Vodafone ISP data pricing

jesus_thats_gre

Seems that Vodafone have significant reduced the cost of accessing their isp apn. The new rate is 19cents per megabyte.

apollodjs

There doesn’t seem to be any change for bill pay prepay info below looks like 3 have a bit of catching up to do...

Prepay:
http://www.vodafone.ie/planscosts/prepay/other/

Data services (GPRS and the Internet)
The mobile internet pricing above is recommended for all customers and is the default charging on all prepaid handsets we sell. This charging is through the Vodafone Live! Connection point (APN) which adapts websites for mobile viewing.

However, some advanced users may wish to use our ISP connection point. This connection point does not adapt websites for the best mobile viewing. Users of phone as a modem, data telemetry devices or other non-Vodafone internet devices with a prepaid SIM card may prefer to use this connection point. Pricing is on a per-KB basis rather than on a per-minute basis. That means you'll be charged on the amount of information (data) you send and/or receive, not on how long your call lasts. All data traffic through the ISP APN is charged at 19c per MB on Prepaid.

Drakar

http://www.vodafone.ie/vlive/costs/ still shows the 99c per day for 50mb offer (with prepaid paying 2c per kb after that, and postpaid can do a 500mb bundle for 10yoyos, the equivalent of 2c per mb).

apollodjs

Thats if you use the Live APN read my post above this is for the ISP APN

flodis79

That's great.:) but what about in roaming? I guess it's not as good as with the Live APN, where it is 99c per day wherever in the world you are.

jesus_thats_gre

Just got wind of this today so not sure of the finer details unfortunately. Thought some of ye would appreciate it.

Random

Great price change the 19c per MB. Very happy with that. Hope it applys to roaming too because if it does I'll be on Vodafone like a light .. if it doesn't it's still a great offer but won't appeal to me as much.

Jonathan

Very tempting..

partypiper

so if you downloaded 500mb you know using joikuspot browsing it would cost about 95euro.

no that great a deal

Jonathan

partypiper wrote: »

so if you downloaded 500mb you know using joikuspot browsing it would cost about 95euro.

no that great a deal

Yes it is.

It is very good for people who do a small amount of browsing each day.

jesus_thats_gre

partypiper wrote: »

so if you downloaded 500mb you know using joikuspot browsing it would cost about 95euro.

no that great a deal

It would have cost you about 2000 euro previously..

Some people never look at the positives..

quintron

jesus_thats_gre wrote: »

It would have cost you about 2000 euro previously..

Some people never look at the positives..

Sorry, don't mean to come across as harsh here but.... the current Vodafone ISP "promo" price is 1GB (1024MB) per month for eur 9.99.
How then is 19c per MB (unbundled) reasonable, even for light users?
The "benefit" in this day and age seemingly is for PAYG users but the new data price is still criminal IMHO. And their previous price was simply a joke to begin with, a remnant from the distant past.
I don't see why Vodafone should be applauded for finally getting off their arse and opening up the ISP apn. Correct me if I'm wrong, but using the unbridled ISP access point is beneficial mainly for data intensive applications.... applications often blocked and/or inoperable using the live! apn.
If you veer away from "mobile ready" sites and the uses offered by the ISP apn, you'll rack up the megabytes fairly quickly.
Am I missing something crucial, besides PAYG benefits?

flodis79

You can't get the one gig on payg...

jesus_thats_gre

quintron wrote: »

Sorry, don't mean to come across as harsh here but.... the current Vodafone ISP "promo" price is 1GB (1024MB) per month for eur 9.99.
How then is 19c per MB (unbundled) reasonable, even for light users?
The "benefit" in this day and age seemingly is for PAYG users but the new data price is still criminal IMHO. And their previous price was simply a joke to begin with, a remnant from the distant past.
I don't see why Vodafone should be applauded for finally getting off their arse and opening up the ISP apn. Correct me if I'm wrong, but using the unbridled ISP access point is beneficial mainly for data intensive applications.... applications often blocked and/or inoperable using the live! apn.
If you veer away from "mobile ready" sites and the uses offered by the ISP apn, you'll rack up the megabytes fairly quickly.
Am I missing something crucial, besides PAYG benefits?

