Vodafone - reduced data charges?

flodis79

I read something in Irish Times that Vodafone Live! has new pricing, 19c-55c for the first 50MB per day, and after that .5c per MB. Didn't quite get what they meant by that?? Is it just for browsing the Live! portal? Like, you wouldn't use 50MB of data on the portal per day..

Urban Weigl

.5c doesn't sound right per MB on prepay, as that would work out as €5.12 per gigabyte. Maybe they meant €0.50 per MB? That would sound more like Vodafone. Or possibly €0.05 per MB, though even that seems unlikely...

Can you type up the article?

flodis79

Could have been - will double check tomorrow.

Anyway, this means that data is no longer 2c per _kb_ but 5c per _mb_.... Can't really believe they are cutting their pricing that far. Cannot find the information about this on their website, although the notice in the newspaper claimed it should be there.

rc28

flodis79 wrote:

I read something in Irish Times that Vodafone Live! has new pricing, 19c-55c for the first 50MB per day, and after that .5c per MB. Didn't quite get what they meant by that?? Is it just for browsing the Live! portal? Like, you wouldn't use 50MB of data on the portal per day..

Are you sure it was today's irish times? I just had a look through it and found nothing to do with vodafone at all.

flodis79

rc28 wrote:

Are you sure it was today's irish times? I just had a look through it and found nothing to do with vodafone at all.

Sorry no it was yesterday's paper. Have a look around the first pages of the main section if you have it there. It was on a right-page towards the bottom-left. I dont have it here at the mo.

rc28

flodis79 wrote:

Sorry no it was yesterday's paper. Have a look around the first pages of the main section if you have it there. It was on a right-page towards the bottom-left. I dont have it here at the mo.

Ok I found yesterdays and had a thorough look through it and found nothing to do with data charges. I did, however, find one article on the 2nd page about how vodafone were removing a mast in tipperary because of health fears but nothing to do with data charges. Anyway, are you sure you're not confusing it with the irish independent or an old copy of the irish times?

mkennedy

it's in yesterday's indo.

it says vf live:
up to 50mb will be charged at between 15-99c per day (not exactly sure what's meant by 'between 15-99c' tbh).
over 50mb will be charged at 0.5c per KB. (ie 5 euro per MB).
effective from 28th of August.

can it only be used with vf live anyone know?

flodis79

mkennedy wrote:

it's in yesterday's indo.

it says vf live:
up to 50mb will be charged at between 15-99c per day (not exactly sure what's meant by 'between 15-99c' tbh).
over 50mb will be charged at 0.5c per KB. (ie 5 euro per MB).
effective from 28th of August.

can it only be used with vf live anyone know?

Oh really, sorry I was mistaken then. The thing is that nothing is out on the web site about it... guess have to call them tomorrow.

aCA

I had a search and found this. The 500MB Monthly Add On for €9.99 is interesting.

The over the limit charge is crazy though for the daily plan. You pay 99c for 50MB but €5 per MB over that.

http://www.vodafone.ie/livepricing/index.jsp


New live! pricing
From 28th August 2007 charges on Vodafone live! are changing. See below for more info

How much will it cost?
Prepay customers: 99c or less a day customers to a maximum daily data allowance of 50 MB
Pay Monthly customers: 99c or less a day to a maximum daily data allowance of 50 MB or you can buy a 500MB Monthly Add On for €9.99

How is this different to the old pricing?

Usage / Old pricing / New pricing up to 50MB* / New pricing over 50MB

Home page / Free / 15c - 99c per day / 0.5c per KB

Menu pages / Free / 15c - 99c per day / 0.5c per KB

Content pages / 15c per page / 15c - 99c per day / 0.5c per KB

Non-Vodafone live! pages 2c per KB 15c - 99c per day 0.5c per KB


Music/Ringtones/ Games/Pictures etc. Priced according to content delivered


* All usage from 0KB up to 168 KB will be charged at 0.5c per KB up to a maximum of 99c. Minimum charge 15c.
Note: 1024KB equals 1MB

If you're a Pay Monthly customer… You pay daily as you use the service. You are only charged on days that you use the service. That's 99c for the 50MB daily allowance and 0.5c per KB thereafter. You can also buy a 500MB monthly Add On for just €9.99

If you're a Prepay customer…
You pay daily as you use the service. You are only charged on days that you use the service. That's 99c for the 50MB daily allowance and 0.5c per KB thereafter.

What happens if I go over the daily limit?
If you go beyond the daily allowance of 50MB, you'll be charged at 0.5c per KB (€5 per MB).

Can I check how much I have used so far on any day?
Yes, if you're a Prepay customer. To check how much of your daily allowance of 50MB remains, FREE text "surf" to 50233.

Unfortunately, as Pay Monthly billing is not done in real time, this is not possible for Pay Monthly customers. You can view any unbilled usage at any time on My Vodafone.

How much is 50MB?
50MB = approx 50,000 KB. An average webpage is about 200KB and an average made for mobile page is about 25KB. So 50MB is the equivalent of approximately 250 web pages or 2,000 made for mobile pages.


