I’ve had my Treo for a couple of years, but I’ve never used the browser/email functions. However, I’ve got to the stage where it would be useful to be able to check emails once or twice during the day, and do the odd spot of web browsing too.
I’m on Taiwan Dageda, on their “Plan900”. Looking at the plans page on their site, it seems that I may already be set up for data, and all I have to do is call up and get a username and password. Is this correct? Anything I need to beware of? I’m guessing that the data charges work like phone calls rather than the service being always on.
That depends. You will most likely use GPRS which IS always on, but you only pay for the amount of data you download (which is actually a very cunning way for the phone companies to make MORE money). You should get a price list from them.
Thanks, Irishstu. I thought the price list was the thing I linked to, which shows (at least for my current plan) “on-net” charges of:
PEAK
0.06 NT$/sec
OFFPEAK
0.06 NT$/sec
LATE NIGHT
0.015 NT$/sec
That’s why I’m confused, because I thought that like you said these things were always on.
Still, I remember reading of other Treo 600 owners getting big phone bills because they’d forgotten to turn the connection off when they’d finished emailing/browsing.
OK, well it’s been few years since I worked in telecoms, like, so my info might not be totally up to date, but in the old days you paid for a “CSD” call, which was like a normal call , only data. You paid for the time you were online, and it was usually the same price as a norman call.
GPRS, however is paid for by MB downloaded (or uploaded). If someone left it connected to some site that constantly updates, then they would get charged a lot. Or possibly, they were using a CSD connection, but I suspect they’re outdated now (although that IS what your price list looks like).
So yeah, you should be looking for some sort of NT$/MB price list. You may have to ask them to activate GPRS for you too. It may not be always on, btw (until you connect), but what I meant was it it is always available and not charged in the same way as a normal call.
Your phone needs to have certain settings. Normally they are downloaded to the phone when you activate the data/GPRS service. Just call the customer service and have them guide you through it.
BTW: GPRS is not always on unless you want it to be (there should be a setting in the phone to switch that function on/off). I have it off, i.e. it’s only activated when I need it. (Ups, didn’t see bender’s post before submitting)
Thanks, guys. The network preferences page on my phone already has the service name filled out: TCC Internet GPRS. However, for username, I have to “tap to enter name”, and password is “unassigned”.
So if charges are normally per megabyte then what do you reckon the “on-net” per-second charges on that page refer to?
I do realise that at some point I’m going to have to phone the company up for more precise details. But it’s very useful for me to have a rough idea of how this stuff works beforehand.
[quote=“joesax”]Thanks, guys. The network preferences page on my phone already has the service name filled out: TCC Internet GPRS. However, for username, I have to “tap to enter name”, and password is “unassigned”.
So if charges are normally per megabyte then what do you reckon the “on-net” per-second charges on that page refer to?[/quote]
Just guessing, but I think on-net means a call to another Taiwan GSM phone while off-net means a call to any other operator (GSM or fixed line). I don’t see the rates for GPRS listed there.
The charges are in kilobyte (or every 128 bytes?) I think, not MB . Can’t recall the details but call the customer service, they should know.
[quote=“Rascal”][quote=“joesax”]Thanks, guys. The network preferences page on my phone already has the service name filled out: TCC Internet GPRS. However, for username, I have to “tap to enter name”, and password is “unassigned”.
So if charges are normally per megabyte then what do you reckon the “on-net” per-second charges on that page refer to?[/quote]
Just guessing, but I think on-net means a call to another Taiwan GSM phone while off-net means a call to any other operator (GSM or fixed line). I don’t see the rates for GPRS listed there.[/quote]OK, that makes sense. Thanks.
I just phoned them. Apparently there are three plans:
1 No monthly charge; 0.24NT per Kb
2 99NT monthly charge; first 500Kb included, then 0.2NT per Kb after that
3 399NT monthly charge; first 8Mb included, then 0.048NT up to a ceiling of 1,100NT maximum (not sure whether that includes the 399 or not).
