GPRS Data on Prepay in Ireland?

GekkePrutser

Hi Everyone!

I saw a lot of expertise here on GPRS and the various Irish providers so I thought I'd ask my question here. I've already used the search but I couldn't find anything relevant, except one post that said that 3's internet is only available to postpaid customers (so that one's off my list)

I'm looking for a provider in Ireland that offers full GPRS (or UMTS, even better) internet access to their prepay customers. I already have a prepay sim with Vodafone but there is no way to connect to the internet with them, I can only access their live stuff which is of no interest to me. I called their support but they told me to sign up for postpay which is not an option for me.

I looked at O2's and 3's sites and O2 seem to have it but it's very expensive (1c/kb) and it doesn't say if it's unrestricted or just their portal. And 3's doesn't mention a price / kb. Meteor seems to have good pricing packages (25MB for 12 euro) but it also doesn't mention if it's full access.

I just want to check my own mail regularly without having to get a contract, I'm using 9600 baud dialup to eircom at the moment but it's very slow and expensive.

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas!

Regards,

Gekke Prutser

Random

O2s is unrestricted completely once you have them provision it on your account (no charge, but best to call data support to make sure the person knows what you're talking about).

I believe Meteor is unrestricted aswell (but again .. could take months to find an agent who knows what you're asking for on the phone!) - someone will no doubt confirm Meteor for sure.

tallus

o2 Data support number: 1850601740

whisht

Vodafone Prepay should work. I have used it before with a mobile phone to connect my laptop to the net when VERY badly stuck abnd it works fine and its only a prepay card

unavaca

Where did you see the 25MB for 12 euro package? That would be an awesome deal for me. (I'm looking forward to paying 5 EUR/MB...)

Random

@unavaca
http://www.meteor.ie/billpay_dataaddons.html

unavaca

ciaranfo wrote:

@unavaca
http://www.meteor.ie/billpay_dataaddons.html

Ah, darn. Billpay only users. I'll be on PAYG.

whisht

Vodafone is expensive on PAYG but definitely works
2c per kb
http://www.vodafone.ie/dataservices/gprs/prices/index.jsp?datatariffs=true

niallb

GekkePrutser wrote:

... I'm using 9600 baud dialup to eircom at the moment but it's very slow and expensive.
....

It's about 1kb per second, and costs at worst about 6¢ a minute
(1892 number). That's 0.1¢ per kilobyte or 25MB for €25.60.
At night and weekends that drops to 25MB for €6.40
That assumes a 9600 connection. More normal dialup rates will
be a quarter of that. I'm just comparing what you have already
in terms of price with the best deal you've seen on mobile broadband
(which also seems to be just available to postpay users).

Are you looking to just replace the Eircom link or are you looking for a mobile solution.
With the money you'll spend on trying to go mobile WITHOUT going billpay,
you'd comfortably pay for a two way satellite link.
Before anyone moans about it "not being broadband", it's more than good enough to handle regularly checking mail.
Of course, it would require a contract of a different kind.

Can you not get something done about the quality of the phoneline?
Requesting an upgrade to ISDN will improve things no end even if
you can't get broadband (I assume you can't).

Where are you based? Any answers given need to take that into account.
For example - there's no 3 service for miles around my house, vodafone and O2 are barely detectable, but Voda 3G is just about usable with an antenna, and meteor is rock solid. Some places have wireless internet access that
can be bought over the counter in local shops.

As for 3's broadband only being available to postpaid users,
I've seen plenty of posts claiming this to be both true and false!
I just don't know yet! I'll post to this thread when I know for sure.
I think you might get email access at least over it.

There are other options on prepay though.
If you've a meteor prepay you can send mails directly to
your phone for free by forwarding the mail to
your-phone-number@mms.mymeteor.ie
(It's free on meteor billpay, I think it also is on prepay,
but I couldn't afford to go prepay so I don't know.)

It costs 30¢ to reply to such a mail from your phone,
but you get to read it and know there's mail
waiting without having to go online.

Hope you get something sorted,
but refusing to go billpay is removing almost
all of your options before you even start.

NiallB

Sam Vimes

This is my second rant about 3pay internet in 24 hours

the bill pay internet is very good and im using it with opera mini to post this (until im finally rid of 3 on the 17th)

the pre pay internet is run through a proxy whose existence is denied by customer care. The proxy reformats the data for a phone and takes its time doing it. The result of the proxy is:

only very slow http access. No https

no applications except the built in browser

no using the phone as a modem with a laptop

its basically useless

niallb

Thanks for the clarification Vimes.
Could you type up the internet settings
used by the prepay and the billpay?
If you could list the APN, IP addresses, proxies etc. it would be really useful.
Seems crazy not to be able to access https sites!

