Greece GPRS?

gmmour · *Last edited by gmmour; 26-10-2007 at 13:42..*

Here's an update on the new WIND GR tarrifs for its mobile broadband (HSPA 3,6 Mbps) offer. The product is calles WIND ADSM (a marketing name to show that the prices are comparable to fixed ADSL)...

The new prices for postpaid subscriptions are:

Wind offer monthly charge
ΑDSM Basic (1 MB) 3,5 €
ADSM 300 MB 17 €
ADSM 5 GB 32 €
ADSM Non-Stop (30 GB) 49 €
Student pack* (33 GB) 30 € 3 GΒ from 08:00 to 20:00, 30 GB from 20:00 to 08:00

*The WIND student pack is offered to greek university students, it offers interconnection with the Hellenic Academic Network and provides an IP address from inside the student's university LAN for free access to international online libraries that have agreements with the student's university and can only be accessed from a valid university IP. Since it is funded from the Ministry of Education applications must be first filled online through the greek student internet portal www.diodos.edu.gr and then be printed and brought to a WIND store for product purchase. A one-year contract and free HSPA modem (USB, PCMCIA or PCI-Express) must be purchased with the student plan.

A user can either subscribe to these programs with an unlimited time contract (can be cancelled at any time after the first month), or sign a one-year contract and get an HSPA modem for free (either a 3.6Mbps Huawei E220 USB modem, a 1.8Mbps PCMCIA card or a 3.6Mbps PCI-Express card). A wireless WiFi HSPA router (1.8Mbps) is available with a subsidized price for one-year contracts.
http://www.wind.com.gr/pages.fds?langID=2&pageID=1442

There are also two prepaid packs available to WIND F2G prepaid subscribers:
ADSM Non-stop 2 which offers 2 days unlimited access for 10 Euro
and ADSM Non-stop 7 which offers 7 days unlimited access for 30 Euro
(There is a cap of 1GB per day for ADSM Non-stop 2 and 7)
These prepaid offers can be activated on any F2G prepaid SIM by sending an SMS with the words "NS 2" or "NS 7" to 3553 and having 10 or 30 Euro respectively on your account balance.
http://www.wind.com.gr/pages.fds?pageID=1443&langID=2

PS: The Wind plus non-stop offer described in this forum with unlimited HSPA access and a 1MB per downloaded file limitation is still available for 3,49 Euro per month and remains the best offer in the greek market!

Here are the offers of vodafone.gr and cosmote.gr respecitvely. (Cosmote covers almost all of Greece with 3GSM and most cities with HSPA, Vodafone covers most of the cities with HSPA while Wind also covers most of the greek cities and has HSPA coverage enabled all over its 3G network). Only wind offers an updated map with its 3G coverage on www.wind.com.gr
All three offer HSPA @ 3.6 Mbps. Cosmote has announced that they will be upgrading to 7.2Mbps HSDPA and HSUPA for incresed upload speeds beginning from big cities soon. Vodafone and Wind are expected to follow. The Huawei E220 USB HSPA modems offered by all three are said to be able to be upgraded to support download speeds up to 7.2Mbps and increased upload speeds with HSUPA with a simple firmware update so if you go for a free modem, get the USB one which is future-proof.

Vodafone offer monthly charge
VMC 1 MB 6 €
VMC 25 MB 19 €
VMC 80 MB 29 €
VMC 5 GB 39€ student*: 29 Euro
VMC 20 GB 99 €

*The Vodafone Student VMC is the same product as VMC 5GB. It does not offer an academic IP address and can be directly purchased at any vodafone shop with a valid student ID card (no need for application through the www.diodos.edu.gr student internet portal)

Cosmote offer monthly charge /monthly charge for Cosmote postpaid subscribers*
CDP Basic (1 MB) 3,5 €
CDP 200 MB 15 € /13€
CDP 5 GB 34,5 € /29,5 €
CDP 20 GB 60 € /50€

*To benefit of the reduced price the user must also have an active postpaid voice subscription with cosmote.
These reduced price data products for existing Cosmote voice customers are offered either on a stand-alone SIM (with optional free modem with one-year contract) or on the existing subscriber's SIM (for his voice postpaid subscription) without subsidized HSPA modem (ideal for those who want to tether their laptop to their HSPA phone). In any case, customers will receive their data plan charge on their existing cosmote bill.

