UM Data sim card bundle

[inquisitor]

Data has been activated for my SIM today.

Usage is being charged immediately, but sessions appear delayed in the web history.

However against the background of the high volume price of € 1,39/MB the session fee of € 0.39 is a real rip-off!

[GadgetKen]

I may try the 3 euro conversion(a cheaper alternative to buying the new +423 data card). My +423 card has a zero balance (transferred last fall to the 44 card which had mixed results), but still says it is active on their account information menu. Would likely use it either in my Motorola V3 razr (GPRS) or AT&T Tilt (rebranded HTC 8925; it can do EDGE or HSPDA) and possibly tether it to my laptop.
I didn't get the email that was mentioned, but that may be because my UM cards are inactive, and only have about 6 euros on my 44 card right now.
The data price isn't a bargain, but it would give better coverage than wifi (which is not always free).

[inquisitor]

You should be able to activate the data option regardless of having received the newsletter or not. Also activity shouldn't be relevant, as my +423 SIM wasn't used for almost two years and had only € 3 of credit remaining.
Just log in to your UM account, where you should see a link called "SIM Options" behind the "Automatic recharge" button - that's where you can order the data option.
For me it took six days until data was actually enabled.

[inquisitor]

They charge as many connections as sessions you've established. Theoretically a session could last days, but practically it will be interrupted at least once per day. If you move with your phone during a session and so lose the signal for a moment or if a bad handover occurs, the session will also be interrupted.
Another problem I fear is, that if you initiate a session through your computer, it'll be closed if you switch it off. Most mobile phones (like my Nokia N95) will keep the session alive even at idle, if it has been initiated from the handset itself. But I don't know if you can join a handset-established session without interruption from you computer.
Against this background the ICQSIM seems more attractive me, as they charge only a daily usage fee of € 0.39 instead of session fees.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

They charge as many connections as sessions you've established. Theoretically a session could last days, but practically it will be interrupted at least once per day. If you move with your phone during a session and so lose the signal for a moment or if a bad handover occurs, the session will also be interrupted.

The session is on hold from the network if a handover is not successful or if you drive into a tunnel or out of coverage. Depending on the provider it times out after several minutes.
T-Mobile D for example keeps the old session open for 45 minutes - if your device reconnects to GPRS while this timeout the old session key will be used and thus no new connection fee should be charged.

Chris

[albino]

I have been using my 423 sim for data and found that despite the 1.49 being the cheapest around, by just surfing through pages as I normally generally do it seems to cost about 5 Euros for about 10 minutes of surfing. (I wasnt downloading photos music or videos - just browsing through sites for booking tickets etc)

I wonder how many kb a standard webpages uses?

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by albino

I have been using my 423 sim for data and found that despite the 1.49 being the cheapest around, by just surfing through pages as I normally generally do it seems to cost about 5 Euros for about 10 minutes of surfing. (I wasnt downloading photos music or videos - just browsing through sites for booking tickets etc)

I wonder how many kb a standard webpages uses?

to give you some hint i checked the size of the starting page of some pages:

www.cnn.com -> 850 kbyte
www.google.com -> 21 kbyte
www.prepaidgsm.net -> 94 kbyte
beijing2008.com -> 370 kbyte

to save traffic when online from mobile deactivate images and flash.
then the CNN website for example comes to: 90 kbyte (which is 10% of the original value!)

Chris

[VladS]

I find content compression to help a lot on wireless connections. It can also save you a bundle while roaming.

For the geeks among us there is ViCompress (http://www.visolve.com/vicompress/), a free Linux compression and caching proxy you can run along Asterisk on an old PC.

Those requiring plug and play solutions can always go to service providers such as Propel (http://www.propel.com) which costs $8/month or $60/year.

[Bossman]

Also, Opera Mini does some level of compression. It's also one of the best mobile browsers out there.

Originally Posted by VladS

I find content compression to help a lot on wireless connections. It can also save you a bundle while roaming.

[VladS]

Originally Posted by Bossman

Also, Opera Mini does some level of compression. It's also one of the best mobile browsers out there.

Great point. Opera's back end servers do the same thing for Opera Mobile and OperaMini for mobiles and SmartPhones as ViCompress and Propel do for desktops.