Travel Technology - Why GPRS data isn't always a good idea

I will be the first to admit that I tend to ignore details, especially those which might convince me to do something other than what I want to do.

For example, I moved into a new house a week ago tomorrow. Telefonica is, how you say, not exactly famous for snappy service when requesting a phone line with ADSL. There is even a colloquial term here which translates basically to "Telefonica rage" when trying to get an enormous beaurocracy to do...anything. Nonetheless I dutifully made my several unnecessary trips to Barcelona with the various documents required for initiating phone service and getting ADSL. Maybe this month.

In the meantime I could walk the 8 blocks to an internet cafe to do email/FT/etc. But it occurred to me that I have a Bluetooth-equipped phone with GPRS service and it would be a piece of cake to use that as a pokey but convenient net connection in my house.Sure, it's kinda pricey, but what's 50 or 60€ when you can check email when/where you want? This was last Wed. Today is Tuesday.

A couple of hours ago I got a call on my mobile: "Hello, alanw? This is some guy from Vodafone. I was just calling to let you know that your GPRS usage is over the norm. Your GPRS charges this month so far come to 1067€. We are concerned that you might not be able and/or willing to pay this, so we have disconnected your service. If you pay the full amount when you receive your bill on the 26th, we will restore your service. If you want it restored before then, please send a wire transfer for 1067€."

Evidently there was a misunderstanding when I signed up for GPRS. I thought it was 30€/month unlimited. It is actually 30€/megabyte.

I just dashed off a mail to vodafone detailing exactly WHERE they could stick their bill for 1067€ and informing them that they can ram their contract right up there with it as I am switching to (God help me) Telefonica Movistar immediately.

I suspect I will lose this battle but it felt good to let loose at them.

Moral:check your plan before you use a bunch of data.

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-alan in sitges, home of Si-Do (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/003150.html)

Ouch! I think I'd call Vodafone back and say: "30€ a meg? You aren't serious, are you?"

[This message has been edited by skofarrell (edited 10-07-2003).]

Owww, I feel your pain. Ive seen similar things happen to other people. One guy thought he had unlimited text messages and did something like set up for updates to be sent to his phone every 5 minutes from every NHL playoff game. Turned out he had 50 free ones. Cost a few hundred dollars.

I agree that 30 Euros a meg is high. TMobile USA only charges $15 per meg for GPRS roaming internationally. Was your Vodafone account in Spain or another country? Its pretty silly if they are charging you twice as much for local use than you would pay with a US account with their competitor. Perhaps you can argue them down a bit and save some money. Good luck!

I am floored. This is incredible. Good luck with contesting it.

GPRS service in most of Europe is unsuitable for browsing via a PC, simply because of the ridiculous expense.

It seems the pricing is designed for sending MMS, browsing WAP, and other features of dubious usefulness http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/frown.gif

I recall seeing some enlightened pricing plans in Finland and Italy.

T-mobile USA: $19.95 a month UNLIMITED GPRS...

KPN Mobile The Netherlands: $49 a month for 25Mb...

Some operators just don't get it...

Be careful with your dispute. You don't want Vodafone to tell your phone to explode! (http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/Forum44/HTML/016298.html)

30 euros a meg does sound a bit steep - much higher than I pay even for roaming.

Perhaps spending a penny really will become euronating once the UK changes to the new currency.

Looks like Vodafone never added you to a GPRS plan and just put you on their "pay as you go" GPRS plan. They should have a 20Mb bundle for €30 a month with each additional MB costing €1.50.

Their "pay as you go" plan is €0.02 per kB so that would come to over €20 per Mb...

"Una vez que conozcas tu necesidades, te recomendamos que si lo consideras ventajoso, contrates uno de nuestros bonos GPRS con lo que tendrás un precio por Kb más económico"

See if they are willing to retroactively put you on a 20Mb plan...

ScottC; Vodafone Germany does the same thing... If you DON'T get on a GPRS tarrif, you can still use GPRS but at a MUCH higher rate...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by NickP 1K:
ScottC; Vodafone Germany does the same thing... If you DON'T get on a GPRS tarrif, you can still use GPRS but at a MUCH higher rate...</font>

Yes, a friend on mine on NL O2 had the same "problem", the first 250Kb are free, after that the rates are even higher than Vodafone ES, and when you install an IM client on your Java phone and don't know of the price then the bill after a month is pretty sad...

I got an email back from them within half an hour. It basically said they were sorry for the misunderstanding but they don't offer an unlimited pricing plan. They will review the circumstances and let me know what they can do.

They also referred my account to the credit department which immediately re-activated it.

We shall see. I bought a SIM from Movistar today and am going to start using it as soon as I get my T610 unlocked on Saturday.

I got an install date of Oct. 18 for a phone line, with ADSL to follow "soon" after. Even though I already have the modem and am fully capable of plugging it in myself they are insisting on sending a man with a truck to do it for me because of the "delicate nature" of said equipment. I miss three things about the USA: all-night stores, the relative lack of beaurocracy in business (I said relative) and carpeting. OK, make that four: toilets that fill up enough with water that you don't have giant scrapes of you know what staring up at you when you are finished.

