Overseas card on SA Voda network
Hi there
2 Questions:
1. Can anyone tell me whether the following card can be used on the Vodacom network?
http://www.scancom.co.uk/product.php/1817/0//2e73a6604966d638a84ce7f291c5ceb7
If so, does it operate at speeds > 3G.
2. Does the above card work with the 3G / HSDPA router [Linksys WRT54G3G] (after a firmware upgrade on the router that is available on Vodacom's website).
Any help / guidance would be greatly appreciated.
To the best of my knowledge after enquiries, and as a user of two UK-sourced Voda-branded data cards, there is no reason why this card should not work on the Vodacom network. Apart from the now-revealed fact that Vodacom's latest 'Huawei E620' HSDPA data cards are firmware-locked in SA to the Voda-and-partners network here and abroad, all previous datacards, and indeed the Voda Dashboard software, are quite happy to use virtually any valid SIM card and network, here and abroad.
So yes, the UK card should work in SA (but you might like to check from the supplier that UK Vodafone has not also started doing what Vodacom SA is doing and locking their cards, in which case you could only use it on the 'partner' Voda network in SA, but not on rivals such as MTN or, more importantly, Virgin with its 50c/MB across-the-board data rates once the current problem of incompatible Virgin SIMs has been sorted out.
There is no reason why it should not work at 3G or HSDPA speeds, nor with the Linksys router.
BTW instead of going the rather roundabout UK route, you might like to check whether you couldn't simply get a locally-sourced Voda card with far less hassle and expense. They are occasionally offered secondhand, including on this site, and if you wanted a 3G one (i.e. without HSDPA) prices can be very good now that we are moving into HSDPA. You can also buy a generic card either here or overseas, sometimes more cheaply than the Voda version.
OR you might like to consider some other local alternatives: the MTN-branded version of the new Huawei E620 HSDPA card mentioned above, which unlike Vodacom's is (still) NOT locked, OR MTN's new GPRS-EDGE 'dongle' which runs off a USB port with a SIM, apparently also unlocked (just over R1,000 I believe, as a cash purchase, or very reasonable on a contract -- but only for GPRS and EDGE, no 3G or HSDPA. Apparently works a treat with Virgin's 50c/MB but don't shout that too loudly to MTN.....)
Sign up with Google