I went for the third option for peace of mind as I’ve really no idea how much I’ll use it and I don’t want to get hammered with astronomical charges at the end of a month. After I’ve tried it for a month, I’ll decide whether to stay with the same plan, change it or cancel it altogether.
Do you know if those charges are bandwidth regardless of what actual protocol you are using ? for instance GSM, GPRS, 3G, EDGE, HSDPA ? not really sure in what way all those protocols differ (or if they are all valid), but i know my phone supports HSDPA which is the fastest.
I’ve been sending test messages to and from my various email addresses. Very sad, I know!
Yahoo for mobile is great even on my lo-res screen. I have another webmail service that works with frames, and that wasn’t working very well until I tried just entering the address for the “inbox” frame only. Now it works fine. Google has a really nice search page that’s optimised for mobile devices, too.
[quote=“irishstu”]GPRS, however is paid for by MB downloaded (or uploaded). If someone left it connected to some site that constantly updates, then they would get charged a lot.[/quote]Looks like the inbuilt browser doesn’t support auto-updating sites, which is good. So I guess it’s safe to leave the connection on all day. Hope so, anyway. And if not, I hope that Taiwan Dageda are good for that monthly cap of 1,100NT!
[quote=“Connel”]Do you know if those charges are bandwidth regardless of what actual protocol you are using ? for instance GSM, GPRS, 3G, EDGE, HSDPA ? not really sure in what way all those protocols differ (or if they are all valid), but I know my phone supports HSDPA which is the fastest.[/quote]Sorry, no. I’m a complete novice about all this mobile data stuff. Maybe you need to set up those other protocols differently. The default data service on my SIM card (or maybe on the network, not sure) is “TCC Internet GPRS copy”.
Great! Glad to hear it’s working, joesax. Now you can concentrate on that time machine.
BTW, if you DO find your bills are a bit steep, you might think about ways to reduce the costs. For example, you can set your browser to not show images (these take up a lot more bandwidth than text). You can still click on an image and choose to show it if you want. Also, you can choose not to show multimedia and the likes (which use up MUCH more bandwidth than images).
Obviously this is up to you. Just something you might not have thought about.
[quote=“irishstu”]Great! Glad to hear it’s working, joesax. Now you can concentrate on that time machine.
BTW, if you DO find your bills are a bit steep, you might think about ways to reduce the costs. For example, you can set your browser to not show images (these take up a lot more bandwidth than text). You can still click on an image and choose to show it if you want. Also, you can choose not to show multimedia and the likes (which use up MUCH more bandwidth than images).
Obviously this is up to you. Just something you might not have thought about.
Stu[/quote]Cheers Stu. I’ve set the browser to not show images, and I’m looking at setting up POP3 mail, as that should save bandwidth too.
I’m working on the time machine, but in the meantime there’s a very good way to go into the future with no discernible achievement: getting involved in arguments/discussions on Forumosa! But the site is virtually unusable on my PDA and I think that’s a good thing. I can check my emails quickly without getting sucked into the Forumosa wormhole and finding myself hours later having done very little.
The pricing mentioned is for GPRS service, so it could be different for other protocols (if offered) but doesn’t have to be.
Most likely 3G will be priced differently as it is an entirely different network, see below.
Some of those are standards, some are protocols, and they are related or dependent on each other (note the numbering):
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) - voice & circuit switched data (incl. fax), also referred to as 2G network
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) - packet data service over GSM, sometimes called 2.5G
EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) aka EGPRS - also a data service over GSM but faster than GPRS, sometimes called 2.75G
3G - 3rd Generation network (voice & optimized for data)
HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) - high speed data service over 3G, sometimes called 3.5G
Those standards and protocols are network dependent, i.e. you may have a GSM network without or without GPRS/EDGE. A GSM phone will not work in a 3G network, but most 3G phones can work in a GSM environment (including data services). As well your 3G network may or may not offer HDSPA. Phones must be compatible to certain protocols, not all 3G phones support HSDPA for example, and some GSM phones don’t support GPRS and/or EDGE.
