GPRS Costs?

[giantsf49er]

Got my new PAYG 300+300 sim the other day. Have been after this for a while as my previous o2 payg sim wouldnt give me GPRS access on an XDA IIi

Put the sim in, made a couple of inclusive minutes calls and inclusive minutes sms.

Then tried to get on the internet. Accomplished this no problem, so logged into ebay (images off mode) and checked My Ebay page, that was it. So:

Homepage
www.ebay.co.uk
My Ebay log in page
My Ebay main page
My Ebay bidding page
My Ebay items won page.

Total GPRS cost: £5.56
Total time between first page and last page: 5 mins 15 seconds

This seems rediculously expensive, especially as I have images off by default so this should remove part of the download. By my reckoning that nearly 1 meg across 5 pages? Does that sound right?

I would like to read your thoughts on this.

[handyman]

The cost of gprs was a major factor in purchasing the iphone with unlimited internet. I don't know how much I use on it (Actually I do - 9.5meg up - 44.2 mb down since Nov 9th). Most of the time it hops onto passing wi-fi nets.
£35 unlimited browsing, bargain.

[bmxbandit]

Tariff is 0.5p/KB, so that sounds right. The PAYG really isn't set up for internet use...

[TheNorm]

Unlimited access for a day is only £1 with T-mobile web'n'walk (https://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/...on-your-phone/)

[Stephen]

Virgin Mobile's Internet costs are not cheap. Thats the main reason I switched to T-Mobile for the Web n Walk. Even though I get a staff price the bills were still way too much due to the GPRS charges.

£7.50 a month for unlimited access.

Apparently Virgin can't do inclusive web access due to the way their deal with T-Mobile is set up. and thats why its 0.5p per kb.

[giantsf49er]

Thanks for the responses guys.

OK so it seems that £5ish for a meg works out at about right. The next thing is 1 meg for 5 pages with no images? Does that sound about right ir is that a little extreme?

I have tried to look for a way to see how much information is in an ebay page without images but without success.

I am aware of the T-mobile £1 per day deal, however their call/sms plan on PAYG is non-existant. With Virgin, and previously o2, I got inclusive or free minutes and sms, ao this was/is a good reason to stay with them. The only thing I can think is to have a Virgin sim for calls/sms and a t-mobile sim for internet, but this isnt the ideal situation as its a pain to change the sim over on an XDA IIi (as with any phone and I dont think there are any reliable dual sim adapters for the XDA IIi.

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by giantsf49er

.... The only thing I can think is to have a Virgin sim for calls/sms and a t-mobile sim for internet, but this isnt the ideal situation as its a pain to change the sim ....

I was thinking this the other day, as I often carry my work mobile. A dual-sim phone would be the ideal solution. There are a few interesting models on ebay, but I'm not sure if they are to be trusted.

[Helix]

I asked last time I was on the phone to Virgin Mobile and they told me they are looking into reducing costs for data. Maybe doing something like bundles and any changes they make will be put on the website.

Don't know if this was typical NTL/Virgin Media fobbing off though. I always thought the mobile bit of Virgin Media was better than that.

[Shaun]

I'm currently in the middle of arguing the toss with Virgin over GPRS/3g data.

I visited The Register and the BBC web page - no images and they state I used a meg of data (showns up as 4 x £1.16 and another for some oddment). This is the second time this meg of data has been used and shown up as 4 x £1.16 and some oddments. I was unsure the first time but the second I KNOW I didn't use that much data.

The data counter on my K800i also states that I haven't used that much data.

They say "computer says no" so it must be true.

When I asked them for proof they said they'd refund the second lot but I think there's a problem with their billing system somewhere. I just find 8 lots of exactly the same charges somewhat suspicious. They say not. I've now vowed not to use their GPRS/3G untill I know it's working properly.

[giantsf49er]

Originally Posted by Shaun

I visited The Register and the BBC web page - no images and they state I used a meg of data (showns up as 4 x £1.16 and another for some oddment). This is the second time this meg of data has been used and shown up as 4 x £1.16 and some oddments. I was unsure the first time but the second I KNOW I didn't use that much data.

Something like this then:

05-Jan-08 14:21:21 Accessing other sites £0.91
05-Jan-08 14:19:54 Accessing other sites £1.16
05-Jan-08 14:18:34 Accessing other sites £1.17
05-Jan-08 14:17:41 Accessing other sites £1.16

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by giantsf49er

Something like this then:

05-Jan-08 14:21:21 Accessing other sites £0.91
05-Jan-08 14:19:54 Accessing other sites £1.16
05-Jan-08 14:18:34 Accessing other sites £1.17
05-Jan-08 14:17:41 Accessing other sites £1.16

Yep - but when you ring they say they just see a block (in your case one charge at £4.40)

I'm convinced there's something wrong here. Even at 0.5p per KB it's still OTT for the data used.

MY counter on my phone says I've used only about half of what they say.

I'm wondering if the £1.16 is spurious and the rest are right.

[giantsf49er]

Update time.

I set my laptop IE options so that it didnt download images, so that I could simulate the same environment as when I was on the net on my phone. I then went to exactly the same pages.

Total bandwidth used (up and down stream) 662kb
Virgin Mobile bandwidth used 1196kb

So I rang Virgin to ask them to explain the difference. Firstly they tried to tell me that I might have some kind of compression software on my PC or that IE7 mihgt have something built in.

Next they simply denied that I had done it for 662kb and they insist that they are correct. In addition they insist that they have NEVER had another complaint of this type.

Tech's final answer was 'if you think you have found a cheaper way, use that'.

The customer is not always right.

Time to start letter writing.

[tonycee]

I have used a 300min / 300 text sim in my phone for about 15 months.

I have set the connections as:
GPRS connects to WAP network
DIAL UP connects to The Internet.

This means if I use Internet Explorer or Opera Mini to view web pages (with or without images) the charge is just deducted from my minutes allowance.

OK, it's slow but it does work and pages can be read off-line after downloading page has completed.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by giantsf49er

Update time.

I set my laptop IE options so that it didnt download images, so that I could simulate the same environment as when I was on the net on my phone. I then went to exactly the same pages.

Total bandwidth used (up and down stream) 662kb
Virgin Mobile bandwidth used 1196kb

So I rang Virgin to ask them to explain the difference. Firstly they tried to tell me that I might have some kind of compression software on my PC or that IE7 mihgt have something built in.

Next they simply denied that I had done it for 662kb and they insist that they are correct. In addition they insist that they have NEVER had another complaint of this type.

Tech's final answer was 'if you think you have found a cheaper way, use that'.

The customer is not always right.

Time to start letter writing.

I got a similar response* so I'm just not going to use it - stupidity on their part as if they were charging the correct amount then I'd be using the service and they'd make some more money out of me.

Just to say "computer says no" isn't really an answer.

Do the team here have any contacts within Virgin Mobile that could perhaps look at this for us. Just to say "computer says no" isn't really an answer.


*i.e. no one else complains - it must be right.

[dragon]

afaik 3 now offer their 1Gb for £10 plan on payg to.

Wander if you can still get those dual sim adaptors you used to be able to get in the old days that would change network when you switched the phone off and back on.