That was kind of a non-sequitur, wasn't it?

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-alan in sitges, home of Si-Do (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/003150.html)

I thought this was as good a place as any to note the changes in the landscape here in Spain. Today, I can say to you all:

BEHOLD! BOW DOWN AND TREMBLE BEFORE THE TERRIBILE AND MIGHTY SPEED OF MY 20 MEGABIT DSL2+ CONNECTION FROM A COMPETITOR OF TELEFONICA THAT IS COSTING ME 29€/MONTH!"

BTW, I never did pay Vodafone. Never got another bill from them after that either.

I thought this was as good a place as any to note the changes in the landscape here in Spain. Today, I can say to you all:

BEHOLD! BOW DOWN AND TREMBLE BEFORE THE TERRIBILE AND MIGHTY SPEED OF MY 20 MEGABIT DSL2+ CONNECTION FROM A COMPETITOR OF TELEFONICA THAT IS COSTING ME 29€/MONTH!"

BTW, I never did pay Vodafone. Never got another bill from them after that either.

Did it take 2 years to get it installed? :p

3 months.

How's the weather there?

Freakin' AWESOME... something like 75 degrees and GORGEOUS. No white christmas for us this year.

I thought this was as good a place as any to note the changes in the landscape here in Spain. Today, I can say to you all:

BEHOLD! BOW DOWN AND TREMBLE BEFORE THE TERRIBILE AND MIGHTY SPEED OF MY 20 MEGABIT DSL2+ CONNECTION FROM A COMPETITOR OF TELEFONICA THAT IS COSTING ME 29€/MONTH!"

BTW, I never did pay Vodafone. Never got another bill from them after that either.

I do indeed bow and tremble. The best I can get at the moment is 1 megabit for approx 33 euros a month (no restrictions though).

Up until August I was paying Telefonica 89€/month for 512K. Then I moved and requested that they move the line to the new place. Several episodes of Keystone Kops followed, culminating in me giving up all hope. Then I saw a billboard for Jazztel, gave them a call, and after fighting with Telefonica for over a month over number portability, they switched it on. 29€/month, 20Mb, including local calls. I was getting 1.66MB/S from BitTorrent a little while ago and I am one happy camper!

BEHOLD! BOW DOWN AND TREMBLE BEFORE THE TERRIBILE AND MIGHTY SPEED OF MY 20 MEGABIT DSL2+ CONNECTION FROM A COMPETITOR OF TELEFONICA THAT IS COSTING ME 29€/MONTH!"



And how much are they charging per MB? :)

Not a dime! And this week I got my Movistar plan switched over to tarifa plana, with unlimited UMTS and EDGE fo 59EUR/month.

heh. this thread reminds me of a recent scare. After Boo Doo, I was in my hotel in Frankfurt and discovered that the Beta Windows Mobile 5.0 build I had on my phone decided it would ignore my "don't sync on roam". Long story short, I had ~1200 messages downloaded to my phone. I envisioned a $750 bill (miscalculating the per kb price). :mad:

Luckily it looks to be just an extra $100, after I sift out my other drunken debauchery calls and sms's from BCN.

I thought this was as good a place as any to note the changes in the landscape here in Spain. Today, I can say to you all:

BEHOLD! BOW DOWN AND TREMBLE BEFORE THE TERRIBILE AND MIGHTY SPEED OF MY 20 MEGABIT DSL2+ CONNECTION FROM A COMPETITOR OF TELEFONICA THAT IS COSTING ME 29€/MONTH!"

BTW, I never did pay Vodafone. Never got another bill from them after that either.So much for the U.S. market enjoying a technological edge. I don't know anyone who gets more than 2 MBITS/SEC over here on a home connection. Anyone?

So, yes. I (we?) do indeed bow down. :D

So much for the U.S. market enjoying a technological edge. I don't know anyone who gets more than 2 MBITS/SEC over here on a home connection. Anyone?

So, yes. I (we?) do indeed bow down. :D

Comcast has been offering 9Mbit for ages now.

Comcast has been offering 9Mbit for ages now.

Time warner has 6mb down/768k up on a consumer plan for $99, or will in the new year. Still... TWENTY Mb DOWN!?!??! *SCHWINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG*

So much for the U.S. market enjoying a technological edge. I don't know anyone who gets more than 2 MBITS/SEC over here on a home connection. Anyone?Verizon is busy rolling out its FIOS (http://www.verizon.com/fios) service. You have a choice of 5/15/30 MBITS/sec down and 2 or 5 up.

Time warner has 6mb down/768k up on a consumer plan for $99, or will in the new year. Still... TWENTY Mb DOWN!?!??! *SCHWINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG*

Uh... 20mbit on DSL. Which means once more people start ordering this, the slower it will get. I'm paying $54 for 9down/1up on Comcast.

in France we have 20MB down and 512up for ~35€/month with cable, DSL is 8MB down, but in some lager cities, 20MB down with DSL is available for ~15€.