Mobile Internet in Croatia?

[hkr]

Originally Posted by dilijasi

3. Tele2 Croatia, Tele2 Hrvatska - Mobilni internet na bonove (blimey, no english version!)

My Croatian is rather limited. Does this website say that the 394 kn is not made available immediately, but over a certain period of time?

They write: "Iznos od 394 kn na Tele2 računu raspodijeljen je na sljedeći način: 100 kn odmah pri aktivaciji, 50 kn sljedećih 5 mjeseci, te zadnji mjesec 44 kn, uz obaveznu mjesečnu nadoplatu bonom od minimalno 50 kn. "

[dilijasi]

To reply to hkr questions:

Vipme related:
- topups are available in 35, 100 and 200 Kuna value. No topup fee (like once in Italy 5 Euro) is charged, total amount is used to buy you airtime.
- there are two data packs available for Vipme users: Mobile surf 20 (20Mb charged 15 Kuna) and Mobile surf 100 (100Mb charged 30 Kuna). Data packs could be activated by a simple text message, the amount will be deducted off your current Vipme balance) More info find here: VIPonline

Tele2 related:
- 394 Kuna of bonus balance (of the 395 Kuna data package bundle) is NOT available immediately. As google translated in previous post by Effendi, Tele2 has setup an awkward scheme: for 6 moths you need to topup at least 50 Kuna a month in order to get the 100 Kuna balance at start and then 50 more for 5 months.

Hope all is clear now, regards.

[hkr]

dilijasi,

Thanks for the reply. It looks VIP has changed a few options since I last checked

If I understand what they (you) say, I can buy data packages as an option for my existing VIPME SIM, and they add up.

"It is possible to activate more Mobile surf data packages (20 at most) within the 30-day period, and the amount of the newly activated data package will be added up to the remaining amount of the already activated package(s). New Mobile surf data package is activated automatically upon expiry of the 30-day period."

So if I buy 5 x 100 MB = 500 MB, I pay 5 x 30 kn = 150 kn.

If I buy a VIPME Broadband SIM and an 500 MB data packet, I pay 20 kn for SIM + 200 kn for 500 MB.

So theoretically it is cheaper and easier (no need to find a VIP store) to just use my existing VIPME SIM with the SURF options. Am I right? Does it offer the same internet as VIPME Broadband, or is it only WAP?

(This would be great as I have more than 150 kn balance now, which I will most probably not use for phone calls...)

[dilijasi]

hkr, you got me confused for a sec

VIPMe is a regular prepaid voice + data service. You can add data packs to it, and you calculated right, for 150 Kuna you can use up to 500Mb of data. Which made me curious because it's much cheaper than my regular VIPMe Broadband (please note that is a pure data service SIM, no voice) tariff where 500Mb cost 200 kuna.

However, you've got a VIPMe SIM and you can use data packs for it but to use VIPMe Broadband service you need to buy another, data SIM, and topup. VIPNet site is not clear about data transfer speeds when using data packs for VIPMe, apart from stating you need to have a GPRS service activated in order to use data packs. Which in other, less marketing-friendly, words could mean litimed choice of protocols where nothing else than GPRS/Edge is available while high speed protocols remain reserved for VIPMe Broadband service. Which honestly adds up, otherwise clients would go for cheaper solution (VIPMe + data packs).

I doubt mailing or calling VIPNet customer service will provide any clear answer but I plan to go down to Croatia next week and could ask some of their tech-savvy advisers to clarify things.

[hkr]

Hello dilijasi,

At the URL VIPonline I read the following:

"When using data services, the time spent on the network is not charged, only the quantity of data transferred. Price does not depend on the technology of transfer used (GPRS, EDGE, UMTS or HSDPA). The calculation unit is always 10kB."

However, it speaks a lot about how to use these data packs with your phone's browser.

I do not think it is restricted to GPRS/EDGE, but I do hope that these data packs are not using a different (WAP-only) APN ...

I will call and ask them.