Vodafone Mobile Connect PC Card

[MedMan]

This PC Card Phone is now on sale at various outlets for as little as £43. It is a tri-band GSM/GPRS phone and is sold SIM-free and unlocked, so it should be able to be used with foreign SIM cards such as Turkcell which, I know, permit GPRS on their PAYG contracts. Two questions:

Has anyone used one of these on board a boat? Is there a problem with the aerial being stuck down at sea-level when in use? (I use my current non-GPRS phone on the end of a lead so I can stick it out of the hatch if necessary)

Does anyone know of a Greek Mobile Phone Operator that allows GPRS on a PAYG SIM card?

 

[George]

I use Tim pay as you go in Greece and was told you need to be on a contract to get GPRS, but in Italy the Tim pay as you go does allow the use of GPRS but to set it up is a nightmare.

I understand the Vodaphone pay as you go in Greece does alow you to use GPRS but not 100 % sure

 

[colin_jones]

For the past 2 seasons, I have run mine, on 2 different notebooks, down in the boat saloon, en route from UK, via canals to Med, then in Med France and Spain, with no connection, or signal strength problems.

It is surprising how few antenna strength 'spikes' you need on display to handle data.

 

[George]

What network would you recommend for france? and do you have to be on a contract to use GPRS

 

[sailaboutvic]

genesis communication do a chip you plug into your PC to access internet nearly any were .... you pay a month fee and get so much MB free per month but aboard you dont get any free MB you pay for what you use.....

08707875685 is there number

 

[rrees]

My Business partner has one of these. Has purchased the additioanal external aerial for it which makes a difference
I use a Nokia 6310 with a car kit which then give me an external aerial and connect to my PC via Bluetooth

Richard

 

[Gypsy]

I used a similar card, Nokia D211, last summer in Corfu, East Coast of Italy, Croatia, Sicily and West coast of Italy. It has GSM/GPRS/WiFi. My home provider is Vodafone (AUS) but it "roamed" successfully and the most relaible network in Italy was TIM.

In Corfu I had trouble connecting to the net. The GPRS connected but there was seldom a web connection. I had a fellow sailor nearby with a UK Vodafone card as you described who had much the same result but did get more reliability after spending hours on the Vodafone help line. Meanwhile I sailed over to Italy.
In the SE of Italy I had either no GPRS or GPRS connection but no net until I got further N to Brindisi and beyond. In general I had good GPRS use then until I was out of the main centres. In Croatia it was back to GSM as I had no roaming agreements for GPRS.

In Sicily and the W coast of Italy the GPRS was almost always good.

In the end I came to the conclusion that some networks have good GPRS coverage but they do not support or maintain it in some of the remote regional areas even though GSM coverage remained strong, probably due to lack of demand. If there was a reasonably large regional centre then the GPRS would be reliable.

As for local SIMs, I believe that in Italy you need a contract to get GPRS capability but for that you need a permanent address so they can reliably bill you. My roaming situation was workable and certainly better than 9.6kb GSM but it is expensive that way. However in a number of cases the convenience of being able to access the web made it worthwhile.

To put the service into a practical context - using GSM to look for something on the web was extremely slow and frustrating unless you were accessing a very efficient site, almost useless for "browsing". Happily two of the weather sites I used in Greece and Turkey were very good and practical when I had a direct link to the required page. It was virtually useless for some of the banking I wanted to do. Too slow and too many time-outs for the security software to deal with.

On the other hand GPRS was quite practical for modest browsing. The speed was similar to a dial-up running at a little less than full speed, say 40kb. I could use it for weather, train timetables and other information which was time critical and couldn't wait for a visit to an internet cafe. I did achieve some banking use with it.

Overall I think the system is very good but still patchy in non-city areas until it ramps up. With the wider use by the general public with the new smarter phones and palm pilots there will be more and more demand. The big problem is the cost when roaming or the issue of needing a contract for local SIMs, but they may slacken off with that as many everyday phone users like the Pay-As-You-Go no contract system to keep control of their costs yet they are great users of the new gadgets and services.

I always used the PC at the chart table in the saloon of a GRP boat and had no signal difficulties other than the problems I mentioned.

Keep up the reports everyone as it is a fast changing industry/service.

Ray

 

[colin_jones]

I stayed with my uk Vodafone contract.

I looked at changing to GPRS via Orange, but it was expensive and messy to switch.

I have an Orange Mobicarte (PAYG) phone, which is cheaper to run by having a French number. You do not pay for the incoming calls from UK.

We need good comms for work reasons so, whilst it is convenient to have email etc direct to the boat, you cannot get away from the fact that it is very expensive. Like many cruisers, I really wanted this before I left, but with experience, use it less and less, but find internet cafes and other terminals (there are plenty in libraries, youth centres, harbours etc) because they are cheaper and faster.

Most will let you use a pendrive to collect your material. I have given up surfing the web from the boat - too slow and expensive - and there are better and cheaper ways of getting weather forecasts.

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
....We need good comms for work reasons so, whilst it is convenient to have email etc direct to the boat, you cannot get away from the fact that it is very expensive..... I have given up surfing the web from the boat - too slow and expensive - and there are better and cheaper ways of getting weather forecasts.

[/ QUOTE ]Have you tried WiFi hotspots using a decent airbridge and antenna? We are using that in Chichester Marina at the moment and get a full broadband service at a reasonable price from Square Mile. I'm hoping that this will increasingly catch on.

 

[AuntyRinum]

I use one of these cards all the time when I'm on board. Attaching the aerial makes no difference and being at sea level doesn't make any difference either.
It works well.