I'm Jonathan Bullock; creator of JBake, developer with a passion for the Internet, geek, gadget lover and fan of far too many sports. I occasionally give talks and tweet every now and then.
11 June 2008
I tried out the Vodafones Mobile Internet bolt-on when I got my Nokia N95 as it was free for the first month. I used the Internet quite a bit, more than I thought I would while trying out the various features of the N95. I cancelled the bolt-on after the free period was up but quickly found I was running up larger than usual bills due to my continued Internet usage. After a few months I signed up for the Mobile Internet pack again (that free month obviously worked Vodafone!). I thought £7.50 for 120MB allowance was pretty poor compared to what other networks were offering at the time but there wasn't a lot I could do about it.
Recently Vodafone upped their limit to 500MB, not quite up to the deal on offer from other networks but a significant step in the right direction! Vodafone have now informed me that their data allowance is 'unlimited', although this is subject to a fair use limit of 500MB! If my understanding of Vodafone's t&c is right they don't mind you occasionally going over 500MB but if you do it continously they may charge you for the amount you go over.
I'm against the term 'unlimited' when it comes to data allowances or transfer limits and when I found out the fair use limit was still 500MB I was disappointed as it's hardly an upgrade at all.
With 500MB though I can actually think of using my mobile's 3G connection with my laptop without worrying about my allowance. One thing having the Nokia N95 has hightlighted to me, is how large some web pages have now become. An eBay listing page is nearly a 1MB alone!
Having said that I do try to use the mobile versions of most sites (Twitter, eBay, Facebook etc.) for their speed more than anything else.
Come on Vodafone get your act together!