What is the charge when I'm roaming?
The service is the same price when roaming abroad as at home and will be accessible from any country where we have a 3G or GPRS roaming agreement.

The service will be accessible from any country where we have a 3G or GPRS roaming agreement.

If I pay per day's use, how is a day defined?
A day lasts from 00:00 GMT/BST to 23:59:59 GMT/BST - i.e. midnight to midnight. So if you use Vodafone live! at 11pm on any given day and then again at 1am the next morning, you have used the service on two separate days.

Do I pay a minimum charge every time I access the internet?
The minimum charge is paid once per day, regardless of how many sessions.

Do I pay for data usage when I download music/ringtones/pictures/games from Vodafone live!
Yes, you must pay for the data associated with download of content, as well as the pages viewed to get content. You must also pay for the purchase of the actual piece of content.

Do I pay for data usage when I watch Mobile TV from Vodafone live!
If you watch Vodafone's Mobile TV service, it doesn't come out of your daily or monthly allowance - you just pay the subscription. You must pay for the pages viewed to get to Mobile TV.

If you use a TV or video streaming service outside of Vodafone live! then an estimate of about 1MB per minute is a good guide.

Can I rollover my MB allowance on Vodafone live!?
No. If you don't use 50MB in one day, you cannot add this to the next day. Likewise, any unused data in the Monthly Add On cannot be carried over.

If you have any difficulties with the new pricing, please ring our Pay Monthly customer care line at 1907 to discuss your options.

flodis79

Ah great, thanks for finding that page.

Basically for prepay or postpay, this means that we have 50 MB per day for _any_ web pages voda live or non-live? Also these 50 MB can be used abroad, just like 3 Like Home data roaming, but in any country of your choice, not only Voda networks?

And what is the APN I have to use to get this pricing? Can I get that pricing even if I am on ordinary Voda prepay sim card but not a phone that can access the Voda Live! menus?

And, most interesting, can we use this data allowance for java apps, such as opera mini, gmail, google maps etc?

nazoil

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this offer is not all it seems. My reading is the new charges are only for data through the phone browser connecting through Vodafone live!

Let's say you're using Opera Mini, AFT or Gmail. These applications need to use vodafone isp, so there doesn't seem to be any changes to the isp charges.

What Vodafone have done here is withdrawn the previously free to view vodafone live! content. Now as often happens, if you connect to Vodafone live! in error, by pressing the wrong button, you'll automatically have to cough up 15 cent / day.

I'll be re-configuring the shortcuts on my phone anyway

flodis79

You are correct in that it's not possible to check the front page of Live! for free anymore. And it's bad.

But can you not use the Live! APN for Java apps? As long as the Live! APN is a socket APN, it should be fine? They haven't put the restriction that you cannot access any other page outside the portal, so they are not restricting it in a big sense, so I imagine you can use the Live! APN all over the phone, and have it as preferred APN for any data. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Live! APN isn't hidden or secret?

nazoil

Just tried to connect Opera mini through Vodafone live! with a Nokia 6230 - unsuccessful

Note: Can do so through isp

maddflogg

i believe you can use operamini via vodafone live! (I did for a while)...But you have to reinstall it, and during setup select vodafone live as the access point...om optimises access during the initial setup/test...so if you change ap at a later point, you may experience problems! Now, this may be boll*cks, as it's been a while since I did it (believe it was om2 on 6680...scratch!!!)...I'll try it later, so you don't have to!
BTW, I use voda Isp/misp, I pay ?2/mb, no min. charge, no connection fee...no daily minimum or max, and lol I do use om all day, also emails with massive attachments etc etc
well, I'll check the liv!-thing in a while!

flodis79

maddflogg wrote:

BTW, I use voda Isp/misp, I pay ?2/mb, no min. charge, no connection fee...no daily minimum or max, and lol I do use om all day, also emails with massive attachments etc etc
well, I'll check the liv!-thing in a while!

But that's on bill-pay, right? can't get the tariff on prepay?

maddflogg

Right, just checked: I have an older version of om still on my E61...(I think 1.26): you can pick vodafone live! as ap without problem! With latest version (om 3.1 and 4 beta - i.e. "dimension" you have to select "vodafone live!" during the initial setup/test-connection...then it works! obvious prob: voda (m)isp doesn't work then any longer!
So, if you have the various om versions on your pc it's worth experimenting! But the new live!-rates are only coming on aug 28th, right?

maddflogg

No...it's prepay (I don't like contracts...)! MISP/ISP prepay gprs is euro2/mb...has been for a while (I've had e61 for a year now, before that 6680...also p990, treo etc etc...all come prepay with misp/isp...and I've always been charged euro 2/mb (of course using isp/misp you can't use the voda live! Service, but hey...)...in other words, I pay about 0.5 cent per kb...and no initial connection fee, or daily minimum... When I check google news in the morning via operamini and voda ISP the 24kb frontpage costs me more or less(lol) 12 cent...I can lock into my email account via operamini, send a fairly longish email for about 4-6 cent (of course profimail's a bit cheaper...)!
but it's strange: here in c'bar we have 2 vodastores, and 1 "independent"...noone seems to "understand" it or even know about the Euro2/mb on prepay...they all say it's 2 cent/kb if you stray from vodafont life!!! But I spoke with someone at customer care last year who clarified: "we wouldn't be able to sell a business-type email phone prepay if datatraffic was 2cent/kb...simple as that"....and recently I got settings for my old k750 after an update of the fw, and they know incl. ISP as well (when I got it 2 years ago, it only had wap/gprs setting)...so all gprs-capable vodafone prepay sets now get a mb- datatraffic for euro2.oo! As far as I know....

