How important is cheap GPRS to you?

[Guest mcwarre]

It sounds great but I'm one of those rare few still on Everday 50 ( if you've got a company phone at your disposal during the day it's a real bargain when you're working away ) and I'm sure Orange would love me to give that up.

Same here. If you don't have a business phone you can always use onetel during the day :lol: :( . If the GPRS is a bolt-on I am interested..........

[Guest The Lostprophet]

Id swap networks for this, 100MB for 10Quid is excellent, seeing as us smartphone users can view full websites that would come in handy for them big ones. imagain if that was at 3G speeds that would get eatem up so quickly :lol::D:D

[Guest steve_smith]

I don't know about the complications of providing GPRS (and the costs related to this), but I have a sneaky feeling that we in the UK are being ripped off.

Orange (who I'm currently with) isn't too bad. However, Virgin Mobile (who I was considering switching to) charge something in the region of £5 a megabyte, with no bulk buy bundles available. When I was on T-Mobile (last year), I once had a very scarey bill because they charged me something similar, and I didn't realise how much it cost until I had done 10Mb in three days whilst travelling in Scotland. I didn't check how much it cost before I left, because quite frankly, I couldn't believe it would be more than a 50p a Mb. The fact it cost 10 times more than that amazed me.

When wired connections (dialup or broadband) are so cheap these days, I can't see how mobile data can cost so much. Since GPRS is going to be replaced pretty soon by 3G, it scares me that the UK's operators don't seem to understand the data requirements of today's mobile device users. It's almost as if the handsets and devices have lept forwards at a fantastic rate, but the services the operators provide are still stuck a decade back in time.

When I check my work IMAP account on my phone, it causes me to transfer somewhere in the region of 400Kb... When I bought my SPV C500 and took out a contract, I only got 1Mb of GPRS as standard ... so thats two IMAP email checks and I'm out for the month :lol:

My other gripe (with Orange in particular) is as someone else has already mentioned, you have no way of finding out how much of your monthly allowance you have used. Orange didn't seem to care about this when I phoned them up ... actually, every time I have called them to ask about anything, the answer has always been no :(

OK, for MS smartphones, you can buy software which is supposed to meter it for you. But that's like buying a car and having to buy a third party fuel guage for it. Quite ridiculous.

So I guess as I have voted... Yes, if someone offered me a cheap GPRS deal, I would change networks for it. My Orange contract expires July/August (I think). Providing you could attach it to a cheap voice tarrif (since I probably don't use my phone for more than about 30 minutes a month on voice).

[Guest sophantim]

No more new phone for me right now! :cry:

[Guest stunno]

If it was £10/100MB then I would go for it, but £10/month for 100MB is not for me

[Guest chucky.egg]

you have no way of finding out how much of your monthly allowance you have used. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I found out the other day that you can just call Orange CS, go through to billing and they can tell you (to one decimal place) the number of Mb you have used.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

They never used to do that!

[Guest Confucious]

They never used to do that!

You're right, they didn't. Hopefully now they can tell they will put it on an option so when you check your minutes/texts you can also check GPRS usage. It's nice to know tho' - Thanks Chucky :lol:

[Guest MadSci]

I haven't the time to check out all 7 (7!) pages of posts on this, but will you forgive me if I pount out that I just signed up for unlimited GPRS from Cingular in the US for $24/month.

No, I thought not :roll:

Wierd that the US, which has usually lagged way behind in most things cellular, is able to put forward this almost reaonable deal.

Well, I'm off to listen to the "Beeb" via streaming audio! TaTa!

MadSci

[Guest chucky.egg]

:evil: :lol:

[Guest PayableOnDeath]

I haven't the time to check out all 7 (7!) pages of posts on this, but will you forgive me if I pount out that I just signed up for unlimited GPRS from Cingular in the US for $24/month.

No, I thought not  :roll:

Wierd that the US, which has usually lagged way behind in most things cellular, is able to put forward this almost reaonable deal.

Well, I'm off to listen to the "Beeb" via streaming audio!  TaTa!

MadSci

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wonder if I got a phone in the us with unlimited GPRS that I could bring it to the UK and still use the unlimited GPRS :lol:

[Guest Br1an_g]

i agree about the stepped tarrifs.

i am on the 4Mb bundle with Orange.

i was about 12Mb last month, which bumped my bill up a bit, so will probably move to the next tarrif after i see my bill this month.

just out of interest...Doesnt PTT use GPRS? so when PTT enabled phones are released in teh UK, this type of tarrif would be ideal. I would then be willing to move providers for this.