All companies offer either an unlimited time contract or a one-year contract with free HSPA modem, all three of them offer a selection between USB, PCMCIA or PCI-Express modems.

The Vodafone and Wind products are offered only on a separate SIM and cannot be combined on the existing voice postpaid SIM.

For visitors in Greece the Wind prepaid packs for 2 or 7 days and the unlimited time contracts from all three providers for visits of one month or more are coming to complement the existing unbeatable offer of wind plus non-stop described on this thread! Non-EU citizens might have problems to sign an (unlimited or one-year) contract though and wind plus non-stop and the two prepaid WIND ADSM packs might be the only available solution for them.

Have fun in Greece and don't forget to bring your laptops and HSPA phones or modems! The competition has brought prices amazingly down in the past few months! Vodafone is expected to lower its prices after the Wind ADSM products have brough 30GB down to 50 Euro and 5GB down to 32 Euro!

real_goose · **WIND Plus connection options -** 26-11-2007, 22:38

While I stay in the family cottage in Zemeno, I have no internet access so WIND Plus appears to be my best option. Zemeno is closer to Distomo than Arachova, so it appears that HSDPA is not available based on the map. GPRS is still much better than nothing which is what I have now.

I do own an unlocked Sierra 875 data card that supports European frequencies. Assuming I set up the proxy as if I was tethering to phone, will it work with Plus? (If not I need to consider a new phone.)

I also own a Sony Erikson t68 that was software upgraded to a t68i. But the 'upgrade' has given me problems and I can't be sure it will really work as a modem even if I do buy the proper cable. My laptop has no bluetooth so I need a cable.

Is there a website that explains tethering for someone who has no experience?

I suppose the ideal phone would be inexpensive, support GPRS, easy to find data cables and modem software for Windows XP. It should also have Java and the ability to use a browser. Is there any other criteria I should consider?

real_goose · **WIND Plus Non-Stop service works for me! -** 14-01-2008, 01:15

I just got back from holidays in Greece and enjoyed great new ways to access the Internet. My sister-in-law now has Net One which gave me wireless access in her Athens apartment. I followed the direction in this thread and with some improvising I had great success using Wind to access the web. GPRS speed is a little painful, but much better than no connection at all.

The local kiosk where I buy newspapers was out of Wind SIMs so I went to the nearby Wind store to buy a SIM and recharge card. It turned out to be one of the most complicated €8 transaction I can remember. If I had known, I would've tried other kiosks. Also, the recharge card can not be used until the SIM is activated by making at least 1 billable call. Calling customer support for €.12 is a cheap way to get activated.

I do not understand why I could not get Firefox or Thunderbird to work through a proxy when Internet Explorer V6 worked fine. Moving from page to page sometimes led to IE hanging. I had to close it frequently. Quite few websites could not be loaded at all. For example, www.prepaidgsm.net was OK, but www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/ led to attempts to “download the file” because the page was not recognized as a web page. I downloaded Opera and discovered that all my problem pages could be viewed by letting Opera fix it by reparsing as HTML.

I used my Sierra 875 card for access. Mine is a Cingular branded card commonly available unlocked on eBay for about $100. The WIND Connection Manager software could never find my card, so I used the Sierra 3G Watcher software. It was easy to create a profile for WIND N0N-Stop since all I had to specify was username, password, and access point name. The same Sierra software allows me to send and receive SMS messages at the same time I'm connected to the Internet.

Finally we have a way to browse the web and read email even while in mountains with no phone line available. Thanks to all for documenting this process.

