So O2’s exclusive contract with Apple and the iPhone has come to an end…
Again…
Vodafone has reached an agreement to sell Apple’s popular iPhone in the UK.
More from BBC News.
Archive for the ‘vodafone’ Category
Vodafone enters UK iPhone market
Tuesday, September 29th, 20093G-less areas mapped
Saturday, July 11th, 2009So you want to use 3G and you have no idea if it’s going to be worth it.
So in London it is possible with HDSPA to get 7.2Mbps, but in rural areas you generally only get GPRS speeds and that is like a very slow dial-up connection!
Hopefuly Ofcom will be able do something about this.
The BBC News reports:
There are still significant notspots when it comes to 3G mobile coverage in the UK, regulator Ofcom has revealed.
It has pledged to investigate why some places, particularly in rural areas, are still failing to get any coverage.
It also said it will investigate mobile broadband speeds, which vary tremendously in different areas and at different times of day.
Personally I am a great fan of 3G, I was on Vodafone 3G when it first came out in 2004 and since then have used them, T-Mobile and 3.
Now I know I can’t work or play without a 3G connection, if I am on holiday in an area without 3G I find it very frustrating. It’s not that I want to spend my holiday online, but so much we do these days is dependent on knowing information, opening times, route planners, online reviews, communication; without a decent internet connection you can feel a little lost. Though it has to be said to be totally internet free can be somewhat refreshing.
Hopefully one day there will be greater 3G coverage, or whatever takes over form 3G will have greater coverage.
Picture source.
Vodafone “hides” price rises
Saturday, August 16th, 2008BBC reports on criticism of Vodafone about recent “hidden” price rises.
The National Consumer Council (NCC) has criticised Vodafone for increasing mobile phonecall costs without telling its customers.
Vodafone plans to raise minimum call charges by 25%.
But a letter inserted into July’s bills stated the new price list but failed to mention they were going up.
Well, not having much success…
Monday, August 11th, 2008I have been using a Vodafone USB 3G stick with my Sony VAIO UX1XN with some success now. However downside is that it sticks out the side and I do worry it might break off (which would be annoying).
I do have a T-Mobile phone and a 3G data plan with them, which allows me to use my phone as a modem. This has worked fine on my Mac, but I decided it would be good to use it with my UX1XN.
However I not having much sucess.
I first tried the Nokia N series software, which required about 100MB of stuff to be downloaded…
This eventually installed, and after I had paired with my Nokia N95, I expected things to go smoothly.
However it failed to make a connection as it said that the modem was being used by another application.
This unhelpful error was because the modem drivers needed resinstalling and the help unhelpfully said that, but didn’t say how to do it!
So after a few attempts, I gave up and used System Restore to rid myself of the Nokia software.
I then tried the standard Nokia software (which also works with N series phones) and alas everytime I tried to to get a connection, the Bluetooth software would case a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
Using Windows Me I would get BSOD all the time, with Windows XP it was quite a rare occurence. On Windows Vista on the UX1XN I get them all the time, I keep having Windows Me flashbacks.
After a couple of attempts, I decided to use the VAIO Update feature to see what new drivers were available.
So have spent the best part of a day, downloading updates and installing them. The automatic updates took their time, but there were a bundle of non-automatic updates, most of which consisted of:
Download update
Uninstall software
Restart
Install new software
Restart
It wouldn’t be so bad, but Windows Vista on the UX1XN takes an age to start up.
Getting there, final update being installed, will try Nokia software again!
Fast, really fast
Sunday, August 10th, 2008Most of the time I am using my Vodafone 3G USB stick is with my Mac. I have though recently been using it with a Sony VAIO UX1XN. One of the key differences is that the Vodafone connection software in Windows gives you a lot more information on the connection than it does on a Mac.
Using it recently I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of things.
Firstly speed. Now Vodafone advertises that you can get 7.2Mbps on the stick, which to be honest I believe only happens in London or outside Vodafone HQ! Having used 3G for many years now I was impressed with the 384Kbps I got back then. Using the stick here in deepest Somerset I was pleased to find I was getting a steady 1Mbps.
Secondly warnings. I was using the 3G connection to download some Nokia installation files, there was a fair bit of data coming down, when I hit 50MB a pop-up popped up and said warning 50Mb data had gone through the stick. I thought that this was pretty neat especially if you are on a pay as you go connection or near your fair use limit.
Overall I am still impressed with 3G and if you are in the right spot you wouldn’t realise that you were on basically a mobile phone connection.
Vodafone told off on “unlimited” ad
Sunday, June 15th, 2008The ASA have upheld a complaint about a Vodafone advert which according to the ASA implied unlimited mobile internet.
The advert said “Any website, any time. £7.50 a month. Make the most of now.” It was only in the small print at the bottom of the advert which said that there was in fact a 120MB limit!
The ASA said
However, we considered that consumers would also infer from the headline claim that they could access the internet as often as they liked for £7.50 a month.