I have has some pretty strong opinions on the topic for quite sometime so I understand where you are coming from.

Saying that, I am pretty certain that quite a few here will be happy to see the drop in charges and just wanted to give them the heads up.

It isn't pefect but it is a lot lot better than what it was previously.

quintron

@ flodis, fair enough, I wasn't aware of that.
@ jesus_thats_gre, duly noted. It's a step I suppose.

DeVore

I'm terrible confused Ted.

Two questions for you Vodaphone experts:

1. I have just connected from my laptop via Bluetooth to my Samsung F480 and surprised myself by finding it was happy to act as a "modem" and gave me nice fast access to the internet. I dont have any ISP-style agreement but I am on their Bill Pay 600 deal... any idea what I'm paying a Mb? Any way to cap this so I dont go broke?

2. The phone (all shiny and new) has a nice browser on it. Do I pay the same rate as above when I connect to m.boards.ie?

DeV.

quintron

What Access Point are you connecting with "Vodafone Live!" or "Vodafone ISP"?

If Vodafone Live! then its 99c up to 50MB per day; I don't know what it is after that and I'm not even sure you can use that particular APN as a modem. I suspect not though could someone else please confirm if possible.

If Vodafone ISP, then as OP pointed out its, 19c per MB. But surfing regular webpages via your laptop will rack up the MB fairly quickly and without watching how much data you download/upload you will end up with a nasty bill.
Say you spent about 2 - 3 hours surfing regular webpages, forums etc, various windows open (don't even think about an afternoons you tube!) you should expect to go though 80 MB conservatively which equates to eur 15.20 @ 19c per MB.

You should check on online on your vodafone.ie bill (there is a link to see what has been billed to your account but not yet put on to your bill) to see what they have charged you thus far.


2 - On your phone you will be charged for whatever data you download, so again, 19c per MB but here on your phone if you visit m.boards.ie or any .mobi site, or other mobile optimised site you can expect to get a lot further for your MB. Its about 50kb to load the mobile version of boards (I think!) so very roughly 1/20th of a MB for the initial load of the linked page and similarish every other page refresh or new link/post that you open.. (this is only a rough guide..). This can be further optimised by using a browser that strips out a lot of unnecessary stuff and optimises text and images by using a proxy server such as Opera Mini. (I don't know anything about the browser on teh Tocco).
Opera's browser is your best bet for condensing/conserving data exchanges via your operator.

Best bet, call vodafone and ask for the Vodafone ISP Promo for 1GB of Data per month for eur9.99. It rolls over and is cheaper in the long run if you want to access your data on the go.

HTH.

strecker

He's have to be using the .isp access point, right? .live!-ap doesn't work as modem...at least for me :huh:

flodis79

Is the minimum billing increment still 50kb on ISP?

failsafe

DeVore wrote: »

I'm terrible confused Ted.

Two questions for you Vodaphone experts:

1. I have just connected from my laptop via Bluetooth to my Samsung F480 and surprised myself by finding it was happy to act as a "modem" and gave me nice fast access to the internet. I dont have any ISP-style agreement but I am on their Bill Pay 600 deal... any idea what I'm paying a Mb? Any way to cap this so I dont go broke?

2. The phone (all shiny and new) has a nice browser on it. Do I pay the same rate as above when I connect to m.boards.ie?

DeV.

1. No. This flat rate is for ready to go only. With bill pay there's a bundle you can buy. It's 1gb for €9.99. If you haven't got this bundle your bill might not look too pretty!

2. It depends. In theory, no. Vodafone have a mobile internet pricing (i.e. viewing the internet on your mobile) of 99c per day (with a 50mb cap). This is the default connection/pricing and it adapts pages for mobile viewing. However, you can change your connection settings to the ISP connection point and that will eat out of the bundle referred to above.

As for the price dop in general, sounds good! Is this the cheapest payg rate on the market now?

long_b

Not the cheapest, 3 have 1GB/month for a tenner. Bless their hearts.

testicle

quintron wrote: »

Sorry, don't mean to come across as harsh here but.... the current Vodafone ISP "promo" price is 1GB (1024MB) per month for eur 9.99.

