o2 250 new contract - Welcome browse and download?

Anon

I took the plunge and signed up for an o2 250 contract through Mobileshop (12 months free). On the o2 bill that arrived a few days later, it mentions “Welcome browse and download,” which I am assuming is to do with GPRS as I cannot recall seeing anthing about this during ordering? Checking o2 online within “UNBILLED MOBILE INCLUSIVE ALLOWANCE DETAILS” it mentions 5MB but I have been using it for quite a few days and as yet the balance used is 0?



Does anyone know more about this please? Has anyone used GPRS on o2? I used Orange last year as a Try but gave up after the first month “free” as it cost me a fortune (downloading took ages for simple text pages and emails which took minutes at a time and just ran the bill up).



Many thanks



Anon

redux

I don't know about it, but also noticed that. It is a 3g SIM of course, so I might try it in the old Nokia 7600.

ka7e

I'm pretty sure there is an element of free browsing with all O2 monthly tariffs. On their website (hidden in a PDF document) they quote inclusive 100kb Active O2 browsing with High St tariffs, also i-mode browsing free until 31/03/06.
O2 online tracking of usage is usually several days behind, and texts and calls seem to be updated separately.

Anon

Minutes and texts have been updated online but after quite a bit of use this week "Welcome browse and download" is still showing 0 used . I did a quick search on google and there appears to be some discussion that o2 are not monitoring GPRS use at the moment (http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=211772&highlight=#211772) with one person claiming to have phoned o2 and found out they are not going to charge pay monthly for GPRS use until at least May? Does anyone on here know whether this is true or if the system is suddenly going to update and leave those who believe discussion boards with a big bill?

I can find information about i-mode being free until 31 March 06 for pay-monthly (http://flash.o2.co.uk/imode/special_offers.html) but nothing about GPRS being free (infact, the opposite - the tariff shows limited KB for free then charging at £3 per MB)?

Many thanks

Anon

redux

About this "Welcome Browse and Download" allowance ...

I've just had a chat with customer services about this. The 5 MB allowance is for wap/gprs use, but not for 3g. It is open-ended in time, not per month, so low usage may make it last a few months. You can buy another 5 MB bundle for £8, or be charged per MB when it expires. I've forgotten how much he said for that, and I realise that I forgot to ask about roaming use.

I'm wondering if the info you found about May adds on to these remarks. Perhaps at an indefinite future date, the allowance will become a monthly thing and paid for - who knows

Maybe you could ring them as well - free on 100 - and see if the answers tally. If you do, could you ask about gprs in roaming? Cheers

jas38uk

been using gprs since nov 05 on o2 a lot no charge yet i keep checking bill no charge wicked its free at moment :j

Scrounger

I have two O2 contracts (both Mobileshop 100% cashback); Anytime 100 (2.5g) and O2 200 (3g) and I have tried both in my (unlocked) Motorola A830 to connect my pc to the internet. GPRS gives about similar speed to dialup (4.5kB/s) and using the 3g SIM, typically 38kB/s. And (the best bit) is that both appear to be free so far!

The pc (phone modem) settings are [Modem,Properties,Advanced,Extra initialization commands]: +CGDCONT=1,"IP","mobile.o2.co.uk"

DUN settings
User name: mobileweb
Password: password
Dial: *99#

One thing I don't know is if there is a way I could throttle my 3g connection back to 2.5g (gprs) just in case they start charging for the faster connection. Is there a modem command I could use for this?

Scrounger

redux

Thanks. Interesting about 3g - as I said, I'd better try in the other phone (only down the road though). I need to work out how to do all these settings. I don't know that phone; is that a Bluetooth or cable connection?

Maybe you can switch the phone between 3g and gprs to do that?

Scrounger

redux wrote:

Thanks. Interesting about 3g - as I said, I'd better try in the other phone (only down the road though). I need to work out how to do all these settings. I don't know that phone; is that a Bluetooth or cable connection?

The phone is an old 3 PAYG handset and I'm using a USB cable connection.

redux wrote:

Maybe you can switch the phone between 3g and gprs to do that?

There doesn't seem to be an option do do that on the handset - not that I can find!

Interestingly, I read that Orange is starting to roll out EDGE (2.75g). This will be interesting, especially in conjunction with their £1/day unlimited gprs on payg.

Thanks, Scrounger

Anon

Update: use is still showing as 0 over a week later, yet minutes and texts are uptodate (within 24 hours approx.).

Anon

Anon

Update - near month end and still showing usage at 0 despite daily use . I phoned o2 customer services last week and asked how much data I had used as online was showing 0 - she said that according to their system I hadn't used GPRS. I was about to question this and thought better of it .

Is anyone else having the same experience? I am kind of getting used to having Internet access on my mobile but will need to wean myself off it quickly if/when charges kick in. I must have used up the welcome allowance as a visit to this forum used up 455KB on 3/4 pages earlier when it had downloaded all the images. Note to switch off images if/when they start charging :rolleyes:.

Anon