Database Users

Cost of Internet usage on Orange in UK?

I'm considering upgrading my SPV M600 to a M3100 & would like to know, from an Orange user in the UK the TRUE cost of Internet access.
On my M1000 - couple of years ago - I was getting large bills & Orange claimed that the phone was 'left connected' for long periods, it appeared to be 'self connecting'!
What are 'typical' monthly bills for Internet usage?
Thanks
Peter

well... what is your 'typical' bill costing on averange now?
changing device isn't going to affect the cost of data or have i missed something?
if you want to know how much data costs on orange why not look on their website?
the phone isn't going to connect by itself - at least mine never has!

Orange Data Charges
After reading: http://www.robertprice.co.uk/robblog/archive/2005/2/Extortionate_Data_Charges_On_Orange.shtml
Plus unusually unhelpful staff at Orange I've bought MDA Vario II on t-Mobile - delivered today...just hope T-Mobile coverage is OK!

Tomtooter I am going to England at the end of the year and I am thinking of a getting a T-Mobile PAYG SIM as the roaming costs are astronomical. If you could let me know how you find coverage it would be much appreciated.

bigshape said:
well... what is your 'typical' bill costing on averange now?
changing device isn't going to affect the cost of data or have i missed something?
if you want to know how much data costs on orange why not look on their website?
the phone isn't going to connect by itself - at least mine never has!
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I cannot speak as an orange user ( I'm O2) but it can connect by itself I've seen it happen for a variety of reasons:
Auto connection settings to retrieve mail can be as often as every 15 mins,
And if you are connected to your home/office network and the connection is dropped the device will automatically seek another connection which in my case is GPRS.
This can happen without you noticing and you can surf away merrily thinking your on wifi but actually on data rates. One evening I lost over 10UKP due to this. If I hadn't realised what was happening then over a month it would have been huge. Now I'm wiser and keep an eye on what connection is being used.
Mike

mikechannon said:
I cannot speak as an orange user ( I'm O2) but it can connect by itself I've seen it happen for a variety of reasons:
Auto connection settings to retrieve mail can be as often as every 15 mins,
And if you are connected to your home/office network and the connection is dropped the device will automatically seek another connection which in my case is GPRS.
This can happen without you noticing and you can surf away merrily thinking your on wifi but actually on data rates. One evening I lost over 10UKP due to this. If I hadn't realised what was happening then over a month it would have been huge. Now I'm wiser and keep an eye on what connection is being used.
Mike
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Yes, I had the same problem on O2 on my XDA2, Tomom traffic was connecting for updates & I was getting LARGE bills

Well I am on Telstra but I once got hit for $200 as Journal Bar http://www.omegaone.com/journalbar/ppc/default.htm (it is great software but I forgot to disable remote updating) connected without my knowledge and stayed connected for 9 hours and in that time it had updated itself 9 times!!!

I would recommend getting a data pack.

T-Mobile coverage
PPCNUT said:
Tomtooter I am going to England at the end of the year and I am thinking of a getting a T-Mobile PAYG SIM as the roaming costs are astronomical. If you could let me know how you find coverage it would be much appreciated.
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Certainly OK in Citys & areas of dense population, I live in a Knutsford a small Cheshire Town & it's OK but I work in a rural area; that's where I NEED DATA - I have 8MB broadband at home.
Will post my experiences later

Tomtooter thanks for the info!! As I want to go into the smaller towns would you recommend T-Mobile? As I need data so I can check my emails so data costs are important but cheap data is no good if you don’t have the coverage to use it. Any info would be much appreciated.