Sam Vimes

niallb wrote:

Thanks for the clarification Vimes.
Could you type up the internet settings
used by the prepay and the billpay?
If you could list the APN, IP addresses, proxies etc. it would be really useful.
Seems crazy not to be able to access https sites!

web settings
connection name:3
data bearer: packet data
access point name:3ireland.ie
user name:none
prompt password:no
password:default/blank
authentication:normal
homepage:http://mobile.3ireland.ie/hb/HutchKey


advanced settings:
network type:ipv4
phoner ip address automatic
name servers: automatic
proxy server address:none
proxy port number:0


mms settings:
connection name:3 MMS
data bearer: packet data
access point name:3ireland.ie
user name:none
prompt password:no
password:default/blank
authentication:normal
homepage:http://mms.um.3ireland.ie:10021/mmsc

advanced settings:
network type:ipv4
phoner ip address automatic
name servers: automatic
proxy server address:mms.3ireland.ie
proxy port number:8799

the settings are the same on 3pay

niallb

You my friend are a star.
I'd worked out most of them, but a few errors.
I'll try it out next time I'm in Dublin.
Coverage is non-existant out this way.

Should probably be added to one of the stickies up top.
They're likely in need of a bit of an update anyway.

GekkePrutser

whisht wrote:

Vodafone Prepay should work. I have used it before with a mobile phone to connect my laptop to the net when VERY badly stuck abnd it works fine and its only a prepay card

Which access point do you use with Vodafone Prepay? isp.vodafone.ie doesn't work for me, I get a GPRS error. It used to work for me before while I was on billpay with the same account, but I switched back to prepay as it was much cheaper (I'm still on the More To Say plan with 3c/min rates)

By the way, thanks everyone for your replies! I was looking for GPRS mainly to leave my mailbox open on my phone all day and I have since gone with Meteor, as they are the cheapest I could find on prepay. The 25MB/12euro(I saw this on the business site so it was ex VAT) offer didn't work but I pay half a cent per KB now, which is not too bad if you use IMAP for your email in Idle mode, this uses very little data.

This topic helped me a lot as well!

GekkePrutser

Commander Vimes wrote:

[...]The result of the proxy is:

only very slow http access. No https

no applications except the built in browser

no using the phone as a modem with a laptop

its basically useless

Just to confirm: Does the proxy block email ports too? If it would allow IMAP access it would work for me, but otherwise it's useless for me too.

GekkePrutser

niallb wrote:

It's about 1kb per second, and costs at worst about 6¢ a minute
(1892 number). That's 0.1¢ per kilobyte or 25MB for €25.60.
At night and weekends that drops to 25MB for €6.40
That assumes a 9600 connection.

[...]

Hope you get something sorted,
but refusing to go billpay is removing almost
all of your options before you even start.

Hi NiallB, thanks for your extensive answer!! I cut it a bit short in the quote part to improve readability for others reading this thread but I appreciate it!

The 9600 baud dialup I mentioned I use on Vodafone Prepay, hence the 9600 baud limitation (they don't support HSCSD on ready to go). I purely use it for email/some webbrowsing on the road, and it works ok albeit a bit slow. I'm on the great (now-cancelled) "More To Say" tariff which offers me weekend calls for 3 cents per minute to 1892150150 (1.80 per hour). (Week calls for 10 cents/minute). So I used to use this on the road. I don't use it at all at home (I have broadband at home). But it's of course too expensive to leave it on just for checking my email, and also impractical because it's circuit switched and locks my phone into busy.

About the bill pay thing: I may not be in Ireland anymore a year from now so I don't really want to go on any contract. Also I like the protection from excessive charges: The worst that can ever happen to me now if I download something big on GRPS by mistake is me losing my call credit. And the voice rates I'm paying are way better than any bill pay tariff can offer at this time.

The MMS option on Meteor is very interesting, thanks for that!! I currently got a Meteor card with the GPRS ISP enabled, and I'm running it for a few days to see how much money my IMAP connection consumes per day (at 0.5 cent per kB). It should be OK as it's very lightweight in terms of data. But if it costs too much the MMS would be a good option, thanks for the hint!

unavaca

ciaranfo wrote:

O2s is unrestricted completely once you have them provision it on your account (no charge, but best to call data support to make sure the person knows what you're talking about).

Is this true of O2 in the UK as well? (Yes, I know this is an Ireland board I was going to pick up a O2 PAYG SIM while I was in London. My primary concern is being able to use GPRS data without any proxying.

Thanks!