orange unlimted browsing on contract, but fair usage at 250mb!

stolt

hi there, looking to upgrade my contract with orange and i was browsing the site to see what is out there but noticed that they have a 250mb a month capped usage policy, never really used browsing on a phone before, is 250mb a lot, if i was just browsing pages on my phone, no downloads or anything like that, would that be enough?

thanks

Cavey

It's described as "Unlimited", so no, 250Mb is not enough. If you ordered a 12oz beef steak and found it had a fair usage at 2oz, you'd think it wasn't enough, right?

Anyway, enough whining. It will depend on how you use it. If I was to do an over-the-air backup (pictures, call logs etc...), it would take about 70Mb (and a bloody long time). Do this every weekend and you're over the "allowance".

Syncing my email seems to take about 30Mb per month (doesn't pull attachments if I don't need them and only the text of the message). Facebook took about 1Mb today in Opera Mobile, so that pulls the full desktop formatted page.

If I sync the news reader over the air rather than use the local wifi connection, it would take about 6Mb per day (so 180Mb per month). If it was RSS it would be smaller, but this one pulls down the images to go with the article

If you just want a few web pages here and there, perhaps check your email occasionally, you should find it sufficient. Just be careful that your provider doesn't start charging you because you "used your phone on a modem", "used it to carry IM traffic" or "used it on a Monday" as the prices can become ridiculous very very quickly.

princessjessica08

And watch if you go over the fair usage, all but 1 network have hefty charges. from £10-£15 per GB to £100+ per GB. T-mobile is the only network not to charge you on your unlimited browsing if you exceed the fair usage. You're connection just gets slowed for 2 weeks if you constantly over use and dont get a plan which increases your fair use.

Cavey

princessjessica08 wrote: »

And watch if you go over the fair usage, all but 1 network have hefty charges. from £10-£15 per GB to £100+ per GB.

Ok, now that really REALLY isn't unlimited. What a croc. Given the appeals over the state of broadband advertising ("Unlimited* 20Gb** broadband from £8.99***")

As far as I am aware, having pestered O2 to get some sort of straight answer, O2's policy is a three-strikes system. By this they mean if you go over the limit in a month they give you a strike, get three and you are not allowed the bolt on any more. That said, some members of staff were insistent that it is truly unlimited.

As I have not been given a price list that specifies extra charges or a copy of the AUP, that they advertise it as unlimited and I have never got a straight answer them, I'd guess they would have trouble getting away with charging someone for breach of the AUP if the customer decided to put up a fight.

(* subject to AUP. ** If you provide the fibre connection, otherwise a £150k installation fee is payable. *** £8.99 for 56k modem service, other packages available.)

princessjessica08

from o2's terms and conditions on mobile broadband

1. Any data used above 3GB will be charged at £0.20 per MB. This will be waived for a promotional period until 31st October 2008, at which point the above charges will apply to any additional data used above 3GB.

Considering there is approx 1024mb in a GB, that's alot of pennies!

Actually, I can't see in Orange's terms and conditions about charging for going over fair use, it just states that they will contact you to reduce your use/move to a plan with more usage allowance or slowdown/suspend your internet connection. Hmmm, will need to look more into this as other sites say they charge you.

Cavey

princessjessica08 wrote: »

from o2's terms and conditions on mobile broadband

1. Any data used above 3GB will be charged at £0.20 per MB. This will be waived for a promotional period until 31st October 2008, at which point the above charges will apply to any additional data used above 3GB.

Considering there is approx 1024mb in a GB, that's alot of pennies!

That's their broadband, not the Web Bolt on.

princessjessica08

Cavey wrote: »

That's their broadband, not the Web Bolt on.

Sorry, well, that's their mobile broadband bolt on. Can't see anything in their Data bolt on about charges then.

Petlamb

stolt wrote: »

hi there, looking to upgrade my contract with orange and i was browsing the site to see what is out there but noticed that they have a 250mb a month capped usage policy, never really used browsing on a phone before, is 250mb a lot, if i was just browsing pages on my phone, no downloads or anything like that, would that be enough?

thanks

I'm assuming you're looking at a panther plan.

If so, it isn't described (as far as i can see) on the site as unlimited, and I wouldnt ever sell it as such. 250mb is a lot on a phone though, same as what the Blackberry bundles give...

the last time we had 'unlim data' was on the 35+ plans during July, and they were set as fair usage 500mb, whereas the current data is marketted as a 250mb bundle.

hope this helps clear it up a little...

CheekyMonkey

Is the 250mb bundle just for Orange World content? Seem to recall reading somewhere that another user was getting hammered for data charges.

brianfall

Hi,

I just called Orange and they told me that if I exceed the 250Mb cap I will be charged £3 per Mb.

This month on my desktop PC I have downloaded 1.27Gb and I haven't been online *that* much. If I'd done this on my mobile, I would have been charged £3000.00.

Worth thinking about!!! Anyone know of a bandwidth usage monitor for windows mobile?

brianfall

Thanks, that's good to know. Orange also have an online "my account" area where you can log in and check how many Mb you have used in a month. I have just taken this contract out, so it will be interesting to see if 250Mb is sufficient or if I have been sold a lemon!