Vodafone Ireland offering 500Mb for EUR9.99 per month.
[Update: See comments on this post and my followup post before signing up for this service!]
Yesterday I was on the phone to Vodafone “Customer Care” to inquire about their mobile data rate plans. The response I got when I told the rep that I wanted to send/receive email by using my mobile phone as a bluetooth modem was priceless: “That would be very expensive. You really don’t want to do that”.
It is nice when service reps tell you what you do or don’t want isn’t it?
Of course with the pricing plans Vodafone had it would indeed have been prohibitively expensive so he was trying to help. But yet Vodafone were offering USB 3G modems for a flat rate (5Gb cap) a month. So why couldn’t I just use my existing handset instead? Could he explain the price difference? I’ll let you guess the answer.
Clearly I wasn’t the only person to ask this question - or maybe I was and I have far more clout than I thought 
Later that morning Vodafone announced a flat-rate plan for data access from mobile handsets - 500Mb for EUR9.99 per month for post-pay customers, EUR0.99 per day for pre-pay customers. [Update: see comments below and my followup post - this plan does not allow use of isp.vodafone.ie gateway]. You couldn’t replace your home broadband connection with it but if you are a bit of a road warrior (e.g. N770/N800 users or if you have a laptop and occasionally leave your house at weekends/evenings) then it might be of interest. Don’t even think of using it abroad though - those foreign bits are so different they cost way more to move around.
I suppose you can only strangle the market for so long with exorbitant pricing before the regulators start sniffing around. Of course this plan makes the current O2/3/Meteor data plan offerings pale in comparison so I suspect within a few weeks they will announce either an identical price plan or a plan that effectively costs the same amount per Mb per month - <cough>oligopoly</cough>. Watch this space.
BTW, for OS X users out there here are modem scripts and settings a variety of handsets as a bluetooth modems with OS X. I’ve used the SonyEricsson scripts and they work beautifully. If only the service was as free…
on 28 Aug 2007 at 5:59 pm # Declan
It would be great if O2 brought in something like this for their long suffering customers, but they still cant grasp the idea of 3G services for handsets being better than the wonderful iMode so who knows when or if they will follow Vodafones lead.
on 28 Aug 2007 at 8:12 pm # aehso
I thought I heard that O2 UK were dropping iMode - total flop for them. Suspect O2 Ireland would do so at the same time.
Nah, it’s all about drip feeding bandwidth to us plebs as slowly as the regulators will allow them to at as consistent price levels that they somehow all ‘accidentally’ seem to arrive at. Curious isn’t it?
on 10 Oct 2007 at 9:50 am # Dec
Just some more info on the 500Mb add-on. It only covers usage of the live.vodafone.com access point, not isp.vodafone.ie.
Dec
on 13 Oct 2007 at 12:27 pm # Finn
Yes, second that Dec - Vodafone tried to charge me €270 for data I had downloaded on isp.vodafone.ie even though I had bought a €9.99 Mobile Date Add-On - which said nothing about only being able to access via live.vodafone.ie. And guess what Live! is a limited port 80 service only. So no Pop mail, no Gtalk, no msn. Vodafone Mobile internet is only good for browser use …. poor show Vodafone Ireland!
on 15 Oct 2007 at 5:40 pm # Anthony
As far as I\\\’m aware, this new service is not designed to allow you to use your mobile as a bluetooth modem (that\\\’s what the 3g broadband modem is for).
It is designed to allow you to use the mobile internet on your mobile phone (through the vodafone live menu, and also off-portal websites including youtube, ebay, etc)
You will have to look into it further, but by using your mobile as a modem you may be using the isp.vodafone.ie APN , in which case you will be paying the existing, prohibitively expensive rates.
As for the difference between downloads on your existing handset and downloads on a mobile connect card or 3g modem… essentially both sim cards are exactly the same. But vodafone currently reap huge profits from existing customers (mainly corporate customers) who use their mobiles as modems so it would not be in their best interest to allow small fries like you or I do avail of the services at a reasonable price.
on 15 Oct 2007 at 5:55 pm # aehso
Interesting, thanks for the feedback lads, I’ve pinged a note off to Vodafone to ask them for a clarification. Will post a new entry whenever I get a response.