[Gllug] GPRS Data Cards on Linux

Wed Jun 18 21:23:11 UTC 2003

The short answer is probably: there isn't (yet). But it's a double edged
sword: unless people use the service, the price won't come down. People
can't use the service, because the price is too high. It was the same with
ADSL in this country when it first started: there was no take-up, because of
the pricing. The ADSL price is still among the highest in Europe. Unless
they sort out the GPRS price, I don't think many people will go for it. This
is what Vodafone has to say:

-----------------
Vodafone charge for the sum of the data you send and receive. For example
the Mobile Select tariff costs £5.88 per month + £2.35 per MegaByte. The
Vodafone Mobile Connect Dashboard monitors data use and displays the send,
receive and total data use.

To minimise data costs, stick to:
Internet Email: text based email without large attachments
Instant messaging

Sticking to these two applications will allow you to minimise data use,
expect 1-2 MegaByte per month.

Data used when browsing web sites varies depending on the content - this
could be typically anything from 20 KiloBytes (0.02MegaBytes) to 200
KiloBytes (0.2 MegaBytes) per page. The Vodafone GPRS network automatically
reduces the amount of data transmitted to speed the delivery of web pages
and to reduce the cost.
___________________

Basically, don't use the service once you have the ability to connect.
That's a rubbish argument, as anyone would agree. (I hope).

There is only one other way to get the price down for something like that:
complain to OFTEL, but if anybody has any experience doing this, the whole
process really sucks. The Government seems really reluctant to do something
about ripp-off Britain.

regards

therockstunkidz

dan at prankstersproductions.com
************************************
http://www.prankstersproductions.com

-----Original Message-----
From: gllug-admin at linux.co.uk [mailto:gllug-admin at linux.co.uk]On Behalf
Of Richard Jones
Sent: 18 June 2003 21:00
To: gllug at linux.co.uk
Subject: Re: [Gllug] GPRS Data Cards on Linux

On Wed, Jun 18, 2003 at 08:14:56PM +0100, Paul Cupis wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On Tuesday 17 Jun 2003 23:38, Axel Segebrecht <axel at segebrecht.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I would like to run a GPRS PCMCIA card (from Orange or otherwise) on
> > a lappi, so that I can be permanently connected to the net (wahoo!).
> >
> > Just curious what experiences are you folks have had / heard of?
>
> Last time I had my hands on one of these, it was recognised as a regular
> modem by the kernel. That card was an Option Globetrotter (re-branded).
>
> Assuming that you have this same card, check out
> http://www.option.com/support/linux_general_setup.shtml

Where can one get reasonably priced GPRS?

Last I looked Orange wanted an arm and a
leg for even tiny amounts of bandwidth ...

Rich.

> Regards,
>
> Paul Cupis
> - --
> paul at cupis.co.uk
>
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--
Richard Jones, Red Hat Inc. (London) and Merjis Ltd. http://www.merjis.com/
http://www.annexia.org/ Freshmeat projects: http://freshmeat.net/users/rwmj
"I wish more software used text based configuration files!"
 -- A Windows NT user, quoted on Slashdot.

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