Just ask the customer service as it depends on the operator you subscribe to, they can tell you what standard is supported (GSM, 3G), what protocol you can use and how much it will cost.
I have my Taiwan Dageda contract since some days now and when I was there to make it of course I also asked them about the data plans.
So there is one for 99 NT$. In thiese 99NT$ are 3,6MB, if you have a 3G sim card. When the 3.6MB are used, you will be billed the next 99NT$.
The next one was a data plan for 699NT$. It had some higher amount of MB included, but I cannot remember how many, since I directly opted for the real data flatrate for 900NT$.
Since I wanted to do some serious moblogging (ganggangpai.de) I had to go with this option anyways. I think 900NT$ is not cheap and I will laugh about this price in some years, but at the moment I dont have no chance!
Bye, Sebastian
(P.S.: For the 99NT$ option: You will pay the cheaper 3G price, even if your cellphone is not a 3G phone. It just depends on the sim card they give you)
I have my Taiwan Dageda contract since some days now and when I was there to make it of course I also asked them about the data plans.
So there is one for 99 NT$. In thiese 99NT$ are 3,6MB, if you have a 3G sim card. When the 3.6MB are used, you will be billed the next 99NT$.
The next one was a data plan for 699NT$. It had some higher amount of MB included, but I cannot remember how many, since I directly opted for the real data flatrate for 900NT$.
Since I wanted to do some serious moblogging (ganggangpai.de) I had to go with this option anyways. I think 900NT$ is not cheap and I will laugh about this price in some years, but at the moment I don’t have no chance!
Bye, Sebastian
(P.S.: For the 99NT$ option: You will pay the cheaper 3G price, even if your cellphone is not a 3G phone. It just depends on the sim card they give you)[/quote]Strange. I’ve been told by two different people at Taiwan Dageda that I’m on the 399NT contract. That usually gives 8Mb free, with a charge of 0.042NT per Kb after that up to a maximum of 1,100NT. But apparently this plan currently has a promotional offer of 40Mb free.
I’m going to see how my data usage goes and how my bill looks this time. Not sure if I’m going to use any more than 40Mb per month.
Joesax: You might want to double check with FarEasTone and Chunghwa Telecom because as I know they both have unlimited (not 40MB) GPRS data on your phone for about NT$400.
I activated GPRS on my Treo a little while ago, but didn’t research the plans very well. I just wanted to play with the service to see if it was worth having.
I’m on the NT$1500/month plan - this is your minimum spend for all services combined.
Last month I looked at a few different sites, news headlines a couple of times, checked gmail once or twice a week, and downloaded the headers (but not the text) of half a dozen emails. In other words I really didn’t use it much at all, and it was set to not download images: NT$129
[quote=“Loretta”]I activated GPRS on my Treo a little while ago, but didn’t research the plans very well. I just wanted to play with the service to see if it was worth having.
I’m on the NT$1500/month plan - this is your minimum spend for all services combined.
Last month I looked at a few different sites, news headlines a couple of times, checked gmail once or twice a week, and downloaded the headers (but not the text) of half a dozen emails. In other words I really didn’t use it much at all, and it was set to not download images: NT$129
Bugger that. I’ll stick to SMS[/quote]I don’t think the various calling plans have any bearing on the GPRS charges. I’m on the 900NT call plan but that has nothing to do with the GPRS.
Two quid doesn’t seem a lot to pay for the things you mentioned. But if you wanted to go for the 99NT GPRS plan I guess it would reduce the cost a bit.
So you have to get a separate GPRS plan or else pay a hell of a lot?
I did bugger all online last month. What would it cost to check my email 3-5 times a day using the highest priced calling plan? Too much, that’s what. So I have to try and get sense out of customer service again? That’s not an easy proposition.
On a related note, a friend of mine tried to buy a new phone last week with internet access. Nobody was able to demonstrate one, and none of the sales people seemed to know anything about the products or services they were selling. Not to mention the “you can’t have that, you’re a foreigner.”