Changes afoot with mobile data?

Time was that I either had to hunt out the Wifi or figure out how to get a local SIM or take a roaming SIM with me, to get connectivity when travelling overseas. This still is the case right now for PC usage in the main, but there are changes afoot caused by the EU restricting what mobile providers can charge for roaming data for mobile phone usage. Some providers like Vodafone had already made some changes and offered 25MB of data a day for £2 per day (and £1 per MB after that), and now O2 in the UK is also making changes which seems to offer exactly the same thing.

In the spirit of these changes, I signed up for a Vodafone SIM (O2 does not makes its changes for month or two more, and they are my home network) and inserted it into a little Android unlocked mobile phone I have, and suitably added some credit. By default, the £2 for 25MB data is activated on PAYG/Pre-pay SIMs so I was ready to go. Rather helpfully the Android phone offers a 3G data usage tracker that is easily accessible from the notification drop down, so I could keep track of my usage as I went.

I set off on my travels by train this morning and ended up in Belgium, where I turned the phone on for the first time. I then began using the phone for email pickup, some very light twitter use, a look at Facebook once and about five Foursquare checkins covering me from Brussels to the border with Luxembourg… and then all of a sudden I had used half of my allowance. I had been careful to turn off my data every single time I stopped using it so that there was no ‘leakage’ from the phone. Then I arrived at my destination and a single check (unsuccessfully) on Google Maps took me to 23MB of my 25MB and then I turned it off because even at £1 per MB, charges would rack up pretty quickly at that rate.

So all in all, I am glad that some new tariffs are coming through however they do not reflect anyone’s usage of a smartphone and I hope that things will go further still in enforcing a reduction in the ‘banditry’ that is roaming mobile data very soon. 25MB for one day is insufficient for ANYONE, who really wants to use a smartphone in a realistic way, how about 100MB or even 150MB for £2 for one day? That would be a little more realistic for £2 and not the £125+ that it would cost today on Vodafone PAYG (note that would be £450 on my CURRENT O2 tariff).

Lost in the wilderness

Despite preparation I have found myself without Internet access during my vacation. I have come a cropper from a combination of factors ranging from pointless bureaucracy, through lack of valid configuration info that is consistent or correct, to the final (assumed) problem of the operator not liking anything but my Android mobile as a connecting device. On top of that, the world of wireless broadband in France (there … J’accuse!) is worse than the worst nether regions of deepest Dorset in the UK.

So those who come to this site for update news from the mobile worker world have not seen much for the first three days of this week. I do not promise much from the rest of this week either but I shall try. Please expect some catch up info in the meantime as well, so sorry if some of the news is a little old. I might even record my travails in a future post.

The big main news of this post is that world of ubiquitous internet has a long … long … long … way to go.

Roaming Cost Reductions

This is encouraging news reported via ZDNet UK, long time supporters of reducing roaming costs.

The European Commission has unveiled its proposals for driving down the cost of mobile voice, text and data roaming for people travelling in Europe.

via EU acts to push down mobile roaming costs | Mobile Working | ZDNet UK.

The figures shown in the article, that the cost of data roaming is a maximum of £0.03 per MB, are very stark compared to data roaming rates that for me are £3 per MB. How many other industries can get away with charging 100x the cost of providing the service. Even allowing for 100% markup, you should be seeing costs of only £0.06 per MB, or a more useful figure… 1GB for £60, at the upper limit of what I would see was acceptable for a roaming data service.

Although encouraging, the retail price caps are really still 10x what they should be for data. With regard to voice calls, many operators already beat these limits – for example I am charged £0.15 per minute plus VAT for making and nothing for receiving whilst roaming.

Still waiting then…

Maxroam… if you cannot get a local Data SIM

When I travel, I have always looked for an effective and lower cost way of getting data on the move – which has meant Mobile Broadband data. Roaming costs mean that I have settled on an unlocked Mifi unit and getting efficient at figuring it out how the local Pre-Paid/PAYG market works and how to read the particular language/make use of the Translate features of Chrome. It still is the lowest cost option but you end up with a selection of different SIMs which periodically become invalid because of operator inactivity rules. There is an alternative which is more expensive than local SIMs and is only one SIM – Maxroam. It also works if you want something for your voice calls (I don’t as I have an effective Roaming voice call solution via my operator). Check out the video interview by Scoble of the company’s principles from when they were in Amsterdam at The Next Web conference at the end of April for full details.

