've also used Thuraya in the Med for voice only, which was fine but rather more expensive than GSM. The phone was clever enough to switch back to GSM whenever we were in range of a cell, however. Not during a call though, obviously.
DK
 

JonJon

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Re: Vodafone datacard & GPRS (spit)

Many thanks for the info Grehan this is what makes this site powerful. Forewarned is forearmed.
 

pernoll

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Re: Vodafone datacard & GPRS (spit)

We are too based in Italy (near Venice), but Vodafone charge € 20 per month, for GPRS service, not for what you download, but for 20 hours per month. That's OK. The problem is that what they sell - 20 hours at € 20, and additional hours at € 1,50 - does not function. The server stop and are dead untill next 30 day period.

We approached TIM. Only after complaining in the shop, the saleswoman came up with a € 20 "promotional" - 30 days with 400 MGb download.

We can fully agree that talking with somebody, not being a talkmachine, is difficult. With TIM we've manged to find somebody who speaks English and understand what he is talking about. Vodafone has some in the Venice shop.

Lets pray that big (&fat?) Vodafone gets hurt on moneyflow and start to bother with our kind of customers. Not only these young chicks sending SMS and pictures, presented in best Coke style on TV. At least they have lost all our voice contact back home to TIM.
 

pandroid

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Re: Vodafone datacard & GPRS (spit)

Vodafone's tariffs (and others) used to pretty vague but not so much now. Their international rates (including per Mb) charge is on their website (admittedly not easy to find, but its there). I've checked them against my bill and they concur. They've come down over the years but still pretty horendous (generally about £8 a Mb). It's also true that despite GPRS being 'per Mb' there's a 'minimum' charge (usually about 50p)

In short, dont bother trying to use a UK phone abroad except for specific use. Buy a PAYG SIM card, stuff it in the phone and pay what the local guy pays (between £1.50 and £2.50 a Mb) (Thats what I meant by local rates by the way).

I've never heard or experienced GPRS users getting billed by the 'call' or minute. Are you dialling UK numbers rather than the GPRS access number?

I symapthise with the guy who pointed out that getting help from foreign operators is difficult. A lot of the profile setup in the phones is a black art (some of the phones dont allow you to delete old profiles, and there is a special code you have to use on the PC to override this). Even the phone companies seem to know little about. Its compounded by the fact that most people think when you talk about the Internet they think you mean WAP, and of course the WAP setup in the phone is different from that used by a PC. I'm thinking of setting up a database of 'setup' information for phones and telcos, perhaps we could all swap settings?

We have an easy guide to setup on our website here
 

Grehan

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Re: Vodafone datacard & GPRS (spit)

There are a number of comments in this thread that are well-versed, educated, intelligent and completely correct about how GPRS services SHOULD operate. My experience comes from 18 months of how they DO operate. Good idea. Good technology. Terrible - absolutely gut-wrenchingly, can't-sleep-at-night, bad - customer service. In more than country. Talking at length to many many people from Vodafone, at all levels up to Director (eventually) in an attempt to get obvious mistakes (often quite readily admitted and apologised for) corrected and money they had wrongly taken, or tried to take, returned.

No, we were not dialling a UK number.
With GPRS you don't dial a specific 'number' but you do connect to the network in one country or another.

I can assure you we got charged by the minute - incorrectly of course - again and again and again.

There is a minimum charge per month, and a minimum charge per connection.

At the time we first encountered Vodafone and their ruddy Mobile Connect computer card in August 2003 it was not possible to use GPRS on a PAYG basis, nor was it during the time we were in France up to June 2004, and nor was it when we looked again at GPRS in Spain in July 2004. We asked. Only available on contract, against a certified permanent local (national) address, and with Vodafone having blank-cheque open access to one's money.

One of the first things we did in France was to get a PAYG sim card, and we had got our voice phones unlocked before we left the UK in order to allow this, so we were well aware of 'local' PAYG advantages compared with international calls.

Obviously things may now have changed, and if they have charged such that Vodafone are limited in how they can damage your bank balance whilst you use GPRS, then that's all to the good . . .

PS
Although that is probably good, and on a different tack entirely I am also slightly surprised at the further freeing-up of 'open' purchasing of PAYG telecoms - is this not the accepted way for thieves, kidnappers and terrorists to connect cheaply without record whilst avoiding detection?
 

julesrules

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We use a GPRS connect card in France and are very pleased with it and with the service provided.