	(#1)
gmmour (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 92 Join Date: 03 Oct 2006 Country:	New WIND GR Wireless Broadband and prepay broadband offers - 26-10-2007, 13:02 Here's an update on the new WIND GR tarrifs for its mobile broadband (HSPA 3,6 Mbps) offer. The product is calles WIND ADSM (a marketing name to show that the prices are comparable to fixed ADSL)... The new prices for postpaid subscriptions are: Wind offer monthly charge ΑDSM Basic (1 MB) 3,5 € ADSM 300 MB 17 € ADSM 5 GB 32 € ADSM Non-Stop (30 GB) 49 € Student pack* (33 GB) 30 € 3 GΒ from 08:00 to 20:00, 30 GB from 20:00 to 08:00 The WIND student pack is offered to greek university students, it offers interconnection with the Hellenic Academic Network and provides an IP address from inside the student's university LAN for free access to international online libraries that have agreements with the student's university and can only be accessed from a valid university IP. Since it is funded from the Ministry of Education applications must be first filled online through the greek student internet portal www.diodos.edu.gr and then be printed and brought to a WIND store for product purchase. A one-year contract and free HSPA modem (USB, PCMCIA or PCI-Express) must be purchased with the student plan. A user can either subscribe to these programs with an unlimited time contract (can be cancelled at any time after the first month), or sign a one-year contract and get an HSPA modem for free (either a 3.6Mbps Huawei E220 USB modem, a 1.8Mbps PCMCIA card or a 3.6Mbps PCI-Express card). A wireless WiFi HSPA router (1.8Mbps) is available with a subsidized price for one-year contracts. http://www.wind.com.gr/pages.fds?langID=2&pageID=1442 There are also two prepaid packs available to WIND F2G prepaid subscribers: ADSM Non-stop 2 which offers 2 days unlimited access for 10 Euro and ADSM Non-stop 7 which offers 7 days unlimited access for 30 Euro (There is a cap of 1GB per day for ADSM Non-stop 2 and 7) These prepaid offers can be activated on any F2G prepaid SIM by sending an SMS with the words "NS 2" or "NS 7" to 3553 and having 10 or 30 Euro respectively on your account balance. http://www.wind.com.gr/pages.fds?pageID=1443&langID=2 PS: The Wind plus non-stop offer described in this forum with unlimited HSPA access and a 1MB per downloaded file limitation is still available for 3,49 Euro per month and remains the best offer in the greek market! Here are the offers of vodafone.gr and cosmote.gr respecitvely. (Cosmote covers almost all of Greece with 3GSM and most cities with HSPA, Vodafone covers most of the cities with HSPA while Wind also covers most of the greek cities and has HSPA coverage enabled all over its 3G network). Only wind offers an updated map with its 3G coverage on www.wind.com.gr All three offer HSPA @ 3.6 Mbps. Cosmote has announced that they will be upgrading to 7.2Mbps HSDPA and HSUPA for incresed upload speeds beginning from big cities soon. Vodafone and Wind are expected to follow. The Huawei E220 USB HSPA modems offered by all three are said to be able to be upgraded to support download speeds up to 7.2Mbps and increased upload speeds with HSUPA with a simple firmware update so if you go for a free modem, get the USB one which is future-proof. Vodafone offer monthly charge VMC 1 MB 6 € VMC 25 MB 19 € VMC 80 MB 29 € VMC 5 GB 39€ student: 29 Euro VMC 20 GB 99 € The Vodafone Student VMC is the same product as VMC 5GB. It does not offer an academic IP address and can be directly purchased at any vodafone shop with a valid student ID card (no need for application through the www.diodos.edu.gr student internet portal) Cosmote offer monthly charge /monthly charge for Cosmote postpaid subscribers CDP Basic (1 MB) 3,5 € CDP 200 MB 15 € /13€ CDP 5 GB 34,5 € /29,5 € CDP 20 GB 60 € /50€ To benefit of the reduced price the user must also have an active postpaid voice subscription with cosmote. These reduced price data products for existing Cosmote voice customers are offered either on a stand-alone SIM (with optional free modem with one-year contract) or on the existing subscriber's SIM (for his voice postpaid subscription) without subsidized HSPA modem (ideal for those who want to tether their laptop to their HSPA phone). In any case, customers will receive their data plan charge on their existing cosmote bill. All companies offer either an unlimited time contract or a one-year contract with free HSPA modem, all three of them offer a selection between USB, PCMCIA or PCI-Express modems. The Vodafone and Wind products are offered only on a separate SIM and cannot be combined on the existing voice postpaid SIM. For visitors in Greece the Wind prepaid packs for 2 or 7 days and the unlimited time contracts from all three providers for visits of one month or more are coming to complement the existing unbeatable offer of wind plus non-stop described on this thread! Non-EU citizens might have problems to sign an (unlimited or one-year) contract though and wind plus non-stop and the two prepaid WIND ADSM packs might be the only available solution for them. Have fun in Greece and don't forget to bring your laptops and HSPA phones or modems! The competition has brought prices amazingly down in the past few months! Vodafone is expected to lower its prices after the Wind ADSM products have brough 30GB down to 50 Euro and 5GB down to 32 Euro! Last edited by gmmour; 26-10-2007 at 13:42..*