Windos live and gprs

When I run Windows live it insists on running up GPRS, even if I have my wifi on and connected. Oddly I dont hit this issue with IE.
Anyone know what is going on here, and if there is anything I can do about it ?
Thanks,
Andy.
NB. I'm running the Faria WM6

atdavie said:
When I run Windows live it insists on running up GPRS, even if I have my wifi on and connected. Oddly I dont hit this issue with IE.
Anyone know what is going on here, and if there is anything I can do about it ?
Thanks,
Andy.
NB. I'm running the Faria WM6
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Click to collapse
thats not the rom's problem. thats a microsoft coding problem. if you can join the beta test and complain about it. i hate that also. instead of looking for an existing connection it starts gprs. thats very annoying.

hiimcliff said:
thats not the rom's problem. thats a microsoft coding problem. if you can join the beta test and complain about it. i hate that also. instead of looking for an existing connection it starts gprs. thats very annoying.
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Anyone considered the fact that M$ thought of it at a different angle?
If you use Windows Live Messenger it connects via GPRS/EDGE because it tries to sustain your online status. If you connect with Wi-Fi and your attention is elsewhere (Chatting to the Sexy waitress who just brought you your coffee) and the device suspends because the suspend time on the device is set to 2min you loose your connection to Live Messenger Servers....
Where as with GPRS the connection remains on even if the device is suspended...so there is no connection lost...
Cant see the problem anyway? If you are connected via GPRS and connect to a Wi-Fi connection PIE and Opera will use the Wi-Fi connection as priority...
But Yeah, I agree that it is not the biggest thing in the world for a Software developer to add a tab in options called "Preferred Connection list"

Tip-Ex said:
Anyone considered the fact that M$ thought of it at a different angle?
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There is another angle from the user perspective, not everyone in the world has an unlimted data plan. People like me in the states are pretty fortunate to be able to get data for $30-$40 a month nationwide unlimited. It is not like that everywhere, or for some $30-$40 a month for data might be too expensive.
Personally I would rather have it use GPRS/EDGE than WiFi becuase it conserves something more valueable to me, that is battery life. Since I pay for unlimited data I like to get the most out of it that I can, last month I pulled almost 4 gigs over EDGE.

computer9cowboy said:
There is another angle from the user perspective, not everyone in the world has an unlimted data plan. People like me in the states are pretty fortunate to be able to get data for $30-$40 a month nationwide unlimited. It is not like that everywhere, or for some $30-$40 a month for data might be too expensive.
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Very True....Relative to what I earn in our currency and what my mobile operator charge.... GPRS/Edge data p/Mb is fairly priced in Namibia (They Dropped our GRPS cost by 60% last month)
However MS cannot write applications to accomedate all the specific rates of different operators accross the globe. Thus they are going the "better user experience" route rather trying to save the end-user money...
But as stated in my previous post... how difficult can it be to change the code to accomedate preferred connections?

T-Mob free internet???

Hi! I bought a vario II second hand and I sticked a t-mob brand new payg sim. I register it and topped up with my credit card and only used for internet ever since! now I have been surfing like mad and downloading at least 300mb and my balance still £4.99p how can it be possible? I live in london if some one want take a look to it

I'm guessing you're in for one hell of a bill coming your way eventually. Using data without having a data plan is billed at a ridiculously high amount.

I don't see how they can bill you when you're on PAYG but just don't take the p*** and hope noone notices
Smiffy.

pay as you go does have a data plan, its automatic, basically once you hit £1 thats it you dont get charged anymore that day, meant to be a 40mb limit, but my mates never had issues.
as for your not being charged, dunno about that one!

I'm about 600MB right now... and and my calling credit is now £3.95!!!! hell where my £1.05p went to? shall I phone up and complain? LOL

I've just registered and it's show this does any one understand this? look like I've got 10GB :-O Recent Use
You have no recent activity.
XTR5TEXT Remaining: 5 Events
Pre Pay Picture Messages Remaining: 5 Picture Messages
XTRBROWS Remaining: 9566845 Kb

I use this everyday. I have a T-Mobile PAYG and I connect it to my laptop for a broadband connection. as long as I'm not connected exactly at midnight it's fine. T-Mobile claim you can't do this, but I managed to download SQL Server 2005 SP2 (250MB) in one hit. I stay connected all day when I'm on customer sites and connect again when I get home.
And I can use my VOIP account (again T-Mobile say I can't) through it.

do you guys get HSDPA speeds or just 3g?

