Database Users

How To Monitor Your GPRS Usage?

I've been with o2 now for 1x month, just recieved my second bill. However I'm not happy with their billing or customer service at all. There are a number of things I have been unhappy including waiting at least 10 minutes in the que before I'm answered by an o2 customer service rep. Even then they contradict each other giving wrong information its rediculas!
Anyway I will put aside my complaints about o2 for now except to say that their online billing is also crap. Towards the end of June I ran out of free minutes which was suspect at the time so I only used my phone thereafter when I had to in order to prevent clocking up a larger bill. Well the day before my free minutes should be renewed my o2 online bill showed me that I had over 3hrs remaining of free calls even though my bill also showed me that I've been billed extra for calls as my free minutes ran out.
The other complaint I have and this is where I'm asking for advice is that o2 claim I've been connecting to their mobile.o2.co.uk website and downloading data - WHICH I MOST DEFINATLEY HAVE NOT BEEN!!!!
I have disputed this three times with o2 and spent HOURS on the hours on the phone at my expense but they are still billing me for the extra GPRS data. Is there a way to check how much GPRS data has been used on my XDA II?
FAQ from my-XDA.com says this...
Question 9:
How can I track what my GPRS usage?
Answer:
Select Programs > File Explorer > My Device > Windows. Scroll down to the application labelled ByteCounter. Tap and Hold and select Copy. Scroll up and tap the Start Menu folder. Select Edit > Paste Shortcut. This utility is now on your Programs menu , and will report statistics for the last active connection.
Having followed this instruction I have NO "ByteCounter" in which to copy.
Thanks
Paul.

http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/gprsmonitor/?en
you are going to pay

What about using the GSM type connection instead of the GPRS one?
Do you get free GSM minutes as well as a certain amount of free GPRS downloads?

Thanks Rudegar I'm trying out that program now.
davidand1, I'm with o2 on the 200 talk plan. I've not been told if I get free GSM minutes, I doubt it very much.

They don't tell you about it, although it'll be in the small print. I found out I get 500 free GSM minutes a month! It's admittedly slower than GPRS but there's a helluva lot less risk of incurring charges when compared to GPRS.
What do they give us these days, 1Mb free?! What a jip. I suggest you check it out, might be worth it...

SPB GPRS monitor is the way to go... it keeps track of your hourly, daily and monthly usages of GPRS.. it even creates a report for a certain period of time of how much you have spent or downloaded and uploaded.. really a must for mobile people...

GSM web access - but how? Free minutes goin a wastin!
oo that pesky anonymous guest!
Suggesting a fine idea then riding off into the sunset like that!
I get 50 minutes a day free which i used to use to check my email with WAP. Tried to get my XDAii to connect via WAP but despite a soul-destroying series of contacts with Orange customer services and wire-free specialists i ended up non the wiser. If anyone can post the settings for orange WAP access i'll be v grateful.
I seem to remember seeing them on another page in this fine forum sometime in the past. Tried em to no avail.
Ta

Help - one GPRS call cost me EUR280 ???

I got an XDAII in mid May (birthday present from my wife) and did not receive a bill until end June.
When I saw the first bill there was a GPRS call at 9.37am on a Sunday morning where I apparently downloaded 56MB of data ?. I cannot account for this and have repeatedly queried it. It has costed me EUR 231 plus VAT. which I am still querying with O2.
Can anyone help / clarify how this could or might have happened:
- I always turn off internet explorer after using it.
- I did not download any games, ringtones, video clips
- I was conscious of the cost of using the internet on GPRS so did not tend to stay on long.
- The most any another GPRS call cost me was EUR9.00. (which is expensive enough).
- 56 MB must be the equivalent of 100's of webpages and would have taken hours ? to down load
Could I have downloaded some sort of virus or could there have been some sort of program which downloaded itself. It was only a once off.
It is driving me mad and I am afraid to go near the internet XDA.
Can anyone shed any light on this for me and if so can I do aything with O2.
Thanks.

