Advantages of Vodafone iPhone launch for other data users

blaz

Despite Vodafone's attempts of hiding them, the advantages of live.vodafone.com APN are somewhat well known - specifically the inclusive data roaming rates (i.e. you don't pay anything extra for data when roaming using this APN). But until recently this APN had many disadvantages: no HSDPA and many ports were blocked, so it was unusable for anything except light browsing.

HSDPA was finally enabled a couple of months ago. The latest change seems to be lifting of all the port blocking, which I presume is due to Vodafone's iPhone launch. The iPhone will use live.vodafone.com by default, so to make it usable with all iPhone apps they had to remove the port blocking.

What does this mean for non-iPhone users? Until recently most streaming radio applications were not working on live.vodafone.com as it was blocking any TCP port except 80 (web browsing) and 25/143/993 (email). I have today tried to use Cherry Rplayer (a streaming radio app for Android) over live.vodafone.com and it now works perfectly fine. It is much more usable for tethering now as well, although I'm sure Vodafone will hate it if users utilize live.vodafone.com to tether while roaming, but technically it is perfectly possible.

Now live.vodafone.com is finally a normal APN with arguably by far the best data roaming tariff (i.e. same price as in Ireland).

parsi

Hmm.

That explains why Peep (the pre-installed twitter app on Vodafone HTC Tattoos) is finally working.

Only 3 months after the phone was introduced...

Random

I'm with Vodafone for my main phone now because of the roaming data. Shocking value (in comparison to others).

16hill16

Blaz
Thanks for the info

I've been using isp.vodafone.ie because of the restrictions up till now

As regards roaming with the live.vodafone.ie apn
Do you know if there are
any limitations /gotchas with using this whilst roaming in the UK or Spain ?
and if you have a data plan for the live apn will this cover you for use abroad ?
Thanks
16hill16

blaz

16hill16 wrote: »

Blaz
Thanks for the info

I've been using isp.vodafone.ie because of the restrictions up till now

As regards roaming with the live.vodafone.ie apn
Do you know if there are
any limitations /gotchas with using this whilst roaming in the UK or Spain ?
and if you have a data plan for the live apn will this cover you for use abroad ?
Thanks
16hill16

The only restriction I know of is that VoIP over live.vodafone.com while roaming is not allowed, this is specified in the T&C. I don't know if there are technical blocks in place to prevent this, I will find out this week when I fly to South America

Other then that, no there are no gotchas, as long as you stay inside your allocated data allowance (1GB if bill pay) you should be fine.

My only concern is how long this is going to last. Hopefully not too many people will abuse it.

And to directly answer your question: if you have a data plan that covers the live APN, yes your usage abroad will be covered. Make 100% that you use live APN and not any other APN (isp, hs, office, etc.).

If you want confirmation, here it is, straight from Vodafone's web site:

http://www.vodafone.ie/planscosts/paymonthly/roaming/world/region3/

It says: "When sending a picture message or accessing Vodafone live*, you'll pay the same mobile internet rates as you do at home." And the little star says: "*Accessed via the vodafonelive APN."

Cyrus

ive been using the isp data add on instead of live and everything works perfectly on it, also the speeds you get when you change the apn to hs.vodafone.ie are insane 4mb download and 1mb up :eek:

blaz

Cyrus wrote: »

ive been using the isp data add on instead of live and everything works perfectly on it, also the speeds you get when you change the apn to hs.vodafone.ie are insane 4mb download and 1mb up :eek:

Yeah, but you also pay insane rates when roaming with that APN. Now with the live.vodafone.com APN you have all the advantages of isp APN (high speed, open ports), plus unbeatable rates for roaming.

00sully

sweet - good info blaz thanks - i've been looking for a decent mobile plan for months now think I've finally chosen Vodafone (currently o2)

I got charged > €16 for 30mins data roaming last week by o2

now its just a case of which vodafone plan!! (also whether to wait for the desire or not)

Cyrus

blaz wrote: »

Yeah, but you also pay insane rates when roaming with that APN. Now with the live.vodafone.com APN you have all the advantages of isp APN (high speed, open ports), plus unbeatable rates for roaming.

really, whats the difference in the roaming rates?

are there any disadvantages to being on live now, what kinda speeds you get on speedtest?

blaz

Cyrus wrote: »

really, whats the difference in the roaming rates?

are there any disadvantages to being on live now, what kinda speeds you get on speedtest?

For live, you pay nothing extra, i.e. you pay the same price as in Ireland. Here are the insane prices for isp/hs/office:

http://www.vodafone.ie/planscosts/paymonthly/roaming/connect/mobilebroadband/

No disadvantage in using live (if your plan covers it). Speeds are the same, speedtest currently shows 1.3 Mbps down/up for me, but I've seen up to 4 Mbps depending on time of day.

gunnerfitzy

Viewing this thread in Spain right now using live.vodafone.com APN. The business!

If you are prepaid and sign up for Vodafone 360 it works out around 39c/day for 100mb/day. Excellent value. Hats off to VF on this one. If you spend much time out of Ireland then it's a definite money-saver!

Cyrus

and what are the current costs for live add ons at the moment lads?

are there any disadvantages?

16hill16

Just to confirm that I 've used Vodafone live APN whilst in the UK and roamed for free as per my data plan, 1GB ISP add 0n.
What I discovered is that if you have the Vodafone ISP data add on it entitles you to use the Vodafone live APN at NO additional cost.
I also had confirmed by Vodafone data support team that there is now no technical difference between using the ISP APN over the LIVE APN.

So If you have the ISP add on , change your APN to Vodafone live APN and roam for free where covered by the plans T&Cs!

thegoth

16hill16 wrote: »

Just to confirm that I 've used Vodafone live APN whilst in the UK and roamed for free as per my data plan, 1GB ISP add 0n.
What I discovered is that if you have the Vodafone ISP data add on it entitles you to use the Vodafone live APN at NO additional cost.
I also had confirmed by Vodafone data support team that there is now no technical difference between using the ISP APN over the LIVE APN.

So If you have the ISP add on , change your APN to Vodafone live APN and roam for free where covered by the plans T&Cs!

I am with vodafone isp for home broadband. I have O2 for my phone. Can I use this ?

Matt Bauer

I just topped up by €20. How can I enable Vodafone 360?

limklad

live.vodafone.com download is crap right now here in Limerick for the last two days for data. isp.vodafone.com is working fine but costs me a fortune.

I regretting going for this mobile internet package right now and Vodafone service is pretty bad, I been emailing and complaining to Vodafone about my mobile internet that was meant to be 10 Euro for 1GB that was setup last month, and when I set it up initially I rang 1907 and at Vodafone local shop to verify activation on my billing date, but I got the usual bull with no information on what setting up I needed which I was meant to have. when I signed up online with bill pay, It was never mentioned online what setting I need to use or any kind of feedback, and that website billing/extra section is constantly down for maintenance, so I assumed it was setup as default. My phone was automatically setup using isp.vodafone.ie with Vodafone for username with unknown password but it was working fine, but cost me a bloody fortune for 40 MB;s.

It turn out that I had to resetup the apn with live.vodafone.ie after a constant emails sending to get them to verify why i am be billed heavily for data.
Now live.vodafone.ie is worst that poor day on dial up.

The best support I have seen is boards.ie, There is far more information here than at vodafone support with either phone/email/shop help.

I regretting going for this mobile internet package right now. :mad:

charlie_says

Is this still the case with data roaming via live.vodafone.com with unblocked ports as of now (mid July)?