GPRS rates

I was not on the site of 1und1 for a long time, although I have DSL from them. Why should I? The Internet works as far OK. I have only a 3000-line, but it is not a guilt of 1und1 or Telekom. Today I was on the site and found a new special offer there. Maybe it’s just a novelty for me, but I was surprised how much 1und1 finally changed its Pocket Web tariff. Now it is possible, to have Internet flat rate for mobile phones with any mobile phone and not just with this pathetic thing - Pocket Web. The speed stays on GPRS level, but it’s enough for chatting or reading news completely. You no longer need to take care how many pages you visit or whether a site has graphics. This tariff consts only 10 Euro. A few years ago I could only dream of it. You should not misunderstand me, I do not intend to advertise here for 1und1, but I think that this offer is really great. It is what I was looking for so long. Now I can buy, for example, HTC Diamond or iPhone and can use all the freedoms of the mobile surfing without having an extremely expensive contract. The first beta of Opera 9.5 Mobile is already out and I am sure that a full version will be available soon.
Unfortunately, I found no good test reports of the new tariff of 1und1, so I decided to write one himself when my SIM card arrives. Yes, I already concluded the contract and will soon be able to go online with my mobile phone. Maybe I would be able to share an Internet connection with my Netbook. It woulb be perfect. I’ll write about my experience.

Not all mobile network operators understood the importance of warning from EU, but I am convinced that this will soon change. Focus and Onlinekosten.de report that only a few mobile network operators reduced the prices for text messages and data roaming services. In doing so, they do not have much time, because the EU Commission is ready to act. They have time until 1 July. The consequences of ignoring of EU Commission will be not advantageous. Almost all mobile network operators felt it as they refused to reduce talk costs in European countries to an acceptable level.
The EU commissioner Viviane Reding informed the mobile network operators already at the beginning of June. Now we need only to wait, and if someone will ignore the warning, EU will bring out the regulation paper, which can not be ignored, because of big penalty.
Some mobile operators behave exemplary. For example E-Plus. The customers of E-Plus are able to surf in selected networks abroad for 50 cents per megabyte. This is cheaper than some prices in Germany itself. They have also the possibility to book so-called Travel Pack advantage and write text messages thereafter for 29 cents. This is still fairly expensive, but you steel not need to pay double price, as some other mobile network operators appetence. Its a pity that most low-cost providers, who use the E-Plus infrastructure, as I found out, do not offer data roaming abroad at all. That was honestly a bit of a surprise for me. I even use a SIM card from one low-cost operator and has already benefited from the favorable call costs abroad. I did not try to use the data services, because I knew that the prices are too high. Now I know, however, that it was impossible to use these services, simply because they are not offered. It is very pity.

According to Spiegel, there are 2 studies about radiation from mobile phones from a renowned University of Vienna were faked. The values of the studies were faked over the years by a laboratory technician. She fabricated them herself. The truth came to light when the university commissioned a commission to review the studies. The studies seem to be withdrawn after this incident. As the article from der Spiegel says, the employee was caught in an attempt to manipulate the data. She has now admitted the fact of manipulation. There remains the question of how it could be that the senior professors don’t noticed anything over the years?
As for me, I read this report with mixed feelings. I’m upset because there are people who try keep their own interests by confusing the other people. But of course I am glad that these studies are not correct. Mobile phone is for me, as for many people the must have thing. I can not renounce on my phone. I use it to call my friends and to surf in the Internet via GPRS. And even if I do not this, many people do it the whole day in my vicinity. That happens in the train, bus, at the university or in the supermarket and does not depend on my will. The modern man can’t do anything against it. Therefore, it is gratifying that the results of these studies are not correct. Stop, the results are invented, but that does not mean that they could not be correct? Happy too soon? How annoying!

T-Mobile offers a new device for mobile internet. The new Sidekick 3 is more slim and smaller now. The device supports GPRS and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution). With EDGE-technology the speed of internet connection must be 4-x faster than ISDN.
Those features as mp3-player, 1.3 mega pixel digital camera, email-push service, Bluetooth, AOL Instant Messenger are present too.
QWERTZ-keyboard is a standard of such sort of devices, but trackball is really a good improvement.
And don’t forget that Sidekick is a mobile phone too and has all the features that you need to make calls
It’s a pity that I can’t use this device with flat rate for 10€ such as 1&1 Pocket Web. I could order Data Pack but it is much expensive.

There are 25 EU minister from 25 EU countries decide today in Brussel about the roaming price politic of mobile providers. Their aim is to make the prices in European Union lower.

I hope that they will have made their plan successful and I will be able to use mobile icq or to check my email on holidays without needing to search an Internet-Café.

Yesterday I found an interesting software „free sms“, developed by Zelfi. It is a J2ME application and it works with my Sony Ericsson K750i very well.
The shipment of one message costs me now only 3Ct, it is a good saving for me, because the standard price of one sms is about 19 Cent.
The cost of one message of “free sms” depends on costs of GPRS at your mobile operator, that’s why I would suggest you to check the prices of your mobile provider before you starting to use “free sms” software.
There is about 4 kilobyte of data will be transferred during the sending of one message. You could check how much 1 kilobyte of data costs for you and so you will understand how much money you could save with this software. As for me, it is very profitable, to use “free sms”, because it is much cheaper to use this applications than to send sms via my mobile provider and I have no problem with advertising too.

XMS is an abbreviation from eXtended Message Service, it is new messenger for cell phones and PCs developed by Sade-com GmbH. With this software you can transfer not only text, but photos and voice-messages too. There are two ways of the communication, public and private that you can use.
Developers promise that their software and text-chat will be free, but all other features, such as “private channels” or transfer of multimedia content you will be able to use for a small fee.

I’m afraid that the costs of data-transfer per GPRS + fee will be too high and that’s why many users will prefer such alternative transfer-possibilities as email, mms or “free sms” by Zelfi.

But if you like chat very much, you can also order “O2 surf and email pack” for only 5€ monthly and chat with your friends per WAP without any limitations.

„Toonel.net“ is a free cross-platform open source software that gives you the possibility to lower your gprs-costs and increase speed of data transfer. The program works under Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile and some others platforms and can compress the user traffic up to 50%.
P.S. On the screenshot you can see Pocket PC-version of the Toonel.net-Software, but without any data, it is because I have now some problems to setup the Internet-connection with my new mobile operator and that’s why I can’t say anything about the real efficiency of the software.

Since some time 1&1 has a new product in their portfolio. So-called “Pocket Web” was developed by IXI Mobile, it known also as Ogo. It is a mobile device, some kind of PDA with QWERTY-Keyboard. This device is designed for mobile Internet (GPRS) and e-mail-push services. For 10€ monthly you can use Internet on this device without limitations.
It sounds very interesting and I was ready to forgive it such things as display with “only” 4000 colours, limiting of email push-services for only one 1&1 or Web.de email account and slow GPRS-connection, but I found out from article about Pocket Web on www.onlinekosten.de that accumulator power of Pocket Web ranges less than for 4 hours. The next “surprise” was absence of ICQ/AOL/MSN/Yahoo messenger in German version of the device, although this feature is present in Ogo-devices in other countries. I think that some people are afraid that messenger could be a great competitor for sms-service and there are right, because of price for one message with 160 characters.