I recently wrote a paper for a friend who was enquiring about the practicality and economics of using WAP to access the internet from a mobile 'phone.
As this information may be of use to others, I am posting it here.
Before I do so, it is worth saying that one cannot do a lot until a suitable browser has been downloaded to your mobile.
I recommend that you point your existing mobile browser to:-
http://operamini.com/downloadBefore I discovered this very useful piece of software, I could do very little via WAP, e.g. I was never able to log in to niftylist forum, or to make a post or send a reply to PM's there.
I got into WAP first of all through free
O2 P&G SIM cards. When you registered one, they used to give you a £2-50 registration credit to get you started, and also 5MB of internet access lasting up to a month. ( Unfortunately, thanks to Telefonica, they do neither of these now - nothing gets added till you have topped up by at least £10 ! )
Anyway, it was good for as long as it lasted, and I enjoyed free WAP use month after month by registering a new SIM every 30 days !
The second significant event was when I took out my
Orange contract. Orange give new customers 2 month's of free 'unlimited off-peak internet access' ( which is £5 per month after that if you don't cancel it ). That was very good in its way, but it was a limitation that it couldn't be used in the day ( except at weekends ).
Thirdly,
O2 P&G introduced a new WEB Bolt On giving 200 MB of access for £7-50 per month. I have used this several times from different P&G mobiles that I have.
This option is the
second best option available on the market in my opinion.
HOWEVER, the 'star performer' is undoubtedly
'3' Pre-Pay ! This offers an 'Add On' of internet access for a month for just £5 giving a massive 2 GB allowance !
This is double the allowance of '3 ' contracts ( which is £10 for just 1 GB ), and of
T-Mobile's famous 'Web'n'Walk' offering of 1 GB for £7-50 per month !
It also dwarfs
Vodafone's mean £7-50 for just 120 MB ( available on contracts only )..
I don't know if you use prepay mobiles ------, but I have to say that I am most impressed by
'3' Prepay.
They give you a £10 credit for porting in your number. It has free voicemail even if you are out of credit. Calls and texts are just 12p X-net. Their data is the fastest 3G available.
( My Nokia 6120 runs on their 'turbo' HSDPA network at up to 2.8Mpbs - showing "3.5G" for most of its time ).
Furthermore,
'3' are much less greedy than other networks for their data charges even without an internet Add On
Their charge on Prepay is just
£1 / MB, compared to £3 / MB on
O2 contracts, £4 / MB on
Orange, £5-12 on
Virgin ( up till next month ), £7-17 on
Vodafone, £7-48 on
T-Mobile, and lastly £7-50 on
O2 P&G !
3 cheers for
'3' Pre -Pay !
As an update to this post, there is now conflicting information being given by
3.
The priceguide shown at:-
http://www.three.co.uk/customer/linkdocument.omp?cid=1089021441077says the following on page 14 of 32:-
Cost
Add Internet Daily†† 1 day access (up to 120MB) 50p
Add Internet Weekly†† 7 day access (up to 500MB) £2.50
Add Internet Monthly†† 30 day access (
up to 2GB) £5.00
Add Broadband Lite†† 1GB £10
Add Broadband Plus†† 3GB £15
Add Broadband Max†† 7GB £25
However, when you go to the My 3 page on the website, the monthly
internet Add On is displayed as giving a 1 MB maximum allowance.
It is therefore unclear whether you can use 1MB or 2 MB with this Add On.
The confusion is
3's, not mine.
mobaholic.