Hello,
Did you just semi-close (minimise with the 'X') I.E (Internet Explorer) .? or did you shut it down in the 'Running Program List' under 'Memory Settings'?
I made that mistake when I went to www.XE.com (live Foreign exchange rates), I just minimised it, turned off GPRS and left it on the kitchen table.
I went back to it 2 hrs later and it racked up €9 of GPRS!!!!!!!!!!!
XE.com refreshes itself every 30 seconds or there abouts, so it reconnected my XDA2 to GPRS!!!
So, if you left the IE on a site that refreshes itself frequently it will consume a lot of GPRS!!!!
Hope that helps
Andrew

E-mail could be another source of problems like this. Company VPN...would keep sending data constantly.
I guess I'm glad I have unlimited data...130MB downloaded so far this billing period!

Thanks for your replies Folks.
I think i just mininised/closed the screen by tapping the x - I thought that this closed the internet explorer. Obviously not.
I am glad to say that after three disputed claims (and being barred from making calls three times, despite paying all the other bill charges), O2 have credited my account to the value of the call, apologised for cutting me off three times and said that it was probably 'streamer' software which constnalty downloads updates weather, business, etc,. They restored my faith in O2 customer service. However, I will be slow to use the internet on my XDAII and will be sticking to Broadband which I have just connected up to.
It just shows - you should always query bills and not accept it even when they tell you that you are wrong

voice and data usage left for the month

hello
i just got an xda exec on the o2 network.
i was wondering if you guys could tell me how to find out thenumber of free minutes and amount of free data mbs left in the month
with orange i dialed 150 and would get the number of free minutes left. i called up o2 services and they said they did not have any such number.
is that true? is there any way i could check left usage for the month

Use the online bill manager, it's complex but good.
You'll probbly find that you're not charged for data currently.

online bill manager accessed from "my account"
thanks
i found it in the unbilled details, does it also have the web usage
what do you mean by "You'll probbly find that you're not charged for data currently."
in the first month am i not billed for data(web) usage?

xda_guy said:
what do you mean by "You'll probbly find that you're not charged for data currently."
in the first month am i not billed for data(web) usage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get 5Mb a month, and I'm well over that for sure. I hewrd a little bird that O2 haven'tr been charging many people for data. I appear to be one of them.

Unofficially call 100 (which is Network Services; it's free) and asked to be transfered to the correct department who can give you a more up-to-date idea.

i called 100 and they said that i should dial the regular 087... number.
i discovered that the 087... numbr is not a toll free number, that's cheeky
hey belfast-biker, you mean havent been charging any people , or havenet been charging many people.
does the monthly bill show the amount of data that one has used ??

It's a known "issue" that O2 don't seem to charge "Online" users for data, but please don't keep bringing it up, otherwise someone from O2 might notice and then get their act together. THey might start charging us at any time and that would NOT be good. Just keep an eye on your unbilled usage and see if the data ever changes... it probably won't. Mum's the word, eh?! :wink:

I'm being billed for my Data Usage I used to get it free.
Euan

oooo thanks for the tip
i hope we wont be billed retrospectively
THey might start charging us at any time and that would NOT be good. Just keep an eye on your unbilled usage and see if the data ever changes
at the moment my data is not displayed, just voice and text messages, you mean to say as soon as they start showing data that is when i should be careful about my data usage?
hey themez are you an online user? were you billed retrospectively for data used?

I got the £162 deal, so i am on Data 5 with Data Centric (Voice). For a while it was totally free and then one day i looked at my online bill and i had used 8MB and had been charged an extra £3. I had been told it was free until May and made a complaint to o2. They were pretty good and gave me a £10 customer dispute voucher thing.
Keep an eye on your online bill
Euan

thanks for the reply
what is the £162 deal, is it an online deal again
02 had said that you had unlimited download till may? i loked at my online bill and it still does not say anything about data usage in the unbilled calls section
the usage still only has two sectiosn (voice and text)
the inclusive allowance details however has the following
i got double-200 extra anytime minute rollover (nice, did not know they were rollover minutes)
15 messages
welcome browse and download 5 MB(i thought it was 1 MB, will i keep this 5 MB package for some time)

GSM Connection on O2 with Exec?

