Sadly it continues to look likely that no mobile operator will ever willingly turn their network into a dumb pipe. After all, they openly regard it (the network/billing relationship) as a unique gift. From whom, is the question we should all be asking.

• The package can only be used to access Vodafone Live! content (i.e. data to/from the live.vodafone.ie gateway.)
• The package does not apply to use of your mobile phone as a modem (i.e. data to/from the isp.vodafone.ie gateway.)

With this package Vodafone charge an effective rate of €0.02 per Mb to download data from their Live service gateway up to 50Mb per day. If you go over 50Mb per day they start charging €5.00 per Mb.

With their “Modest” or “Medium” data service packages (see Vodafone pay monthly charges) they charge between €0.48 per Mb(€12/25) or €0.30 per Mb (€15/50) to transmit data via their ISP gateway (NOT the Live! gateway).

If you have not signed up for their “Modest” or “Medium” package then the data rate charge is €12.80 for the first Mb and €5.12 per subsequent Mb. (2c/KB up to 512 kbs and 0.5c/kb for any usage over 512kbs).

So Vodafone data rates vary from a minimum of €0.02/Mb (Live! data rate) to a maximum of €12.80 per Mb (general data rate) – incredible! If they had phone call charges like these the regulator would be all over them.

So mobile data via Vodafone remains potentially exhorbently expensive and confusing. The confusion is compounded by Vodafone’s use of the label “Mobile Internet” for this service. With this package a user can get access to reformatted versions of certain WWW sites. Calling that Mobile Internet is like calling a bicycle a supercar. The Internet, as in that series of interconnected tubes through which the worlds computers communicate over protocols based on Internet Protocol(IP), is completely out of bounds.

This service should be called the “Vodafone Network”. However there is nobody to regulate this type of thing, is there?

Vodafone do offer a 3G/GPRS broadband modem as an alternative but a) I need a service that allows me to use my existing 3G handset as a modem (so that my N800 can connect via bluetooth) and b) I don’t want to pay €30 per month for a service I’ll only use in bursts when on the road. They also offer a business email push service but this doesn’t cater for my ssh and http protocol access requirements.

So, we remain in the dark ages.

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…