[Guest Confucious]

'scuse my ignorance, but what's PTT?

[Guest tsutton]

You're right, they didn't. Hopefully now they can tell they will put it on an option so when you check your minutes/texts you can also check GPRS usage. It's nice to know tho' - Thanks Chucky :(

I was told by Orange that the more people suggest to have the GPRS info and how many txt left on the Orange website (My Account) they would consider adding it.

So get going with e-mailing them and suggesting it. Or by phone too. Or even by letter! :lol:

[Guest Br1an_g]

'scuse my ignorance, but what's PTT?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Push To Talk....like walkie talkie via mobile networks...

[Guest markovts]

hi guys i'm a new member on here......i saw your poll, and thought i'd like to rub it in a bit that i actually have a bundle for 100Mb for £10 on my t-mobile account just now lol.

if anyone doesn't believe me, i can take a picture of one of my bills to prove it.

It came out when GPRS was first launched on t-mobile, and was only available for a few months....you can tell why :(

i have had it on all this time, and won't be getting rid of it anytime soon :lol:

[Guest Confucious]

Push To Talk....like walkie talkie via mobile networks...

Thanks.

PTT - i was in a bar like that last night.... :lol:

[Guest Pondrew]

hi guys i'm a new member on here......i saw your poll, and thought i'd like to rub it in a bit that i actually have a bundle for 100Mb for £10 on my t-mobile account just now lol.

if anyone doesn't believe me, i can take a picture of one of my bills to prove it.

It came out when GPRS was first launched on t-mobile, and was only available for a few months....you can tell why :(

i have had it on all this time, and won't be getting rid of it anytime soon :lol:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, I remember that offer. It was much like the Orange unlimited use (with fair usuage policy) offer. In fact, I could have sworn that was a time limited offer, ie people who signed up only had it for a limited time...

[Guest hecatae]

I've got the Orange 3G launch bundle with 50mb free data for 12 months, not bad for £30. :lol:

also includes the Double minutes promo, what am I going to do with 400 minutes??

Edited February 26, 2005 by hecatae

[Guest ciudatelu]

I have unlimited (not subject to 1 GB limit or something, but truuuuuuly unlimited) GPRS/EDGE traffic (no 3G here, yet) in Romania for US$80,00 per month. How does this sound?

[Guest CEO]

paul, what's going on?

[Guest Confucious]

On a phone it would be difficult to use more than 100Mb / month and I would pay £10/month. USD 80 is over £40 which is far more than I would pay - in fact it's what I pay for my 2Mb Broadband at home!

[Guest jeff_porter]

GPRS? na, 3G.

If you're offering 100Meg of 3G access for 10, then I'd say yes.

and none of this '3' walled garden stuff.

I want full access.

[Guest mobile-distortion]

I have a SMT-5600 and Cingular. I use the unlimited Mediaworks package for around 20 bucks extra a month. Is kinna pricey but makes it nice for streaming....I dont have o sweat any type of limits. 8)

[Guest mykiemm]

Its really imposable to compare the US and UK phone markets. People here are complaining because UK operator’s don’t offer unlimited GPRS packages like in the US. There is a very simple reason for this, the UK has one of the highest rates of mobile penetration in the world, almost everyone has one. Bandwidth is a commodity, and it would simply not be possible for the mobile networks to offer unlimited GPRS in the UK without either risking their networks going down (O2 currently works at 90% of capacity I believe) or having to double the number of base stations to cope with the extra usage (which would cost millions, if not billions)

Compare this to the US where penetration is far lower and there are more, smaller networks. Each of these networks has about the same amount of bandwidth as the UK operators, but with far fewer customers. So they can offer these unlimited packages without their networks going into meltdown.

Have you ever noticed how UK operators pricing is virtually identical, just set out in different ways? That’s because they all run the same type of networks with the same amount of bandwidth and those prices are calculated as the cost of using the network (mobile networks are VERY expensive to run), plus profit etc and are set at a level to discourage excessive use yet encourage high ARPU.

I don’t believe UK networks rip us of in terms of GPRS or call charges, its simply the price we pay for loving phones so much. The truth is, if GPRS and call charges where significantly lowered the networks would be so congested we would be unable to use them.

That said....if orange was to offer me 100MB for £10 I'd snap it up, although i find the £4 for 4MB is enough for me.

Edited March 14, 2005 by mykiemm