What solution works for you is something that you need to decide. I am tempted to get one as a backup for when I go to a country that is very awkward about Pre-Paid/PAYG (which the Netherlands is by the way with its avoidance of credit card top-up online).

Will Apple Personal Hotspot increase adoption of the iPhone by road warriors?

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net/IdeaGo

This is a guest post from escapefromcubefarm.wordpress.com

Being a location independent worker, carrying your entire office around with you, there are two vital considerations – the amount and type of equipment carried and the ability to establish an internet connection whilst mobile. Some hotels and coffee shops still provide slow, substandard broadband which has seen the creation of devices such as the MiFi from 3, a device which creates a WiFi hotspot anywhere you can obtain a 3G mobile phone signal, which can then be used by WiFi enabled devices such as laptops, tablets and smart phones.

One of the new features in the upcoming release of the latest version of the Apple Mobile Device Operating system, iOS4.3, which Apple call Personal Hotspot is coming to the iPhone 4 and 3GS, enabling up to five devices to share the connection securely at any one time. Personal Hotspot also has a power saving function which automatically switches the hotspot off when not in use to conserve valuable battery live.

Apple cites that a suitable tethering plan is required for this functionality, it will be interesting to see how UK mobile network operators charge for this data use and whether it will form part of the data cap on tariffs when the free operating system upgrade is released later this year.

Since the purchase of my iPhone 3G 8Gb two years ago, the device has truly become ingrained into my daily life, additional functionality like this give me more reasons to upgrade to a newer generation handset and will secure the inclusion of an iPhone in my road warrior toolkit for the foreseeable future.

Subsidised iPads–Are they worth it?

I have just noted that the mobile company Three (3) have made available a subsidised iPad for £200 as long as you subscribe to a 24 month contract at £25 per month. This compares with the full price of the same iPad at full price as being £531 . This looks like a sweet deal but what is the total cost of ownership, which is something everyone should do in every purchase of this type.

With the subsidised deal, the cost of that mobile contract over the two years is actually £600 giving the total cost of ownership as being £800 for the whole package of iPad and Mobile Broadband with a data allowance of 15GB every month.

This means that the mobile data contract has to be worthwhile to the tune of £269 over the two years. The actual standard contract mobile broadband deal (which is exactly the same as the iPad deal in data allowance) costs £15.99 per month, thus giving the total cost over the two years for the contract being £383.76. The total cost separately then would be £914.76.

This looks like a fantastic deal if you really do the over 1GB per month of 3G data, getting you actually £114.76 better off by taking the package deal.

The key thing though is whether you will really need all that 3G data, and whether you would actually need only 1GB per month. Three offers a 1GB allowance contract for £7.87 per month, giving a total of £188.88 for the contract and thus only £719.88 over the two years. This makes it still a reasonable deal but now actually more expensive than buying the gear out of the contract, by just over £80. Then you need to consider if you can get away with PAYG on a more intermittent basis and thus be even cheaper dependent on usage (as Three’s rates are £10 per 1GB per month for that).

It is very important that you always do the total cost of ownership on any contract, and as you can see here your planned usage can have a major effect. In my view, the iPad deal from Three is actually a pretty nice deal with none of the major profiteering that you can get from some operators, primarily because of that 15GB allowance. Of course, I would recommend an unlocked MiFi and non-3G iPad for the international traveller so you can take advantage of local 3G broadband with standard SIM cards (as the iPad uses a really non-portable Micro-SIM).

For those Americans looking in here, yes these prices are real prices – we are able to get 15GB for $20 per month in the UK Smile .

Extending the Internet on the move

When I travel I generally make use of whatever hotel WiFi I can get, preferably of the free variety but I have been known to use paid services. I also try and find any other sources of WiFi as I go, taking precautions when that WiFi is open (use HTTPS with my Google hosted email and VPN for privacy if needed).

Hotel WiFi can get expensive, particularly if you have more than one device (Laptop+iPhone)and for that I have started making use of Windows 7’s key hidden feature, the WiFi Hosted Network. This allows the extension of a WiFi or wired network to second devices, without the extra device cost that paid WiFi can have or for those places where WiFi has not been provided. Connectify is the one that comes up most often if you search around, providing a simple UI that allows you to easily setup but I have found it to be clumsy, unstable and buggy – particularly in that it causes my laptop to crash on suspend/hibernate. I have found an alternative that is a lot more stable and still free (although they appreciate donations)– Virtual Router. This simple open tool, provides a slightly more bare set of features but it works very effectively, without the problems with suspending and hibernating. I can recommend it. The only thing you have to remember is that the UI requires you to select the connection you wish to share and then activate it, when then switches and shows which network you are sharing over – a slightly confusing switch that is not explained. The alternative is that you can configure the command line for the feature as described by Paul Thurrott – I find the Virtual Router UI better Smile .

