Why does my GPRS work?

[Guest mossywell]

Hi all - excellent forum. :lol:

SPV E200 on Orange UK.

Whilst still having my nasty T68i, I had MMS enabled, but specifically didn't get GPRS enabled because of the cost of early GPRS. Knowing that MMS in fact uses GPRS technology anyway, I tried to surf using GPRS and guess what? It failed. So far so good...

So, I've now got my E200 and I've noticed that whenever I connect to the Internet (successfully), the "G" pops up. So now I'm confused as I've never requested GPRS per se to be enabled, but it seems to be enabled anyway. Is this something that O did recently to people with MMS but not GPRS without telling anyone? (and will I get charged for it?)

By the way... I haven't called O about it yet just in case it alerts them to a mistake on their part! :wink:

[Guest HurricaneDave]

as far as i know gprs HAS to be enabled in order for you to send and recieve mms messages and if you use gprs to browse the net then yes you WILL get charged :shock:

[Guest mossywell]

Hi, thanks for the rapid reply. :lol:

Yes, that's right, GPRS has to be enabled for MMS to work, but that never used to mean that it was possible to use GPRS for anything other than MMS: I know, I tried it on my old T68i. I believe that Orange did this so that they could market MMS as a free SIM update but still charge for GPRS usage. So they had to separate out the two technically - which they did sucessfully.

So I guess what I mean when I say "why does GPRS work?" is "how comes I can now use GPRS for surfing the Net and not just sending MMS messages?"

[Guest martin]

Hi mossywell

Did you get a new SIM with your E200 ?

If you can connect to the internet via the GPRS network then it's possible that all GPRS services have been activated during the transfer. This may be something that is done automatically when people buy an SPV :? You could always ask them to disable it again.

I would definately check with Orange and confirm how much you are being charged. If you have not selected a GPRS pack you could be paying the highest cost (£4 per MB, I think :?). Phone Orange CS and just ask what your account says.

I don't know too much about all the bundles but here are the links.

GPRS bundles

http://www.orange.co.uk/talkplans/gprs/costs.html

& Orangeworld Packs

http://www.orange.co.uk/multimedia/cost.html

Orange world packs seem to be the most popular at the moment :wink:

[Guest mossywell]

Hi martin. Yes, I did get a new SIM and recieved a flurry of SIM updates to it in the transfer!

I've just tried the new SIM in my old T68i, and hey presto I can now surf using GPRS on that as well. Why I didn't think of trying that earlier on, I don't know. :oops:

So, yes, it looks like they've "forced" GPRS upon me without me asking. Well, I guess I need to "bite the bullet" and give them a call about disabling GPRS - until it comes down in cost that is. It'll be fun when I then ask them to enable MMS again. :lol:

[Guest mossywell]

OK, I can confirm that Orange did indeed "set up" GPRS when the new SIM was transferred. In fact, apparently, they enabled everything that could be enabled on the phone in the process, presumably on the basis that enabling it is free - it's only usage that costs.

Of course, I'm on the "pay as you use" tariff and not the bundles. I guess that this is worth noting for anyone else that never had GPRS and buys a E200 on Orange.