That's for the Live! APN

Kristok

quintron wrote: »

Sorry, don't mean to come across as harsh here but.... the current Vodafone ISP "promo" price is 1GB (1024MB) per month for eur 9.99.
How then is 19c per MB (unbundled) reasonable, even for light users?
The "benefit" in this day and age seemingly is for PAYG users but the new data price is still criminal IMHO. And their previous price was simply a joke to begin with, a remnant from the distant past.
I don't see why Vodafone should be applauded for finally getting off their arse and opening up the ISP apn. Correct me if I'm wrong, but using the unbridled ISP access point is beneficial mainly for data intensive applications.... applications often blocked and/or inoperable using the live! apn.
If you veer away from "mobile ready" sites and the uses offered by the ISP apn, you'll rack up the megabytes fairly quickly.
Am I missing something crucial, besides PAYG benefits?

Yes you are a bit. Im on the tenner a month option but i dont use anything close to 500mb a month only use a few as i dont be using it every day and when i do its mainly for bebo or facebook or a google search. So for me i would be able to cancel my 500mb package which dosnt even let me use the sky app or msn and switch to paying per mb and having open access. And if i the odd day im using it allot i could use the live connection and pay 50c. So my internet bill will be a few euro at most rather than 10€.

Now comes the BUT, its still too expensive but at least its a step in the right direction.

quintron

testicle wrote: »

That's for the Live! APN

Er no, its not. Its the ISP apn. I switched from the Live! apn 2 months ago. See this thread on the board re the ISP promo price data bundle.

@Kristok, it sounds perfect for you and indeed many others I'm sure. I'm not knocking that at all.
My concern is for people who will (unintentionally or otherwise) use data more using the per MB rate as the ISP apn is essentially unbridled and consequently these people could end up with a nasty bill.
However, if you monitor it carefully and know which apn to use, then you control it. In my experience a lot of people just don't think like that though.
Personally, I like having access to you tube, mail, net, rss, and other programs that automatically connect and update data without having to worry if I'm going to get shafted with a big bill at the end of the month.
The 1GB ISP promo plan @ 9.99, for me, is as close to unlimited data PM at what I consider a reasonable price, meaning I don't have to worry about it, and, consequently I would advise that option (or similar bundle) for people who don't want to constantly monitor their data access through their networks.

charlie_says

ISP 1GB promo is great, and the data rolls over ever month

€10 can't go wrong considering if you use 1GB with the new price scheme and no bundle it costs €190!. I think you may have to ring them up to get it though as someone said it has vanished from the website?

failsafe

Kristok, testicle & quintron: Just be careful there before changing bundles etc. The €9.99 bundles are for the live or the ISP (there's one for each), but they are both for bill pay. As some have pointed out, this is a fair bit cheaper (if you use most/all of the bundle)

There is no monthly bundle for prepay - for either live or isp. This price of 19c/mb is for prepay only.

AFAIK the old rate per kb/mb still applies for bill pay if you don't have the bundle. I can't see any rate change for bill pay on vodafone.ie, but I haven't called customer care to check it out.

quintron

yes, bill pay.... I'm presuming the discussion has been one of bill pay since DeVores bill pay related question at the top of the page?
Thanks for clarification though.

failsafe

It was just this that made me think it might be helpful to raise that point:

Kristok wrote:

So for me i would be able to cancel my 500mb package which dosnt even let me use the sky app or msn and switch to paying per mb and having open access.

Does anyone know if there's a speed difference between the ISP and Live APNs? Has anyone tested it?

charlie_says

Not sure about any speed difference, but you can use more apps on ISP than live so....

I use the isp and it can be very fast to very slow depending on where you are, signal strength, number of people on the mast etc etc

DeVore

Thanks guys, I'll give them a ring and get that bundle before I blow my bank account

DeV.

barnicles

Do Vodafone have any data bundles on Prrepay?