We dealt with SFR who outlet Vodofone in France.
The card etc. cost us 49 Euros and we pay 13 Euros per month
for the service which includes 10 Mb free per month. This easily allows us all the e.mail service we need and when cruising, a daily look at the France Meteo website and some other websites a few times per week.

We find it cheap, easy and efficient BUT we are careful to use it only in France and Corsica. We don't 'roam' with it, knowing that this can be costly. There is a good booklet provided with it that makes it very clear how the costs work etc.

We have had no experience of being ovecharged and found the SFR staff informative and helpful. We spend much of the year in France and if we make sojourns into Spain or Italy etc. we use internet cafes and the like.
 

tomcrane

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I found this discussion while searching on Google for information on internet access in France via mobile phone+laptop. I’m trying to provide technical support to my parents (they’re on a boat in France, I’m in London), but it’s proving very frustrating for them and me. They’ve been using a normal mobile for internet access (mostly email, very little web browsing, so fairly low data requirements) but I’m wondering whether a data card in addition to their mobile might work out cheaper (the mobile would then just be for voice calls). From the discussion here it would seem that it would either be cheaper, or much, much more expensive. They’ve been into a phone shop in France and asked about data cards, but the verdict was that it would be inappropriate as the coverage (number of masts etc) in France is inadequate. I’m wondering if this advice was about a 3G data card rather than a GPRS/GSM one.

NB the current mobile is not GPRS – it’s a Nokia 8210.

My questions are:

Can I buy the Vodafone card here and then buy a pay as you go data SIM card in France?

Does the data card drop-down to standard GSM if it can’t do GPRS?
If so, can you use the data card with an ordinary PAYG SIM that you might buy cheaply for voice calls (forgoing the GPRS but saving money on contract or GPRS-specific PAYG)?

What is the coverage like? Is it the same coverage as for a normal (voice) mobile phone, or is the data card more restricted in its coverage?

The reply from Jason_Hunter seems to describe the ideal solution. Is this a Pay As You Go account or does it depend on a contract? Is it fixed/capped or could it dramatically vary as described elsewhere in this thread?

I found this offer on the SFR site:
http://www.espacesfr.com/do/formule/choose?phone=10000590&x=72&y=2

I can’t find a lower offer, or a PAYG offer, but I’m probably missing something – my French isn’t very good, I’m afraid.

If it requires a contract, is this easy to get if you are not a French resident? Does it require a French bank account and/or permanent (i.e., not a boat) address in France?

Thanks
 

MedMan

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[ QUOTE ]
Can I buy the Vodafone card here and then buy a pay as you go data SIM card in France?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes - you can buy one here and then buy a PAYG SIM card abroad. See my answer on a different thread here.

[ QUOTE ]
Does the data card drop-down to standard GSM if it can’t do GPRS?
If so, can you use the data card with an ordinary PAYG SIM that you might buy cheaply for voice calls?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. The data card is just a GSM phone with GPRS capability built into a PCMCIA Card. It doesn't have a keypad as you control it through software but it is, never-the-less, just a GSM phone. You can therefore choose whether to use it in dial-up mode or GPRS mode.

[ QUOTE ]
What is the coverage like? Is it the same coverage as for a normal (voice) mobile phone, or is the data card more restricted in its coverage?

[/ QUOTE ]
Coverage is identical as it is just a GSM phone using the normal GSM Networks. The only slight caveat is that, in poor coverage areas, the card is stuck in your laptop down at sea level. With a handset on a lead or connected via bluetooth, you can hold it up through the hatch to get a better signal.
 

dart

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Re: Vodafone datacard & GPRS (spit)

Are you saying PAYG GPRS is widely available?

A list of countries/companies offering it would be useful ...
 
G

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Re: Orange (FR) PAYG & local ISP

Hello, no I haven't tried in France. But I guess you need to find a local access number that is dial-able from a mobile. You can find out quickly, without having to set up the computer, by dialling the number yourself on the mobile (without using the computer, just dial like a normal telephone call), and seeing if a computer noise answers. If you can't dial through for any reason, try calling them on a landline and see if you can get through that way.

Most 'normal' ISP numbers should be dialable. Occasionally you may come across freephone numbers etc that are blocked to mobiles. I don't know about Wanadoo.
 
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