Hi,
I'm using a lot more data than my O2 Online tariff has available. I've tried getting them to add a Data5 or Data36 type to it unsuccessfully - the best I can do is add a Surf10, which is what I've done, we'll see if that pans out any better when it is meant to kick in at the start of next month.
However, I've got 500 minutes of GSM access per month that I don't and have never used, and am wondering whether I can utilise that to collect eMail or something. I've tried using the phone numbers I've found on the web for the GSM access, but the Exec always complains that there isn't a modem at the other end.
Has anybody got this set up to work, or been successful in getting a better data tariff for an ONLINE account?
Cheers,
Steve.

GSM works for me
Hi Steve - I just set up a new connection using standard dialup account settings and had no problems connecting. This wasn't the O2 dialup (because I couldn't be bothered to look their details up) but an ordinary ISP.
The only problems you may have is whether the 0845 numbers of most ISPs come within the remit your tariff - and if you use the O2 number (which I seem to remember is a short number) that might also fall outside your allowed calls.
John

yeah, that's my point really - it would be nice to utilise the free GSM minutes I have on my tariff to do something useful - they are just mounting up and up, and meanwhile my monthly bill is going the same way.
I think the T-Mobile Web & Talk (or whatever they call it) is where I'll be going next - I've just got another 6 months to wait - may be O2 can sort something out data-wise by then?
Cheers,
Steve.

but until then ..
But until you move steve - I'm pretty sure there are still one or two dialup ISPs with geographical numbers that you probably could use your minutes with - in fact BT used to have one - google should turn one up.

ok, but does that count as GSM minutes, or voice minutes?
Cheers,
Steve

may have changed
A couple of years ago it counted as voice minutes when it was a geographical number even tho it was data transfer (there again I've never understood how they can tell the diffrence when its just gsm, tho I think they used to have a 'blacklist' of the major isp's numbers so they could charge data rates for calls to them) - but they may be wise to it now - you'll just have to see!

Unlimited internet on cell phone + skype = unlimited talk time?

With the economy getting worse I'm trying to tighten my belt as best as I can. Right now I'm paying a lot to talk on my HTC Wizard using T-Mobile. One idea that popped in my head was to just get unlimited internet access to my phone and then use Skype to talk all I want, given that I pay for Skypes service to make calls to landlines. Course another beauty in this is that I can cancel my home phone number as well.
Here's my questions.
#1 Are there plans to pay for only unlimited internet access, doesn't have to be T-Mobile it just needs to work with my Wizard.
#2 Can signal quality really cause a lot of trouble with Skype?
#3 Does Skype work flawless on my Wizard, and if not explain?
If someone already does this can they give further input about this?

(bit late to reply maybe)
I tried skype in my wizard with T-Mobile.
It works but the processor is a bit slow for skype.
Sometimes I even had to reset the phone...
So, it's not an ideal solution, but it does work.
(for me at least )

skype is free with unlim inet
apart from if you call to real phone numbers
rather then to other computers using skype
if you use skypeout which is what skype call it when you
call a normal phone from skype rather then a skype user
they charge you and to be able to do so at all you
need a skype out account

Isn't there alternatives to using Skype software? The Wizard is buggy is general.

I'm also curious about this for my HTC Diamond.

Here is my solution, it's not free but I think it's resonable! I am using Kaiser with software called AGEPhone mobile 2, and I have a 3G connection with 384k speed,which cost 9,8 euro/month, with a voipstunt account, every deposit like 10 euros, I get 120 days free call to the landline(Finland), and 1 cent/min. to call China from Finland. I am pretty satisfy with the sound quality.

Unlimited Talk time
Try the new data network: zero1mobile. Unlimited data for $70 / month.
http://www.zer01mobile.com/