Thanks

Sam Vimes

no. It's 99c a day for up to 50mb on the live access point and 19c per mb on the isp one

barnicles

OK , I use about 50MB a month and spend a fortune on Live! using Opera Mini

Sam Vimes

well then you should use the isp access point where that'd cost you 9.50 a month. You just have to change the settings in your phone

Random

Sam Vimes wrote: »

well then you should use the isp access point where that'd cost you 9.50 a month. You just have to change the settings in your phone

What he said.

Try the ISP settings here and see how they work for you.

cyclopath2001

Sam Vimes wrote: »

well then you should use the isp access point where that'd cost you 9.50 a month. You just have to change the settings in your phone

Watch out though, the usage of the ISP APN does not count towards the 500mb Mobile Internet bundle. You need the specific 1gb ISP Promo bundle.

I was mis-sold the 500mb bundle, but Vodafone have agreed to credit me and switch me to the 1gb ISP deal.

Per Vodafone, the LIVE APN and Mobile Internet 500mb bundle are only suitable for phones bought from them and using the Live! service.

You need to switch bundles, just changing the APN is not enough.

Random

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

Watch out though, the usage of the ISP APN does not count towards the 500mb Mobile Internet bundle. You need the specific 1gb ISP Promo bundle.

I was mis-sold the 500mb bundle, but Vodafone have agreed to credit me and switch me to the 1gb ISP deal.

Per Vodafone, the LIVE APN and Mobile Internet 500mb bundle are only suitable for phones bought from them and using the Live! service.

You need to switch bundles, just changing the APN is not enough.

To clarify this ISP for 19c/MB is ONLY ON PREPAY. In this case bundles are not relevant.

Random

Right ... mega confusion.

Vodafone are telling me it's only 19c per MB after a while. I first pay 2c per KB up to 512KB and then 0.5c per KB up to x (some amount they cannot clarify for me) and then the 19c per MB kicks in. This all has to be in the same session etc.

This essentially makes the ISP pricing useless as an alternative to the Live pricing.

The problem? My prepay balance doesn't seem to reflect this pricing. Also the Vodafone website - I can't find any mention of 2c anything.

Does anyone work for Vodafone that could clarify the pricing on the 19c/MB for me and how it is billed on prepay? Would be great if you could point me toward the relevant section of the Vodafone website whcih mentions 2c charges if these do apply.

Thanks

Sam Vimes

Random wrote: »

Right ... mega confusion.

Vodafone are telling me it's only 19c per MB after a while. I first pay 2c per KB up to 512KB and then 0.5c per KB up to x (some amount they cannot clarify for me) and then the 19c per MB kicks in. This all has to be in the same session etc.

i'm thinking that they're wrong because it would make the isp access point completely useless for anything. why even mention a figure of 19c if you have to pay some unknown amount above €20 every time you connect before that rate applies? if you were to use it for internet access with a laptop every day it would cost you at least €600 a month before you even got near a 19c rate

edit:let me take this opportunity to talk you out of being on vodafone

failsafe

That's the postpaid pricing your were quoted. The step change is after the first 512kb in any given billing period. There's no such thing as a billing period on prepaid so just.... ignore all that!

Prepaid ISP rate is 19c/mb all day every day. It's at the bottom of their "other charges" page here - http://www.vodafone.ie/planscosts/prepay/other/

strecker

failsafe wrote: »

That's the postpaid pricing your were quoted. The step change is after the first 512kb in any given billing period. There's no such thing as a billing period on prepaid so just.... ignore all that!

Prepaid ISP rate is 19c/mb all day every day. It's at the bottom of their "other charges" page here - http://www.vodafone.ie/planscosts/prepay/other/

That's right, and it doesn't have to be in one session either, and it also applies when you use your prepay phone as a modem for your lappy...

Jonathan

Why did you decide to move to vodafone in the first place random?

Sam Vimes

failsafe wrote: »

That's the postpaid pricing your were quoted. The step change is after the first 512kb in any given billing period. There's no such thing as a billing period on prepaid so just.... ignore all that!

Prepaid ISP rate is 19c/mb all day every day. It's at the bottom of their "other charges" page here - http://www.vodafone.ie/planscosts/prepay/other/

that's what i thought too but it seems that's not what vodafone told him

Random

failsafe wrote: »

That's the postpaid pricing your were quoted. The step change is after the first 512kb in any given billing period. There's no such thing as a billing period on prepaid so just.... ignore all that!

