[clug] Virgin Mobile Broadband with Linux Huawei E220

[Grant Morphett]

I can certainly understand that point of view but these things are never
quite that black and white.  Firstly, I think 3 is cheaper then anyone else
for entry level data connections.  $20 for 1Gig/month including external
modem beats everyone from my 5 second googling.  Further I bought a mobile
phone service FIRST from 3 because they roam to the Telstra network at no
additional cost for mobile phone calls.  Its like having the telstra mobile
coverage (which is the best) at 3 prices.  The phone coverage and service
was my first priority.  I then merely added a data plan to get my emails on
my phone plus be able to surf the web from work via my laptop (or phone).
As I said to date I haven't been billed for extra roaming and it all works
ok.  Just different horses for courses is all.

If I didn't care about mobile phone service and just wanted mobile broadband
absolutely everywhere I went then I would have to pay telstra prices to get
the coverage.  If I could live with slightly worse coverage but needed a few
gig's download per month then that Vodafone plan of $39/month for 5Gig seems
good.  I've no idea what Virgin or Optus are offering but its probably
something similar.  If I wanted low data allowance connection that works in
capital cities only then 3 is the go I reckon.

The final thought was that when I went with 3 I didn't have to sign up for
contracts for any of it.  So if their phone service or HSDPA service was
truly horrible I could just dump them at a moments notice and move to
someone else.  Dunno if they still offer this.

cheers

Grant

2008/5/2 Hal Ashburner <hal.ashburner at gmail.com>:

> Gary Woodman wrote:
> > --- Grant Morphett <grant at gmorph.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Yep your spot on with 3.  If you start using it when your roaming its
> >> big bucks - $1.85/meg I think.
> >>
> >
> > Something like that. But the USB modem (don't know about the phones)
> > defaults to no roaming; you must explicitly set it to roam. I wouldn't
> > call that deceptive
> If it explicitly tells you that your costs could go up by a factor of
> over $200 and getting a second plan with the competing network and
> paying for both will be very much cheaper and that you could easily get
> a bill for $1000 in 15 minutes of usage then I would agree with what you
> say. But I'm sure it doesn't, because if it did, almost nobody would use
> roaming and so there would be no reason at all to have a pricing scheme
> like this.
> I believe it really is intended to deceive and that deception is the
> sole reason for such a pricing scheme.
>
> Anyway, virgin, vodaphone and optus for starters do not engage in this
> practice so look there first if you're in the market. this week virgin
> is cheaper than optus for the exact same network, voda is the same price
> as virgin, but with slightly higher early exit fees. All can be made to
> work with your linux laptop or your linux based wireless router.
>
> There is no reason I can think of to go anywhere near 3.  This is a
> useful thing to remember to mention when your non-techy friends and
> family ask you about such things. Their should be reputational cost and
> I'm sure they have already factored some of that into their revenue model.
>
> FWIW I have no financial or other interest in any of the above companies
> and indeed, don't even know anyone working for them, or those selling
> them.
>
> I only mentioned this because someone asked about competing plans and
> now I blather on, I'm sorry.
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>



-- 
Thanks

Grant