I get 3G. 10Mb connection with download speeds ranging from 42k - 120kb ps

your reply is a contradiction in terms

I have a May Monthly contract with T-Mobile, love it, can use web n walk to downloads loads and loads of movies on my laptop while i m on the move, usually download about 1GB a day.
The only problem with it is that they sstarted blocking ports which means you cannot use Intant messagin such as MSN and Yahoo!, have any of you's found a way to trick the port?

radii said:
your reply is a contradiction in terms
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Why? I thought 3G was the slower of the two.

solarromeo said:
I have a May Monthly contract with T-Mobile, love it, can use web n walk to downloads loads and loads of movies on my laptop while i m on the move, usually download about 1GB a day.
The only problem with it is that they sstarted blocking ports which means you cannot use Intant messagin such as MSN and Yahoo!, have any of you's found a way to trick the port?
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Click to collapse
I can use MSN this way. I talk to my girlfriend in Mexico every day via MSN. We can use webcams with MSN on a T-Mobile connection too

I got no problems at all!!! I use MSN, Skype, and a VoIP program called voipstunt with no problems at all... I'm also looking to setup SJPHONE pda edition to my phone so I can make free interantional phone calls from the PDA it self using the 3G network, but i've not yet managed to work yet in this country (with T-mobile).

True
timfoster said:
Why? I thought 3G was the slower of the two.
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Yes you are correct, 3G is slower than HSPDA, i think he was referring to the 10Mb connection comment.
3G is only around 320Kb, HSPDA is around 1.8Mb

data sent received volumes

hi
as you can usually see sms volumes in and out or call durations called and received on standard mobile, can you view the current or total data volumes sent/received in the hd2...im sure my reasonable usage contract is going to be challenged this month having just got ny hd2 and cant stop playing with it...thanks

Try this...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4980517&postcount=2
Edit:
The developer's website http://www.efficasoft.com/

thanks. ill give that a try

I had a reasonable usage data plan from o2 for 3 or 4 years now.
No problems there and I used all my HTC devices as internet dongle.
Boy do I abuse it however for me it is fair usage I use it fairly for my entertainment.

cool...i'll keep hammering my data usage then...resonably of course

do you keep your data connections open all the time...as im currently turning them off when im done via comms mgr? all my time/weather updates are set to manual

PTK100 said:
do you keep your data connections open all the time...as im currently turning them off when im done via comms mgr? all my time/weather updates are set to manual
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He no, can not be bothered. Auto logon to facebook, youtube, auto download for weather and internet time sync. QuickGPS is also set to download when needed.
All, except quickGPS, have one exception and that is if roaming do not do anything.
Their main problem is skype phone calls (not chat) and if you start downloading torrents or other big files.
As my previous job was mainly away from home for a week and back on weekend at those times I did even get some torrents going but only at night.

O2 are the best for "fair use" though. Most (NB not all!) of the others offer between 512MB and 1GB per month. O2 offer 3GB.
I do about 1-2GB a month, so that's perfect for me. Might start downloading Lost on my phone when it comes back on next month lol

johncmolyneux said:
O2 are the best for "fair use" though. Most (NB not all!) of the others offer between 512MB and 1GB per month. O2 offer 3GB.
I do about 1-2GB a month, so that's perfect for me. Might start downloading Lost on my phone when it comes back on next month lol
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There is no limit on o2?!
I have unlimited web bolt-on. Key word unlimited. However in small text there is a fare usage policy but I always ignore those as fair for one is not so far for other so you can argue that.

