The Vodacom 3G option

[Newb-lite]

Hi everyone

Im a total n00b when it comes to the webconnection broadband options and thus need tonnes of help. sorry if these are old questions or answered elsewhere , but i am weak in the search.

What is needed to get 3g for a laptop? (aside from the laptop hehehe)
do i need a current vodacom cellphone contract? if yes is there a minimum level of contract required? (not interessted in the expensive prepaid option but in a bundle like 1 gig).

if you hit your one gig limit can you have the service disabled till the next month , or just yank out the card and stop using it.

what traffic counts towards the limit?

can you effectively game on 3g ... games like eg. world of warcraft or magic online?

thanx in advance for the help.

 

[diabolus]

My summary:

Don't need a contract, just a prepaid sim and a datacard. Datacard probably go for about R2000-R2500 cash. If you are on prepaid you simply pay R2 p/MB assuming you have prepaid credits.

Although that's the expensive route of course. I for instance got me a Weekender contract (R135 p/month) which gives you the datacard for free (instead of a phone). If you do the calcs the contract basically pays the datacard. Now once you got the contract you can load bundles on top of that. In my case i pay an additional R200 for 250MB . If i go over my 250MB bundle (in that month) i will start paying R2 p/MB. If i don't use my 250MB in the month, i loose it. So i pay R335 p/month (but can change every month, even drop all bundles and simply pay R135 ). There's now a R350 p/month for 500MB contract, which i'm trying to migrate to [but vodacom can't seem to do it yet]. Of course i get the regular free minutes and stuff on my weekender too, so if i don't use 3G/GPRS i can simply use it to phone.

In short if you have 'some' contract [any will do, there's a R35 p/m messenger contract too] you can load any bundle on it and change it each month. It's just a matter of getting the datacard.

if you hit your one gig limit can you have the service disabled till the next month , or just yank out the card and stop using it.

Not sure about the disabling, but yes you can simply stop using it [or pay R2 p/MB for additional data]. Imho that's a blessing and a curse, you won't get 'throttled' or blocked, but will simply pay more if you go over your bundle.

what traffic counts towards the limit?

All traffic, up and download. I don't think there's a local vs international thing either. It all counts .

can you effectively game on 3g ... games like eg. world of warcraft or magic online?

I play Anarchy Online on 3G/GPRS without any problems. I did WoW beta, and it ran just fine. It's obviously not 'perfect' but i'd say MMORPG you'll get pretty far [in most cases it's my laptop/desktop hardware that can't keep up actually]. As for Counterstrike/UT etc..that's a different story, the amount of MBs those games use p/hour is just too expensive. MMORPGs i give a rought estimate of 1.5MB p/hour which is ok.

3G's advertised speed is 384 kbits p/sec , i think you'll probably get about 120-150 kbits p/sec average. For me it's more the stability that i enjoy, if 3G for some reason 'fails' you fall back to GPRS [which is 115 kbits+ depending what they did to the tower] ..so i have almost never had a situation of not having a connection in some form.

Probably best to hook up a prepaid cellphone to your laptop and see how the game runs on GPRS . I did that for a whole month and it's actually quite acceptable if you stick to MMORPGs.


PS You don't actually need a laptop. Vodacom also sells adaptors for your desktop to plug the datacard into (i paid R250 for mine). Gaming on a laptop isn't exactly my cup of tea

 

[goodgirl]

The datacard is R1700 cash.

I liked the idea to get a Messenger contract for 35 Rand per month, giving you cheap SMS that you can send from the laptop at I think 11 cents per SMS.

Then you leave that SIM in the datacard and you do not use it to make calls. (too expensive on messenger contract anyway, like 4 Rand per minute for voice)

Then you can buy data bundles and have them added to the contract as you need them, if you need 1 GB this month, and 3 GB next month, you can just add what you need whenever you need it.

If you sign a real data contract for 24 months for 1 GB per month, then you pay 1 GB each month, even if you don't use it (travelling for example).

 

[Newb-lite]

Thanx for the prompt answer.

is the signal strength linked to speed ? eg will a guy in excellent coverage get more speed than a guy in good coverage zones?

 

[diabolus]

Thanx for the prompt answer.

is the signal strength linked to speed ? eg will a guy in excellent coverage get more speed than a guy in good coverage zones?

Good question, i wish i knew for sure . I asked it before too no one actually gave a definite answer. I get 2 bars [out of 5] 3G at home, and the same speeds as at work [4 bars]. So from my experience it plays a minor role. Same for GPRS. There is probably some sort of benefit in terms of connection stability and ability to stay connected on 3G, dunno. Maybe someone can elaborate

 

[Newb-lite]

Excellent.

Thus if you have a contract , you can slap on databundles , but need a device that can access 3 g (datacard or phone). otherwise get a contract and get the card/phone free. or do prepaid get a device and pay like a dog.

the idea of month to month structuring is awesome in my opinion.

 

[diabolus]

Yep, that basically sums it up.

I tihnk somewhere in the forum they talk about Telkom saying how their ADSL is 64% cheaper, but they're neglecting the fact that you can get 'up and running' with almost no costs with GPRS/3G compared to minumum of what? R600+ p/month excluding installation fees at Telkom (and the weeks/months you will wait to get it installed)?

 

[Diago]

As far as gaming is concerned I know on ADSL most of my friends reach their 3Gig caps in matter of days depending on how they play. (These guys are real hardcore). Gaming on 3G is acceptable however the cost is still to high if your on a 1GB or more package and I wouldn't neccessarily suggest it unless you have the money to waste on it.

My opinion however.