The ‘v’ in the 750v: Vodafone

It is impossible to separate the carrier experience with that of a mobile phone. For those of you in the US, Vodafone is the 800 pound gorilla here in Europe. The rumor is that they have 90% of all data users. And with that 3 month exclusivity, they're the only game in town.

My experience with Vodafone corporate has been unsatisfactory, to say the least. I pre-ordered a unit off the web. They ran a credit check and I failed instantaneously. I had zero credit history in this country. It didn’t matter what my high credit score was in the U.S. I had no existence in the U.K. system. When I sent a plaintive e-mail I was told I could fax documentation – a bank statement, proof of residency, and they would hold a ₤100 deposit. Although I faxed from my local Vodafone store, the information never made it to the appropriate person.

Fortunately the store itself was much easier to deal with. They called me as soon as the device came in. Since we’re in Cambridge with a large transient student population, they are used to newcomers. The correct documentation (proof of residency, bank account) and a ₤100 deposit allowed the store to override the traditional credit check. I’d like to say I just walked out with a phone, but the price plans proved to be Byzantine and took over an hour to sort out. Since you can’t change your plan for nine months, it’s important to get it right.

Data Plan Abuse

As you know, the Treo shines as a triple threat: PDA/Phone/Data. However the data is a huge gotcha with Vodafone. With a typical business plan, the data costs about ₤ 1 ($1.85 US) per megabyte. That is a mere five web pages. Forget about downloading or attaching office documents attachments from your e-mail.

The business plans suffer from a lack of minutes. ₤35 ($64.90 US) gets you only 300 (though here in Europe incoming calls are free). And with the business plans, texts come directly off your data allotment.

So if you jump over to a personal plan, the same ₤35 gets you 500 minutes, 100 texts, and super reduced rates on nights and weekends. However data is then going to run ₤2 ($3.71 US) a megabyte. The only bright spot is that the Treo 750v is inexpensive with a new contract: anywhere from free to ₤127 depending on the term. Without a contract it's an amazingly pricey ₤380! ($704.64 US)

All of the various options and such took me over an hour to sort out with the patient Vodafone rep in store (a shout out to Lindsey at the Grafton Center Store). I could not get the type of deal I had chosen on line (web special only of course) and tried to make the best of it.

The simple reality is I have a crippled device. Downloading any sort of rich content is prohibitive. I simply retrieve a few kilobytes of each e-mail and don’t dare use the web. Of course I’ve already turned off all graphics should I end up in Internet Explorer. Another problem: if you set the phone to retrieve only message headers, then you can only choose to download the entire message AND attachment. I’d prefer to read the message header, then download only the text of the message should I want it.

The Treo 750v is positioned almost exclusively for business users. Well-heeled users whose company is picking up the bill should not have a problem unless the accountants decide to take a close look at their data charges. However, I imagine that for the phone to be successful, especially beyond business, data pricing will have to change dramatically. If Vodafone doesn’t make the change, one of their competitors surely will.

Data Speed

As I mentioned, data is expensive so I didn’t spend a lot of time downloading content. However, based on my experience I do believe the "near-broadband" claims. TreoCentral's webpage with graphics on took a full twenty seconds to download on Internet Explorer. However, the server is 6 time zones away. My editors asked me to run a mobile speed test and as I pressed the 1mb test, I said to myself, well this test will cost a buck. I hope these numbers are worth it (Editor's note: Worth it! :) ):

• The 1mb test yielded 332 kbit/s with .7s latency in 25.352s d/l time. In other 332kbit/s is pretty darn fast considering that the test server is across the pond from me.
• The 5k test came back as "unstable/too fast a result. Please choose a larger file" "Too fast" for the speed test is just fine with me :D
• The 200k test returned a much worse 30kbit/sec with .717 latency and 54.034 d/l time. In other words, the latency is still the big killer here as it is with EVDO.

My average download speed with fair-to-good coverage was around 250kbit/s.

Data Tricks and Work-Arounds

After searching for a while, I located a SD to miniSD adapter that should theoretically allow one to use a Palm WiFi card with the Treo 750v. After a bit more searching, I found out that there is exactly what we need: a miniSD WiFi card (though the website was down at the time of this writing, it is available from many vendors). Only one manufacturer, Spectec, makes it, though it is available on Amazon for less than the Palm card. I don’t have one to try, but perhaps it’s in my future. Built-in WifFi would have been nice, but an add-on is a decent solution for those looking to travel without a laptop.

A while back I reviewed Opera Mini 1.0. It is a browser designed for cell phones with limited data bandwidth. The browser was terrible. Now Opera has just released Mini 2.0. Opera Mini will not run directly on Windows Mobile. If you scrounge around the internet you can find a Java app MIDP-AMS to drag to your phone and run. Then download directly to your phone and you’re all set. Opera pre-processes webpages, their servers formatting pages for smaller screens and compressing pictures dramatically. The data overhead is significantly less than graphically-rich Internet Explorer pages.

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