GPRS Abroad

[Guest MrCai]

Hi,

Does the SPV pack promotion extend abroad? Specifically Denmark, as I will be there in June for Roskilde 8) and would like to send some pictures to my underprivillaged frineds back home :)

If not are romaing GPRS costs higher than thoose here?

Cai

[Guest solo]

I used GPRS when I took a holiday in Venice recently and my bill shows that I haven't been charged extra - so I can confirm that the promotion extends to roaming. The only issue I had in venice was that the data rate was too slow (very low signal to the one mobile operator who could provide data services).

Solo

[Guest Sculli]

Be warned though.... It can take some time for phone usage abroad to appear on your bill - 2 months isn't unusual.

It was my understanding that use of GRPS abroad is NOT covered by the SPV promotion and that charges will be higher than the standard UK rates, although I would be happy to be corrected on this!

Sculli

[Guest simon.haffenden]

i recently visited dublin (january) and had GPRS available but could not make a connection. at the time the guys on the O help line said that GPRS is not available to you in all european destinations but could not confirm which were available

[Guest wbloore]

The SPV Promotion pack is not available while roaming. I was charged 8 pounds per MB while in Spain in January, but looking at the page below, the cost has increased to 10 pounds per MB for Spain. Be warned: the cost can be as high as 25 pounds per MB!

List of countries where it is available, and the costs:

http://www.orange.co.uk/services/orange_gp...gprs_table.html

[Guest ajb3000]

I wanna go Roskilde :)

Anyway it does cost £10/MB in Denmark when roaming, bit pricy.

[Guest youngerpants]

damn, I've been in Spain for the last few days and I've been battering GPRS

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I'm glad I dont pay the bill!

[Guest Big Ron - No Longer a Mem]

Too bad! Back until October 2002, the GPRS billing procedures for Orange and any of their foreign "partner" networks was so complicated that it just wasn't worth the bother of calculating how much you owed. So they didn't charge for overseas GPRS usage.

Note that Orange's database of which of the partners offers GPRS is (a) years out of date and (:) refers ONLY to networks that they've tested. Where they don't KNOW if there's coverage, the official line is "there is no coverage".

Worth checking if you plan to use High Speed Data (if there really IS no GPRS) or if there's SMS coverage. The database is new enough to cover those reliably, but not GPRS. I REALLY got my knuckles rapped for suggesting to one customer (who had suggested that he intended to use GPRS a LOT while overseas) that the resulting bill was likely to be astronomical, and suggesting he used cybercafes instead. My view being that it's better to KEEP customers and "milk" them over a long period than to screw them over and lose them. A view apparently not shared by my supervisor.

[Guest Ras]

Well it cost me a fortune/MB when I was in Switzerland... best calling Orange before you go I guess!

[Guest Rob.P]

Seeing as we are a widely travelling bunch we should compile a list of all the countries that do have GPRS on roaming.

For starters Thailand's networks don't seem to have it when I went in March of this year (03), unless I missed onem there were a few to choose from.

[Guest wbloore]

From past experience over the last 6 months from visiting many European countries, the list on Orange's web site is accurate and up to date.

Many networks will show a 'G' in the status bar to indicate that GPRS is available on the network, but if the network is not on the list then you will find that a GPRS connection will fail.

Orange have to set up seperate roaming agreements for GPRS for you to be able to use GPRS.

[Guest Big Ron - No Longer a Mem]

"From past experience over the last 6 months from visiting many European countries, the list on Orange's web site is accurate and up to date. "

Wow! This is hilarious -and typically Orange. If you phone customer services, they'll look at the "private" internal database. Very few CSRs have access to the web at work (or at home for that matter!) So, Orange is providing an up-to-date soiurce of information to the customer via their website... and OUT-of-date information if you ring tech support.

[Guest wbloore]

Certainly looks that way. Same with the Orange Value Promise available price plans. You can view full details of every price plan available on their website, but ask Orange customer services for this info and they struggle. Aparently they do have access to the Orange website - at least that's what one person at Orange told me yesterday.

[Guest Big Ron - No Longer a Mem]

As with most things at Orange, if it's not considered essential for foing the job, you won't have it. A minority even of level-2 techies have full access to the web, some have email access. Everyone has VERY limited access to the Orange website via the internal LAN (but it's quite hard to reach - several screens to get through BEFORE you reach the home page). Management regard it as a distraction and temptation - like having books or magazines around. If it's a slow day, with big gaps between calls (and it does happen, just like days with zero second gaps!) they don't want people sitting around playing games or chatting with their friends via email, or even reading phone-related magazines or the Financial Times. They ESPECIALLY don't want people looking at the "Situations Vacant" section of the local paper. You can look at Orange official literature and manuals - or nothing. Apparently this is because "we sometimes get important visitors walking through" and they want people to look busy and efficient. Kind of sad, and very British: piss-poor and archaic middle-management methods, geared more to making unimportant people FEEL important (by allowing them to piss on the people below them) than to improving productivity or industrial relations. Fridays and weekends, staff have "dress down" days - wear anything you like provided it's not scruffy, isn't a soccer shirt, doesn't have offensive wording, and ABSOLUTELY NO TRAINERS. The soccer shirt thing I can understand (although the official reason is (a) pathetic - "it might offend other employees" (:) almost certainly untrue - Orange doesn't want their offices filled with people wearing shirts advertising O2, TMobile, or Vodaphone!) The official line being, "if you don't look smart, you don't work as well". Has anyone noticed that they're getting a WORSE service (from the same people!) on Fridays than they get on Thursdays?

No wonder Orange can't keep staff. And, having asked if management attitude might be a contributory factor, perhaps no wonder that they didn't keep me on when my three months was up. Officially my "performance wasn't satisfactory" (despite having completed two years training in five weeks?) My former colleagues suspected that it might be down to a distinct lack of the required "yessir, nossir, three bags fullsir"attitude.

[Guest MrCai]

Thank you for the replys, looks like i will have to store the pictures on my SD card until i get back.

As for 'orange employee service' it seems a little s*** to say the least

Thank you

Cai