A few months ago I undertook a trip to Paris with ICE train. I took my notebook with me to be able to write a few e-mails, read something or to show the photos from Paris to my friends and share my experiences while I’m in the hotel.
The journey from Frankfurt to Paris takes about 4 hours. During this time, you can use the outlet to connect your laptop in train and watch movies, or work with documents during the whole trip. But if you would like to go online, you should use internet connection via mobile phone, because there is no any other possibility to go online in the train. You should ensure to disconnect the connection with the approximation to the border, because otherwise you will pay high roaming fees.
This problem is solved, at least in the Thalys trains, since all their trains are equipped with WLAN. The signal reception works as Onlinekosten.de reports via satellite.
The first class customers get access to the Internet with the purchase of the ticket. All others must pay for the acces 6.50 euro for 60 minutes or 13 euro for unlimited access for the whole trip.
OK, the prices are not really low, but Internet on a train that travels abroad nowadays is not self-evident. Perhaps the price in the future would be a bit cheaper. But I think that before the price for the internet connection in trains could be done cheaper, the internet connection via WLAN-Hotspots in Germany should be done cheaper.
Archive for the ‘Rates’ Category
Saving roaming charges while traveling with the train abroad
Sunday, November 30th, 2008Unlimited Internet via GPRS
Friday, July 25th, 2008I 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.
Sidekick 3 by T-Mobile
Thursday, February 1st, 2007T-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.
Will EU make the roaming prices lower?
Thursday, December 21st, 2006There 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-Cafe.
Toonel.net helps to lower gprs-costs
Tuesday, September 5th, 2006
“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.
1&1 Pocket Web
Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006Since 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.