Roaming cost: Wind "i-mode PASS/Wap PASS"
 

I just subscribed to i-mode PASS/Wap PASS. I was charged the €0.9/Kb rate:

30/01/2007 09:40:23 SC*** Regno unito Traffico Internet -- Connessione dati GPRS -- 10825 Byt. 9,514160

This is not what I expected. The €30 allowance didn't last long - and it used up the entire card credit (fortunately, only €1.20)

Dave

F*ing Wind! I used the wap pass in Germany and France in December and I had the normal billing...

I suppose this is no great surprise; Wind clearly do not want any of these data offers used outside Italy.

I activated PASS via the internet, but there seems to be no way to deactivate it that way. I cannot send a PASS NO message - no credit. And I cannot top it up from the UK - credit card rejected as noted elsewhere.

What happens now? Will Wind debit the €3/month and send the balance negative or will it stay at zero?

I don't want to lose the card - I'll be in Italy in the summer.

Dave

:eek::eek::eek:

Well, it's time to write to Wind... this is a THEIR problem, the public offer is DIFFERENT. Let me know if you need help!

Anyway I was in Switzerland last month and I had the correct tariff (luckiness, I used a postpaid :P ):

06/01/2007 13:16:29 wind Traffico Internet Gprs Internet Wind In Zona Extra-Ue 735 K Bytes 11,025000

06/01/2007 09:28:47 wind Traffico Internet Gprs Internet Wind In Zona Extra-Ue 36 K Bytes 0,540000

06/01/2007 01:12:21 wind Traffico Internet Gprs Internet Wind In Zona Extra-Ue 289 K Bytes 4,335000

06/01/2007 01:06:56 wind Traffico Internet Gprs Internet Wind In Zona Extra-Ue 13 K Bytes 0,195000

I asked a friend in Italy to try to top up the card for me. He tried a bankomat, but tells me it didn't work:
Should this have worked? How else could he top it up for me? (I and the SIM are in the UK and the phone credit is -0.09€)

I'll find out in a couple of days what happens when Wind try to deduct €3 for PASS when there's already a negative credit.

I'll be in Italy in July. How long before the card expires?

Dave

It seems Wind became semi-organised with their tariff changes over the past few weeks. I was on the Mega-15000 since it was introduced last year and until about 2.5 weeks ago I was still being charged at the OLD rate but suddenly it swapped over to the super expensive EUR 0.9/kb rate around the 2nd week in February. I found this odd as they did tell us all by SMS the price was changing in December but hey, I guess Wind are "organised" and needed 2 months to implement it :-)

Anyway, I'd assume that this new rate of 0.9/kb will now apply to all their data pack offers so in my opinion the only one that is semi-interesting is Mega-15000 which gives a reasonable amount of data for an OK price when roaming. At this price of 30 Euro per month I know of nothing in Belgium (where I spend most of my time) that can compete.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/...-06_100425.jpg

Wind-Pass roaming in Northern Ireland, all worked perfectly with the right tariff...

Interesting. Think I'll drop the mega-15000 for this months renewal which I think is on 8/3 and try this wind pass one. Just to be sure I take the correct one - which of these two were you on when it worked in Northern Ireland? If it will work then I think the Pass50 is the one to have :-)

i-mode™ PASS/Wap PASS Con soli 3 euro mensili, hai 30 euro di traffico wap, internet, i-modeTM ogni mese. Attivalo
i-mode™ Pass50 Con soli 6 € al mese, navighi gratis per 30 giorni fino a 50 € e puoi registrarti a tutti i siti del Portale Imode con uno sconto del 50% sul loro costo. Attivalo

I have the i-mode™ PASS/Wap PASS (which is often referred to as "Wind-pass")
I fear the second one is only for wap/i-mode™, but I could be wrong...

I believe if you have no credit any active Data Options are canceled automatically. Cards go inactive after 11 month without being topped up. Once you're in Italy you should be able to top up your card by calling RICARDIA and use the value codes.

Money transfer from an italian bank account should work too, not sure how that works though.

In the event my friend topped up the card at a café and I was able to cancel PASS. I then successfully tested topup from the UK using an O2 voucher - so I can use that method now that I cannnot use a UK credit card via mondowind. So that's OK - provided I can stay in credit.

But I notice that I can't use a 'local' topup voucher from France; does anyone know why?

The "abroad-topup" service works only in the country where you buy the top-up. So if you get an O2 UK top-up you'll be able to use it in the UK only. The same applies to Germany, Ireland and so on...

Yes, but my point is that you can't buy a top up voucher in France - which given the proximity of the countries seems odd. (I will be sailing between Corsica and Sardinia - hence my interest.)

Here is the list of countries
# One Connect, Austria
# Sonofon, Danimarca
# O2, Germania, Irlanda e Regno Unito
# Amena, Spagna
# Pannon, Ungheria
# Telenor, Norvegia
# Sunrise, Svizzera

Dave

The networks have to members of the Starmap Mobile Alliance, I guess there simply isn't one in France.

Ah. I wondered what this bunch had in common. But I read that Starmap is falling or has fallen apart, so I guess this international topup facility is unlikely to be extended and might even be withdrawn.

I need an alliance of operators in France, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey, please.

Well, since you have a friend in Italy, maybe Effendi can tell you how to top up WIND Cards through an italian bank account. Should work via Online Banking afaik. Italian vouchers should work outside of Italy too, so maybe you should buy a few to be on the safe side when you're traveling in a country w/o a Starmap network.

You cannot recharge through bank account. Only with credit card on Mondowind.it, but it works very badly with non Italian cards. You can buy some scratch cards while you are in Italy and then use them wherever you are, just dialing *124*4242#, for free.

Yestarday i used my 02UK simcard in Italy and they still have the feature to refill thought a Wind scratchcard :)