	(#2)
real_goose (Offline) Junior Member Amateur Member Posts: 16 Join Date: 26 Mar 2007 Location: Tampa Country:	WIND Plus connection options - 26-11-2007, 22:38 While I stay in the family cottage in Zemeno, I have no internet access so WIND Plus appears to be my best option. Zemeno is closer to Distomo than Arachova, so it appears that HSDPA is not available based on the map. GPRS is still much better than nothing which is what I have now. I do own an unlocked Sierra 875 data card that supports European frequencies. Assuming I set up the proxy as if I was tethering to phone, will it work with Plus? (If not I need to consider a new phone.) I also own a Sony Erikson t68 that was software upgraded to a t68i. But the 'upgrade' has given me problems and I can't be sure it will really work as a modem even if I do buy the proper cable. My laptop has no bluetooth so I need a cable. Is there a website that explains tethering for someone who has no experience? I suppose the ideal phone would be inexpensive, support GPRS, easy to find data cables and modem software for Windows XP. It should also have Java and the ability to use a browser. Is there any other criteria I should consider?

	(#3)
real_goose (Offline) Junior Member Amateur Member Posts: 16 Join Date: 26 Mar 2007 Location: Tampa Country:	WIND Plus Non-Stop service works for me! - 14-01-2008, 01:15 I just got back from holidays in Greece and enjoyed great new ways to access the Internet. My sister-in-law now has Net One which gave me wireless access in her Athens apartment. I followed the direction in this thread and with some improvising I had great success using Wind to access the web. GPRS speed is a little painful, but much better than no connection at all. The local kiosk where I buy newspapers was out of Wind SIMs so I went to the nearby Wind store to buy a SIM and recharge card. It turned out to be one of the most complicated €8 transaction I can remember. If I had known, I would've tried other kiosks. Also, the recharge card can not be used until the SIM is activated by making at least 1 billable call. Calling customer support for €.12 is a cheap way to get activated. I do not understand why I could not get Firefox or Thunderbird to work through a proxy when Internet Explorer V6 worked fine. Moving from page to page sometimes led to IE hanging. I had to close it frequently. Quite few websites could not be loaded at all. For example, www.prepaidgsm.net was OK, but www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/ led to attempts to “download the file” because the page was not recognized as a web page. I downloaded Opera and discovered that all my problem pages could be viewed by letting Opera fix it by reparsing as HTML. I used my Sierra 875 card for access. Mine is a Cingular branded card commonly available unlocked on eBay for about $100. The WIND Connection Manager software could never find my card, so I used the Sierra 3G Watcher software. It was easy to create a profile for WIND N0N-Stop since all I had to specify was username, password, and access point name. The same Sierra software allows me to send and receive SMS messages at the same time I'm connected to the Internet. Finally we have a way to browse the web and read email even while in mountains with no phone line available. Thanks to all for documenting this process.