Vodafone mopped up a large pool of mobile customers with its GSM-based Vodafone Mobile Card (VMC). Having flicked the switch on its 3G network, the red-badged carrier is out to woo its own customers and win converts from the competition by stacking an aggressive mix of speed and greed behind their new 3G VMC package.
The speed comes from Vodafone's use of server-side compression to shrink files to a fraction of their size before being downloaded onto your notebook, where they're decompressed to their original size. It all happens on the fly and without you even noticing any lag.
Wile this has no impact on files which are already compressed (such as ZIP and RAR archives) or optimised 'pre-compressed' formats such as MP3 and JPEG, beefy Office documents (which are the mainstay of corporate computing) and Web pages are a prime candidate for the big squeeze. This can boost overall throughout to well above the standard 3G rate of 384kbps, and because the usage meter counts only the transmitted data, you could end up downloading well above the monthly limit of Vodafone's $30 (100MB) or $50 (300MB) plans without being slugged the $2/MB for excess usage.
But if you choose Vodafone's $100/month 'Data Unlimited' plan, you're unfettered by download caps, and that's where the 'greed' factor kicks in - although the carrier sounds a nebulous warning that its 'fair use policy may affect usage over 1GB per month'. To further sweeten the deal, Vodafone promises three months of free usage for customers who sign onto the $100 plan before years' end.
The VMC card itself carries a price tag of AU$399, which can also be spread across 24 months (at $16.63 per month).
Like other cards on the Australian market, the VMC is equally at home on Vodafone's 3G and GSM networks. The card performed well enough on the aerial tucked into its red hump that we found little need to fit the supplied external 'paddle pop stick' antenna, which connects to the card through a 40cm cable and can gain a height advantage by snapping onto your laptop's display (although the clamp wasn't wide enough to cater for the extruded bezel around the display on our ThinkPad X31 test notebook).
We were impressed by the VMC's software, which smoothly progresses from a painless wizard-driven setup into the most fully-featured front end for all these cards. Available for both Windows and Mac OS, the software includes programmable buttons for the user's email, Web, instant messaging and VPN clients (the email program can also include Web-based services such as an Exchange Webmail client). There are also screens for composing SMS messages which can be addressed from a phonebook (created by importing contacts from a SIM card or CVS text file) plus charts for monitoring data usage, including international Vodafone networks for those ready to roam.
Users can also fine-tune or disable the compression settings and also block bandwidth-bloating elements such as video, audio, animation and Web applets.
Vodafone's 3G network covers the 'metropolitan areas' of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra as well as airports in all capital cities except Darwin and Hobart. The metro hubs of Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth plus selected regional areas are due to come under Vodafone's 3G wing next year.
Judged purely on bytes-per-buck, Vodafone's $100 unlimited plan is the clear winner in the competitive datacard stakes and will prove hard to resist if your movements mirror Vodafone's current 3G coverage zones.
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Frustration
24/07/2008, 08:59 PM
rating
2/10
Slower than dial up.
Pros: Nope
Cons: Slower than dial up
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Vodafone Suck
06/07/2008, 06:05 PM
rating
1/10
Don't waste your money. This is the worst service ever - it is slower than dial up speeds
Pros: None
Cons: Too many to list here!
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boofhead
06/02/2008, 07:08 AM
rating
2/10
crap service
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Des
13/11/2007, 11:07 AM
rating
2/10
Think Vodafone, Think Compression. You get offered a 3GB limit. What a joke you can't actually get anywhere near it if you tried becuase of the compression software happening at their servers. Furthermore, this technology also has the effect of blocking pages eg: FACEBOOK. This has nothing to do with content control. Whats the point of am internet contection if its restrictive! This affects everyone NOT just our developer friends. Dont touch. I'm within my 14 days warranty and I'm going to return it. Get the message out there everyone - this service is a SCAM. Good luck contacting their customer support - HAH.
Pros: Good if you only want to check your email. Even then some sites are blocked - ie trouble on gmail pages.
Cons: Good if you want to read newspapers and simple email websites. I.e "lite" content.
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disgruntled
17/07/2007, 10:09 AM
rating
3/10
i have one and i hate it.
Pros: it's red
Cons: it's very expensive. very patchy signal all over london. i am in zone 1 and it is very poor. try calling customer services for advice...if you want to be advised to turn your laptop on and off (and see what happens). and this is the first i've heard of this antenna i'm supposed to have...
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taxi_pilot
07/04/2007, 11:29 PM
rating
3/10
i have been using this vodafone wireless card for almost 2 months now, it seems that its having alot of problems with the coverage and the data flow compare to the Tesltra CDMA EVDO card (which i used previously)
Pros: easy software installation
Cons: the connection is stable, coverage issues, vodafone support doesnt really helpful
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Ben
16/10/2006, 02:47 AM
rating
2/10
It's too expensive for what it is
I don't like the way their new plans are more expensive, and yet the 3g vodafone netork coverage is horrible anywhere out of the capital.
Pros: gprs range is good
Cons: They used to only charge $50 for unlimited, which i was on, that was fine. however now they have the 3g network they've dropped the $50 limit to 300mb.
Not enough.
And where I live, and where many australians live, even on the Sunshine Coast, there is no 3d coverage, so you are paying very expensive rates for dial-up speed.
They should let you buy a GPRS only plan, and lock into that, if you are never going to be in a 3g area, and give it a bit more download.
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Janet M Dawald
05/10/2006, 07:36 PM
rating
4/10
Compression is BAD for Developers
Why can't I turn off the compression on version 7.0? I have this great service, and pay dearly for it, but I must still find a hot spot or other connections to do my work. And the security issue really bugs me - you don't have the right to save every page I visit on a server that is probably giving out billions of bits of information to spyware databases, merchants, and who know what other spammers or illegal operations.
Pros: Seems to work well for regular users.
Cons: As a web developer, the compression renders this task impossible. Hideous images, inability to go to files on password-protected pages, viewing source that is not the HTML you wrote, all this makes it virtually to develop on the road. Might as well go back to the HTML color cube! Also, every page is being cached at http://10.141.0.1 - this is a very serious privacy issue. Every user of this system is having a compressed, cached copy of every page visited on this server. I don't care if you look at my development pages, but I am sure this is an issue waiting to become a nightmare for SFR and/or Vodafone.
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Janet M Dawald
05/10/2006, 07:27 PM
rating
4/10
Compression: Bad News For Developers
I can find many instances of turning off the compression on older versions, but I have 7.0. The "Help" searches on compression and tells me how to disable it, but my version does not have the tab that is mentioned in its own help file. I am looking at hideous images, am prevented from going into my password-protected HTML files, and when viewing my source HTML, it is NOT the file I created - therefore debugging is impossible. Also, the "software" is caching on http://10.141.0.1 EVERY PAGE I VISIT. Does anyone realize the security and privacy issues of this system? All users of this system are having a mirror of every optimized page cached on a servier they know nothing about!
Pros: Works well for normal users.
Cons: Took 3 weeks for SFR (France) to get the service running for my card. Also, I cannot disable the compression, which makes developing websites basically impossible.
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onlineUK
06/09/2006, 07:15 PM
rating
10/10
I love my vodafone connect data card!
The vodafone data card is just a great way of working more mobile. my friends who work in sales, tend to take it with them on meetings at client bases... it does the job and gets you connected in no time.. I got mine from www.airtimemanager.co.uk at a good price..with the data card free.
Pros: I can take it with me wherever I go - fast connection and very easy to install.
Cons: i cant really see a downside, because I get to access my internet on the move.
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