We noted there was a disclaimer stating “120MB UK data allowance per month” at the bottom of the ad, but considered that this was not prominent enough to avoid being overlooked and also that it contradicted the impression created by the headline claim. We considered that the download allowance was a significant condition attached to the service and was likely to influence consumers’ decisions about whether to purchase the product. Because that information was not stated in, or immediately next to, the headline claim, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead about the nature of the service being offered.
I have to agree with the ASA, the implication of the advert was any time, any where, when ever you wanted. However a 120MB download limit in this era of photographs, YouTube’esque video, audio podcasts and other media-rich internet means that 120Mb (even on a phone) would not really be sufficient for a month, and I suspect a lot of users would go over this limit and then be hit with high charges.
Full adjudication.
LG Viewty growing on me…
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008My T-Mobile LG Viewty is growing on me.
Okay this is no replacement for Apple’s iPhone, but the more I use it and the more I get use to the touch interface, the more I quite like it.
Where I think it is starting to win me over, especially over Nokia phones such as the N73 and the N95 is on text entry input, especially when in landscape mode.
In landscape mode when browsing I have a full QWERTY keyboard which makes typing entries into Twitter or Jaiku so much easier than trying to use T9 on a numerical keyboard.
There are still a few downsides, it still crashes on me for example. I don’t like how to scroll down in webpages – on menus you use the dial on the camera lens, but on the browser the dial on the lens works as a zoom function! The touch interface is nowhere near as good as the iPhone (or the iPod touch) but is still quite nice once you get use to it.
I even managed to upload a photograph to Flickr today, not using Shozu, but the mobile Flickr interface – thought this won’t work if you use Vodafone.
Overall I am growing to like this phone.
Vodafone N95 Nightmare – Resolved
Monday, March 17th, 2008Back on Friday I blogged about a Vodafone nightmare that James Whatley was having in relation to a non-functioning Nokia N95.
Well it seems I am not the only one who suffers nightmare customer service from Vodafone.
James’ problem got resolved pretty quickly in the end.
Today SMSTextNews posted an update on how this happened and the response from Vodafone.
Hello there Mr Whatley, my name’s Amy and I’m calling from Vodafone. I hope you don’t mind me getting in contact like this, I’ve just been reading your blog…
Well James got his new Nokia N95 pretty quickly.
Just shows the power and influence a blog can have, well the influence a large and well-read blog like SMSTextNews can have.
Glad to hear that the N95 phone situation was sorted in the end…
Now about that 4GB Nokia N95….
Vodafone Nightmare
Friday, March 14th, 2008Well it seems I am not the only one who suffers nightmare customer service from Vodafone.
Back in June 2004 I had a nightmare trying to order a 3G datacard from Vodafone, so much so that I basically nearly gave up even trying.
Well it seems four years later, customer service at Vodafone still leaves a lot to be desired.
James Whatley of SMSTextNews found his Nokia N95 wasn’t working, so he called Vodafone customer service, his phone was still under guarantee and he had insurance, so it should have been a simpe process, shouldn’t it…
What follows is an account of two hours of my life from the early evening of last night (Thursday).
Vodafone have pissed me off. Their insurance company more so – they are CLEARLY a 3rd party with nothing to do with Vodafone and as such, let them down on an almost spectacular level.
That aside – VF’s CS has seen better days.
If this issue is not resolved by the weekend, I am off to 3.
You heard it here first.
Read the whole story on the full blog entry.
To be honest reading that story doesn’t surprise me one bit, like James, when you are use to good customer service, when you have a bad experience, it really throws you and you can’t understand why they don’t just “get it”.
Hopefully Vodafone may realise that one bad experience for a customer results in lost sales or transfers to another network.
In case you are wondering, who do I use as my mobile phone provider, well it’s T-Mobile.
Which 3G USB Modem?
Saturday, January 19th, 2008I have been thinking for a while about getting a 3G USB Modem.
My preference is to use a Bluetooth connection to my phone and use that as a modem, however this is very heavy on battery life for both the phone and the laptop and I am thinking that a USB modem will have less impact on the laptop and (obviously) no impact on the phone’s battery life.
I don’t want a card solution as I use different computers, some have CF slots, come have PC Card slots and another uses ExpressCard, so a card solution will be too limiting.
I am not overly happy with having a dongle hanging off my computer, but it is better than no internet connection.
So which one do I go for?
My initial choice was “3″ which has the cheapest solution at £10 per month, however they do have a 1GB limit and will charge if you go over that limit. £15 gives you a 3GB allowance.
Speeds are suppose to be in the 2.8Mbps range, but that’s not the case across the whole country.
Having used Vodafone before and get very annoyed with their content control and the complexity of having to pay to turn it off, I am not keen on using Vodafone. Also at £25+VAT per month they are the most expensive. However at 7.2Mbps they are the fastest. Though that speed is not available around me, so is less inticing.
I am coming around to T-Mobile which is around £20 per month now. However it does appear to be the slowest of the lot. It has one advantage that the service also includes free access to T-Mobile wifi hotspots.
Still thinking.