rc28

I'm confused, can someone please clarify how this affects using operamini for viewing webpages outside of vf live? Eg; it is currently 3c per kB so when I'm viewing a webpage it costs loads so what will it cost when the new charges come into effect?

maddflogg

Well, it seems until the new tariffs apply, we won't really know? Those press anouncements are often a bit confusing, and who knows what'll happen to non-vodafone live! Gprs traffic tariffs? And check the competition: meteor have slightly improved their prepay gprs tariffs, and o2 scrapping i-mode...they'll have to restructure, won't they? Imode hahaha!
Are you on bill-pay? 3cent/kb? Hossa! That's nippy!

god's toy

So I hope I'm not reading this right.

I use the Mobile TV on the Voda network and from what I read I will be charged for navigating to the Mobile TV page just view something I have already subscribed too/paid for? Ah here, thats not good... Rip off to me.

maddflogg

I would expect the tv subscriptions to be unaffected, i.e. you'll still be able to browse the live! tv offerings etc etc without being charged...ehem, probably...hahaha...we'll find out in a months or so, plus a couple of months until their staff figure it out! (o2's mobile napster anyone? He he...)... I have the feeling it's more about additional google services via vodafone live!...well, that's what operamini's there for!
Will see!

god's toy

Going by the Q&A on post 9 it looks like they will...

Do I pay for data usage when I watch Mobile TV from Vodafone live!
If you watch Vodafone's Mobile TV service, it doesn't come out of your daily or monthly allowance - you just pay the subscription. You must pay for the pages viewed to get to Mobile TV.

Urban Weigl

So does it or does it not apply for the ISP profile? Will 50MB also cost 99 cents when using isp.vodafone.ie (instead of live.vodafone.ie)? Nobody seems to have a clear answer just yet, and the Q&A does not go into that.

Arathorn

Is it just me or is this seem even more costly. Currently use opera mini and have it set to not load images. Browse a few news sites every day and doesnt cost much at all. Now if I pay 99 cent a day well thats almost €30 a month :eek: Thats almost as much as my regular broadband. Why cant prepay have a monthly add on

rc28

maddflogg wrote:

Are you on bill-pay? 3cent/kb? Hossa! That's nippy!

No, I'm on PAYG but it's still 3c/kB

rc28

Arathorn wrote:

Is it just me or is this seem even more costly. Currently use opera mini and have it set to not load images. Browse a few news sites every day and doesnt cost much at all. Now if I pay 99 cent a day well thats almost €30 a month :eek: Thats almost as much as my regular broadband. Why cant prepay have a monthly add on

I agree and I use opera for the exact same thing and now i'm worried it will cost way more, I'm thinking of moving to 3, with them I can check my emails as much as I want (and other well known sites) and not get charged a cent. They also have a 5euro monthly add on of 100mb data for browsing sites that aren't on their list of bookmarks.

rc28

Arathorn wrote:

Is it just me or is this seem even more costly. Currently use opera mini and have it set to not load images. Browse a few news sites every day and doesnt cost much at all. Now if I pay 99 cent a day well thats almost €30 a month :eek: Thats almost as much as my regular broadband. Why cant prepay have a monthly add on

I agree and I use opera for the exxact same thing and now i'm worried it will cost way more, I'm thinking of moving to 3, with them I can check my emails as much as I want (and other well known sites) and not get charged a cent. They also have a 5euro monthly add on of 100mb data.

flodis79

rc28 wrote:

I agree and I use opera for the exact same thing and now i'm worried it will cost way more, I'm thinking of moving to 3, with them I can check my emails as much as I want (and other well known sites) and not get charged a cent. They also have a 5euro monthly add on of 100mb data for browsing sites that aren't on their list of bookmarks.

The minimum charge is 15c, not 99c , so you can still browse a bit (up to 164 kb) per day and still not reach 99c. Ie you will still be charged 2c per kb up to 164 kb. I doubt you are paying less than 15c per day today, so this will not increase your costs.

flodis79

god's toy wrote:

So I hope I'm not reading this right.

I use the Mobile TV on the Voda network and from what I read I will be charged for navigating to the Mobile TV page just view something I have already subscribed too/paid for? Ah here, thats not good... Rip off to me.

Well still a bit of confusion but seems as if you will be charged for that yes, but was it really free before to browse the subscription page? It says on vodafone.ie only the front page is free on Live!, then it's 15c per page, but that's not true, no?

god's toy

Hmm you could be right their but I dont remember being ever charged for using just the Live! portal (not inc download of any kind) I do remember it telling me "viewing this page is so much' yeada yeada and so one but I just didn't click those links... maybe I was billed and didn't look at the bill.