However sharing WiFi or Wired networks does not always fit what I need, and for that I need to make use of 3G. This is primarily when I am between locations. 3G roaming is an expensive business and I heartily discourage it but sometimes it is necessary. What you can do to make it much more workable is to figure out the various pre-paid mobile data services in each country that you travel to and buy a local SIM card. For this to work you do need an unlocked data device, and mine is an Huawei E5830 MiFi. Rates and systems do vary per country, but there is normally ways around problems like everything being in a local language you do not know, through to countries not allowing you to buy service online with credit cards. Best thing to do is talk to the people you are visiting for info before arrival for advice.

You will find that you will need to make use of all of these approaches as you travel to ensure that you are never knowingly under-connected.

Free WiFi

One of the most under appreciated features of the iPhone is its ability to auto connect to WiFi hotspots as you go. With my current repeated travel overseas to a few locations, I appreciate the way that it picks up connections to free access points and those Hotels I have stayed in that use constant WPA/WEP keys that rarely change. So much, that I almost can get away with not using any roaming data as I ‘drive by’ pick up as I walk through the city.

Of course this works only when there is no registration or login mechansim, which points to the need for the setting of a standard mechanism for doing this which makes it ‘interaction’ free. We can only dream… although wasn’t this supposed to be what 3G data was for? Oh yes, but that was before data was made more expensive than Gold by Roaming costs!

Mobile Broadband Affordability for the Traveller

Interesting news around the Internets today – BBC News – EU moves to prevent ‘shock’ mobile internet bills.

As a mobile worker around Europe, I have to struggle with the most cost effective way of having data access for both smartphone and laptop wherever I am. This mostly consists of finding free or low cost WiFi at whatever accommodation or working location I am in, or negotiating the local pre-paid/pay as you go market for mobile broadband. The big challenge for more mobile data working is the cost of mobile data itself, which is still mostly charged in MB chunks such as £1.50 to £3 per MB. This is pretty much extortion when you see that non-roaming data can be between £2 and £4 per day with acceptable use policies applying, and the average web page or email today can be greater than 1MB in size.

So it is good news that the EU has moved to limit the amount of money you can accidentally spend on mobile broadband so you do not end up with the £2000 bill for a little bit of surfing, but personally I believe that they should be spending their efforts investigating the true cost of providing roaming data and limiting the mobile companies profits in this area, or at least educating them that encouraging data use is a good thing for them to sell more services.

What do you think?

Planes, Trains and Automobiles – 3G Data on the move

Well maybe not planes right now, but certainly we need to talk about Trains and

Automobiles when it comes to using 3G data on the move. Well let me put it this way – unless you do not move it is simply one of the most frustrating exercises you can ever experience.

The issue is in the movement through the various coverage zones along your chosen route, whether this is on a train or in a car (obviously you are not driving). The 3G modem I use is the Huawei E220 that comes in various brandings in the UK. This is an HSDPA modem that can run up to 3.6Mbps (oh yes, I believe that one … not).

Now the general experience on the route is 3G…HSDPA… GPRS… no service… GPRS… 3G… no service… GPRS… HSDPA… 3G… HSDPA…no service. The other aspect of the experience is that on every transition, you have 30 seconds to 1 minute of nothing as the modem software tells you that you are connected but NO data actually transfers.

Now I do not believe that these are all coverage issues as this happens within the London M25 boundaries where 3G is pretty much 100%, there seems to be a real issue with the transitions between these different standards that kills the experience completely. Now I do not know whether this is totally to do with my E220 (I had another branded 3G modem that experienced something similar without the HSDPA transition which makes it unlikely) but this ‘roaming’ issue is something that is not experienced on voice calls.

There is hope however, as you can ‘minimise’ the issue by removing the optimisation out of the modem software – by setting it to one specific technology such as GPRS or 3G/HSDPA, although better results are experienced by setting it to purely GPRS. This makes it slower and harder to manage but it does deliver the most important characteristic of in-motion data – consistency.

Has anyone else got experience or hints and tips on how to improve the experience?

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