3G prepaid internet access in Holland
 

Here's a bit about my experience with exploring prepaid / prepay / PAYG 3G internet in Holland - The Netherlands.

3G prepaid internet access in Holland

It's a fairly simple process to get connected, though depending of the length of the visit, the best is either Vodafone or T-mobile or a combination of both.

Seems like Vodafone doesn't offer unlimited internet on prepaid anymore. Which makes sense, since they also don't do it anymore for new post-paid connections.

Now you can either get 250 MB for euro 4,75 (special offer, normal price euro 9,50) or 1 GB for euro 7,25 (special offer, normal price euro 14,50). Both al vallid for 1 month

Meaning they will stop it after some time?
Because I was thinking of switching to Vodafone as they do have the cheapest ~200MB package in The Netherlands if they charge €4,75...

This what the Vodafone website says: "Écht supersnel internet (250MB) op je mobiele telefoon tot 3,6 Mbps voor slechts € 9,50 (9,50 crossed out) 4,75 per maand "

Which suggest that it might be a limited time offer. But I'm not sure. Maybe they just want to show how cheap they are.

I know it's been a while but I saw something called Vodafone BloX on their site at Vodafone BloX - Tailor your rates -Vodafone - Prepaid where it says that it's unlimited but only up to 10 times average user's usage (and doesn't give that figure!). Price is €9.50/month.

Yes, Vodafone dramatically increased the prices lately. Now the BloX package costs €9,50 for 100MB for 1 month. I don't know why the 100MB isn't mentioned on the English pages.

Actually, a investigation has been started in The Netherlands a few weeks ago, concerning a possible cartel between KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile, where they would be having price agreements, mainly about prepaid mobile internet !

I think that it may well be the case, The Netherlands has one of the highest prices for mobile prepaid internet in the neighbourhood!

The best offer currently must be medionMOBILE (Aldi Talk), €8 for 250MB for 1 month, on the KPN network. Still very expensive though.

Aldi Talk might be enough if I can get free WiFi in areas where I'm stationary for a while. I'm still learning my average data usage on Android & looking at ways to curtail that for when I'm on cellular networks. Do you know if Aldi Talk uses both of KPN's frequency bands (900 & 1800 MHz)?

I've never seen any tariff or an MVNO being limited to a certain frequency band and I doubt this is technical feasible since networks have to be configured for smooth handovers between GSM900 and GSM1800 cells. Limiting certain SIMs to a certain frequency band would imply coverage gaps (since GSM1800 is primarily used in urban areas for capacity extension) and an alternative handover-configuration theme for the whole network, which would be a huge effort while there's no economic sense for such restrictions. So I'm pretty sure Aldi SIMs will be admitted to both of KPN's GSM frequency bands and also to their UMTS network.