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From: JL on 21 Apr 2010 06:27
On 21 Apr, 10:17, occassionally-confu...(a)nospam.co.uk wrote:
> Most networks have implemented the EU "50 euros/month max, unless
> otherwise agreed with customer" roaming data ruling with a
> disingenuous "data bundle" system, which generates profits through
> most people buying oversize bundles and wasting most of them.
>
> Now, if you take your phone/laptop to say France, and try to grab your
> email, what happens is that you get a connection for about 5 seconds
> (enough to log into the POP server and start collecting headers) and
> then the connection is cut off. You get a text message telling you to
> buy a data bundle; say £5 for 5MB for 24hrs. The other way is if you
> access the www as the initial operation; then you get taken to the
> network's website instead where you order the bundle.
>
> IMHO T-Mobile bundles are the least-ripoff and Voda's probably the
> biggest ripoff.
>
> But how does this work with the Blackberry system? Those users are
> continually connecting and collecting small messages. Do they have to
> buy a bundle also?
>
> I was in France on the day this came in (1st March) and while I got
> cut off (Virgin), my friend (Voda) was using his Blackberry OK. He is
> on some massive contract though, with tons of included roaming data...

Orange, O2 and Vodafone don't have an enforced bundle-buying
requirement.

By default you will just pay a per MB basis - £3/MB (in EU) on Orange
or O2, and £4.99 for the 1st MB on Voda with the following 24MB free.
In a way Voda is exceptional value for some and ridiculously expensive
for others, depends what you use it for.

BlackBerry data is charged as per any other data - for the very small
amounts of data used a daily bundle is probably not the best option.
Something like Orange's '3MB for £5' or '10MB for £12' bundle that
lasts 30days would work out cheaper for a trip abroad than being
charged Orange's £2/day on the daily bundle charge.

All this depends on what network your on - T-Mobile and Virgin, I
believe, don't let you access internet until you have chosen one of
these bundles from a landing screen that comes up when you connect.
Correct me if I'm wrong, though!
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