Prepaid ISP rate is 19c/mb all day every day. It's at the bottom of their "other charges" page here - http://www.vodafone.ie/planscosts/prepay/other/

I've read that but it really isn't as clear as it seems at first glance. I've also had 5 different answers from Vodafone.

strecker wrote: »

That's right, and it doesn't have to be in one session either, and it also applies when you use your prepay phone as a modem for your lappy...

So if I go on and use 10KB how much credit is deducted?

jmccrohan wrote: »

Why did you decide to move to vodafone in the first place random?

Me and Meteor didn't get along very well for a time. I don't know who to blame for the problem I had but it's solved by switching to Vodafone. So I'm gonna give this a bash for a short while. This ISP pricing also really attracted me as it would potentially save me bucket loads given I'm spending 99c a day on data with Meteor but mostly staying under a meg.


I'm gonna sit down later and try work it out myself by checking my credit before / after but it's a real pain not having a call history to compare against.

Thanks for the input lads ... I can see the website and it does seem very clear but please answer a couple of things then:
1. if I download 400KB today and 600KB tomorrow how much will that cost me? Will it be 19c? Or will it be 2 sessions with a minimum cost of 19c? Or what?
2. How much credit is deducted if I download 10KB of data?

Sam Vimes

Random wrote: »

1. if I download 400KB today and 600KB tomorrow how much will that cost me? Will it be 19c? Or will it be 2 sessions with a minimum cost of 19c? Or what?
2. How much credit is deducted if I download 10KB of data?

Assuming the website is accurate which i'm thinking more and more it is because the alternative seems ridiculous
1. Sessions don't matter. You'd be paying for 1000kb, ie 19c

2. I think it's charged in 10kb increments. Can't remember where i heard that though. So i think 10kb would cost 0.19c

Edit:there is one way you could find out......

Random

How do they bill you 0.19c (assuming you mean €00.0019 and that's not a typo)?

The website says Pricing is on a per-KB basis rather than on a per-minute basis - they don't mention minimum charges.

It's really mind-boggling ...

Sam Vimes

Random wrote: »

How do they bill you 0.19c (assuming you mean 00.0019 and that's not a typo)?

The website says Pricing is on a per-KB basis rather than on a per-minute basis - they don't mention minimum charges.

It's really mind-boggling ...

well i know that the lucent Surepay charging system can charge to four decimal places for example, which would allow for a charge of 0.19c or e0.0019 as you put it (no it wasn't a typo)

failsafe

Sam Vimes wrote: »

Assuming the website is accurate which i'm thinking more and more it is because the alternative seems ridiculous
1. Sessions don't matter. You'd be paying for 1000kb, ie 19c

2. I think it's charged in 10kb increments. Can't remember where i heard that though. So i think 10kb would cost 0.19c

Edit:there is one way you could find out......

Correct for part 1 (i.e. 7.6c on day 1 and 11.4c on day 2)


But for part 2 I'm pretty sure it will charge you in increments lower than 19c. So fractions of a cent up until 60kb approx (i.e. 1c). So if you use 10kb sessions you wont see your balance move until you go below x.5c and it rounds down. Then you'd need to use another 10 x 10kb sessions before you see your balance move again.

EDIT: Just realised you said .19c instead of 19c. Which is what I understand to be true too. It's how all the networks do per second billing on phone calls: your balance is several decimal places, but it's just rounded off to to €€.cc when displayed to you.

I haven't tested that myself, but I'm almost certain that's how it works.

Random

That's how I would assume it works from reading it .. but it all seems a little .. I don't know .. too good to be true then? And Vodafone are telling me the opposite ..

I would love a definite on this one

Sam Vimes

Random wrote: »

I would love a definite on this one

tbh the best way to do it would be:

type *174#

note credit

load a webpage of less than 10kb

close browser

type *174#

note credit

load a webpage of 10kb

close browser

type *174#

note credit

would you like sock puppets :P

sxt

Anyone know if the vodafone isp settings can be configured on a nokia 6230 or do you have to ring vodafone to set it up?