gprs usage

[rich 36]

Never actually totted up what it cost,

as in;

plug mobile into laptop,

is there a rough idea of per-page costs anywhere

[chris.mapey]

What network are you using?

Have a look at their site, and there should be a cost per Mb downloaded. It matters not whether you are surfing on the phone, or are using the phone as a modem for your laptop.

Be careful if you don't have any data allowance in your contract - it can be very costly if not...

I use T-Mobile and have Web'n'Walk - unlimited GPRS / 3G browsing every month (well, subject to a fair use policy that I have never got near to reaching...)

HTH

Chris

[rich 36]

Might be worth check that out with o2 that.

I don't remember anything about browsing in the contract
although the v3 does have very limited web access

[xiphias]

My o2 contract has 1mb per month free. Over that, it's about £3.50 a mb. A pistonheads page minus pictures is about 3-10kb, so you can get a fair few in your mb. With pictures on, you could blow your mb in one page on some threads...

[rich 36]

Never actually paid much attention I'm ashamed to say.

The bills looked nothing out of the ordinary.

I'll call them tomorrow and check up out of interest

[hut49]

This could develop into another one of those really-useful-sources-of-information type threads. I've been looking for information on ways for my daughter to be able to access the internet when she goes off to uni in sept. The halls of residence has no wireless set up and the rooms have no phone line Hooking her bluetooth phone up to the laptop seems like the ideal answer. But as I'm picking up the bill (currently Orange) I'll need to find the best deal. I suppose I should start by finding the service provider with the best coverage of that location. Has anyone seen a comparison of providers reviewing use of their networks for laptop browsing? Are there any other ways to connect a laptop with the internet? I guess a laptop data card is the best other option but should this be a GPRS or 3G card? I'll post up what I find as it might be of interest to others.

Edited by hut49 on Monday 31st July 09:37

[rich 36]

My enquiry is a bit more weightedt to phone use as normal,
with sporadic internet usage

o2 offer an 8MB bolt-on to my monthly bill for a fiver
which I've taken out in the interim

[chris.mapey]

hut49 said:

This could develop into another one of those really-useful-sources-of-information type threads. I've been looking for information on ways for my daughter to be able to access the internet when she goes off to uni in sept. The halls of residence has no wireless set up and the rooms have no phone line Hooking her bluetooth phone up to the laptop seems like the ideal answer. But as I'm picking up the bill (currently Orange) I'll need to find the best deal. I suppose I should start by finding the service provider with the best coverage of that location. Has anyone seen a comparison of providers reviewing use of their networks for laptop browsing? Are there any other ways to connect a laptop with the internet? I guess a laptop data card is the best other option but should this be a GPRS or 3G card? I'll post up what I find as it might be of interest to others.

Edited by hut49 on Monday 31st July 09:37

I'd recommend a datacard on T-Mobile for you (well your daughter!)

Sign up for the 18m Contract - it's free for the card, and then £17 per month for unlimited data (there is a fair use policy that I have never got close to!)

The T-mobile data card will use GPRS / 3G / WiFi so she can connect anywhere.

Have a look here www.t-mobile.co.uk/Dispatcher?menuid=business_im_wnw_pro

HTH

Chris

[davidd]

I use gprs on my phone as a bluetooth modem for my pda to check email and do traffic stuff for tomtom, the data used is tiny, generally less than a couple of mb per month.

I also have a 3g datacard form vodafone which is £25 per month and I never seem to hit the usage limits (whatever they are). I'm currently sorting out a 3g phone so I can have faster speeds on the pda.

I would like to point out that for browsing gprs is pretty pants unless you ae on a low bandwidth site. I'm also still frustrated with the lack of 3g coverage.

D

[hut49]

chris.mapey said:

I'd recommend a datacard on T-Mobile for you (well your daughter!)

HTH

Chris

Thanks Chris - that looks just right. I'll see if I can get a phone/datacard bundle on an 18 month contract and compare this to Orange which currently provides her phone / calling plan.
Appreciate your suggestion

[hut49]

OK - I need some more advice. Based on the above I picked up a 3G data card today and all was going well until I tried to slot in the PCMCIA card...I guess some of you are one step ahead...yes, you got it, the new Dell notebooks are fitted with a bay for ExpressCards not PCMCIA. Apparently Express is the new standard and the existing PCMCIA data cards will be phased out as the PC inductry moves over to Express.

Apparently Vodafone may have just introduced a USB mobile connect Modem to overcome this but no one seems to know about it and no one at 3, O2 or Orange shops I went into today knew anything about any non-PCMCIA data card alternatives.

So assuming I can't get the Vodafone USB device in the near future (and that no one else is making a modem for ExpressCard slots) can I go back to my original question? How can I hook up a bluetooth phone (Motorola V3i) to a notebook - can anyone point me to a website with an idiots guide. Presumably I will have to add a Bluetooth dongle to the new Dell Inspiron 6400?

[bobthemonkey]

www.elandigitalsystems.com/usb/u111.php

[randlemarcus]

I can sympathise. Was trying to get some data off a new laptop I have to hand back after evaluation, when I discovered this. Mumph. At least it had a SIM sot for the HSCD comms stuff...

Given the bittorrent proclivities of most students, for Christs sake dont let her loose with a PC on a contract.

You will be seriously cheaper finding a house or office nearby and getting them to install broadband, then slinging CAT5 cable over, or using wireless.Really. Much cheaper.

Some pillock in our comms department just signed a contract with a certain mobile company in Berkshire for 9Gb per month across all our 3G connections. She smiled, until I pointed out that my PDA (quite parsimonious when it comes to chattering) was munching just under a Gb by itself, in mail traffic). We are a company of 22000 people, mostly technical. She wasn't a happy bunny.

Bluetooth to Phone modem stuff not hugely tricksy if you HAVE to go there

[bez_uk]

the dells can come with BlueTooth. or have you got the computer already? (not sure if they sell the chip as aftermarket.) The space for it is the small one next to the battery.

[Plotloss]

The Tmobile deal is £17 now?

Blimey, when it was first launched it was £7...

[hut49]

Digging around on the web I found the following Vodaphone announcement so it looks like the situation is just about to resolve itself with products that look like this . No doubt the first products will gouge the early adopters as per usual! So in the meantime, back to the bluetooth to motorola v3i route. I checked the latest Dell Inspiron 6400 we're using and it doesn't seem to be bluetooth enabled so I guess any class II bluetooth usb dongle will work?

[hut49]

bobthemonkey said:

www.elandigitalsystems.com/usb/u111.php

Thanks for that - unfortunately the 3G Data Cards are 32 bit so you need to go to the Quatech PCD-X/U132-E which is available in UK through Diamond Point but I can't find a price. In US it retails for $239

[hut49]

bez_uk said:

the dells can come with BlueTooth. or have you got the computer already? (not sure if they sell the chip as aftermarket.) The space for it is the small one next to the battery.

I checked with Orange the service provider for the Motorola V3i about using the phone as a data modem. Interestingly they said that this phone makes a good data modem but the costs are pretty steep. For example using data on the existing pay as you consume service plan costs GBP3 for 1MB and if you upgrade the plan to include data it comes in at various levels ie GBP4 a month for 4MB with 1GBP per MB over this; to a GBP41.13 per month for 80MB and GBP0.65 per MB beyond that. So this is way too expensive an option.