ruscik said:
There is no limit on o2?!
I have unlimited web bolt-on. Key word unlimited. However in small text there is a fare usage policy but I always ignore those as fair for one is not so far for other so you can argue that.
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Yeah, it's not unlimited. The fair usage policy is what stands. They basically say "it's unlimited if you don't go over a certain amount". You still have to be careful, but at 3gig, I don't think I'll be worrying about it much!

johncmolyneux said:
Yeah, it's not unlimited. The fair usage policy is what stands. They basically say "it's unlimited if you don't go over a certain amount". You still have to be careful, but at 3gig, I don't think I'll be worrying about it much!
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No word of 3gig so maybe we have not the same plan:
2.
Use of the O2 Web & Wi-Fi Bolt On is subject to an excessive usage policy as explained in point 3 below.
3.
The O2 Web & Wi-Fi Bolt On allows you unlimited use of O2 UK's Edge, GPRS, 3G and HSDPA networks, The Cloud's UK Wireless LAN network and the BT Openzone UK Wireless LAN network, for personal internet use and email. All usage must be for your private, personal and non-commercial purposes.
You may not use your SIM Card in any device to allow the continuous streaming of any audio / video content, enable P2P or file sharing or use them in such a way that adversely impacts the service to other O2 customers. If O2 reasonably suspect you are not acting in accordance with this policy O2 reserves the right to impose further charges or disconnect your tariff at any time, having attempted to contact you first.

The fair usage policy is in a seperate document to the t&c for your contract. It mentions fair usage, but then it's up to you to go look for what that means!
We may have different contracts anyway. Who knows!

johncmolyneux said:
The fair usage policy is in a seperate document to the t&c for your contract. It mentions fair usage, but then it's up to you to go look for what that means!
We may have different contracts anyway. Who knows!
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Well if I do not have the same contract then cool if I do I have used over 3GB's in many months.

O2
Just had a quick check on O2 and their reasonable usage bolt-ons are:
Web - 200Mb
Web and Wifi - 3Gb

PTK100 said:
Just had a quick check on O2 and their reasonable usage bolt-ons are:
Web - 200Mb
Web and Wifi - 3Gb
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Well I must be on the hate, to kick out list

Hide mobile hotspot usage?

I'm about to start living on the road and will be using my hotspot quite a bit. Is it possible (if rooted) to have your data seen as normal data and not hotspot data? I have TMobile, and will burn though my hotspot data in a week.
Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

johnboy693 said:
I'm about to start living on the road and will be using my hotspot quite a bit. Is it possible (if rooted) to have your data seen as normal data and not hotspot data? I have TMobile, and will burn though my hotspot data in a week.
Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know if it still works, but used to use VPNs on TMO and it didn't register as hotspot usage.

johnboy693 said:
I'm about to start living on the road and will be using my hotspot quite a bit. Is it possible (if rooted) to have your data seen as normal data and not hotspot data? I have TMobile, and will burn though my hotspot data in a week.
Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
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Click to collapse
Ok so this is how you do it. I had the same issue with tmo where I paid for their unlimited data because I needed to do some work on my laptop and they throttled my tethering to 0.5 megabits per second making the internet connection unusable.they literally gave me the run-around and told me the reasoning behind why my speed was so slow was because my phone did not support 5 gigahertz Wi-Fi literally useless customer support. I guess I showed them...
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/214463/how-to-ssh-into-android-which-is-a-hotspot
this hides your traffic by making all of the traffic originate from your phone as opposed to it originating from a tethered device

kevkid said:
Ok so this is how you do it. I had the same issue with tmo where I paid for their unlimited data because I needed to do some work on my laptop and they throttled my tethering to 0.5 megabits per second making the internet connection unusable.they literally gave me the run-around and told me the reasoning behind why my speed was so slow was because my phone did not support 5 gigahertz Wi-Fi literally useless customer support. I guess I showed them...
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/214463/how-to-ssh-into-android-which-is-a-hotspot
this hides your traffic by making all of the traffic originate from your phone as opposed to it originating from a tethered device
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Click to collapse
I'll give it a try, thank you so much!

get it!