Free(?) GPRS on O2

[tomw86]

My Xda has never caused me to be charged for GPRS useage. Even on O2 active downloads..........

I've checked my contract and I can see no reason for this strange occourance there.

Does anybody else have this strange ummmmm "problem".

The main problem I have is i'm now completely used to having the internet on my phone, and check my e-mail constantly, and am never signed off of MSN. I don't want to suddenly be hit by a HUGE bill.

[brykins]

My Xda has never caused me to be charged for GPRS useage. Even on O2 active downloads..........

I've checked my contract and I can see no reason for this strange occourance there.

Is that O2 in the UK? I have just changed from O2 to T-Mobile but for the whole year I didn't get charged a penny for GPRS. My contract included 1MB free per month and I was regularly using 2 or 3MB. I read two possible causes for this: one was that they were offering free GPRS until 31st Dec '05, and another was that they simply had no way of working out charges for GPRS. Neither sound plausible to me.

Anyway - T-Mobile Web'n'Walk 100 - 100minutes per month, 40MB of data (£1 per MB after that), 18month contract, free MDA Compact II.....and nice and cheap as well....averages out at £22 per month.

[tomw86]

I unfortunatly signed for 18 months (in june) on my O2 contract, to get my 50% extra free ("for life").

I technically only get 100kb free per month, and can often use 5Mb.....And web access isn't cheap on O2!

[kuangtian]

:)
I've never been charged also.

Having been keeping on using 5~6M/Month,I'm waiting to check the bill of Jan,2006 to see wether they will charge or not.

[lovablegeek]

I've had my O2 contract since January and never been charged for GPRS, and even swapped my original XDA II for an XDA Exec (Universal). I regularly use loads of bandwidth (about 500M+/month) as I don't have internet access at home.
I'm looking forward to see if the same applies to 3G!

[vijay555]

Man, this is crazy! Sure you guys aren't going to have to leave the country when your bills come?!

I should download Platform Builder 5 like this :)

V

[Karzi]

DAMMIT i have a 8 meg bundle on mine (O2)
i wonder if that means i will be charged as they know i will use it


HMMMMMM

[gazzaman2k]

never ever been charged a penny

[matt2324]

Good news for you guys,

Spoke to 02 earlier.

For pay monthly contract customers GPRS is completely free and unlimited until around May 2006, no matter how much you use you will never be charged.

For pay as ya go customers, 1st month on pay as you go comes with 5mb downloading included only.

[TDIPower]

So will o2 be charging existing customers after may 06 or is just new customers??

cheers

[lovablegeek]

I'm glad I know when they're going to start charging, a grand for the internet is a bit much!
If only I could get bittorrent working without having to buy winmobile torrent ;-)!!!

[tomw86]

Now I know that i'll leave it perminantly connected until then, and delete the connections after that!!!

[zoidster]

Now I know that i'll leave it perminantly connected until then, and delete the connections after that!!!


That's how I feel !

It seems to be mainly the online contracts that get this "perk" (I know people on o2 contracts that certainly do get billed for data !

I had an online tarrif for a year with my XDAII (cant remember the name . but it was 500 texts and 50 xnet minutes for £19) and found that I got never got billed a penny for data ! I was impressed ,and having previously abused the port 8080 loophole for free GPRS on PAYG online sims , I assumed that something in the seetings of the XDAII was doing something similar ! - but then I used the sim in my Nokia 9500 and then my Qtek s100 and found that I just never got billed , no matter what settings I used

This was something I took into consideration when looking for a new "deal" when I purchased my Exec (obviously crossing my fingers that it would still be free on my new contract !) -All you can eat GPRS is worth a fortune when you think about it and (IMO ) worth at least an extra £50 on your bill !

At least (if you are on an online contract) you can keep an eye on your usage on the website - My last contract always showed an inclusive 1mb , of which I had used 0 ( :lol: ) despite having used untold amounts !
I think I'll start to pay special attention to this in May/June :roll:

Just one thing - Have o2 not threatened to begin charging a few times before ? I am sure I recall a few "Deadlines" being mentioned in the past year or so ?

[zoidster]

oops - double post , sorry !

[gazzaman2k]

yeah i heard that too was may last year also that they said theyd charge for gprs lol still free today :roll:

[layzphil]

Hmmmm interesting.

I am on o2 200 (not an online contract) and was paranoid about gprs use as there is only 100k included. I have never paid for any data on this contract (even before getting the exec 2 weeks ago) but certainly must've used more than that.

I just logged into to their incomprehensible website where you can view your charges so far this month and it is showing nothing used - and I've been playing with Opera on the Exec!

[andynumpty]

I've had my O2 200 tariff for about 18 months & use the GPRS quite alot per month, even abroad, & have never been charged.

[Melty]

All you can eat GPRS is worth a fortune when you think about it and (IMO ) worth at least an extra £50 on your bill !

At least (if you are on an online contract) you can keep an eye on your usage on the website - My last contract always showed an inclusive 1mb , of which I had used 0 ( :lol: ) despite having used untold amounts !
I think I'll start to pay special attention to this in May/June :roll:
THat explains it! I've only just joined O2 (as an online customer) and I've been confused about having used ZERO of my free 5 meg browse. I assumed it was free because it was all free until 31st Dec. I am meant to get 1 Meg a month.

I agree with EVERYTHING I have quoted above: It's worth a fortune; I keep checking online and have used 0; and I will pay close attention in future! :lol:

[zoidster]

Not sure where I will go after o2 stop this "madness" :D

Probably orange PAYG on the £1 per day thing if it is still availabe(despite having existing contracts with Orange and Voda at the moment )

[Anon]

I have been on o2 250 for the past month - their online billing shows 0 used despite me using it regularly. The inclusive 100K seems to disappear after a few pages.

Does anyone know if it is really free until May 2006? I note another thread where someone says they have received a text message from o2 saying that their free trial is over and they will be charged after 31st March.

I cannot see that o2 aren't aware of this, or that they cannot measure it as they are a technology company :roll:.

As I only had the Welcome Download (5MB) in the first month, and nothing appeared to be logged (on the website anyway), how would I know if I was part of their free trial? (mentioned above about text message stating it had ended). Are we sure that they are not logging it and it just hasn't appeared on the website due to a technical problem (only for them to present a bill later). Is there a limit to how long after you have used this that they can bill you?

Many thanks

Anon

[Timewarp]

I have been on o2 250 for the past month - their online billing shows 0 used despite me using it regularly. The inclusive 100K seems to disappear after a few pages.

Does anyone know if it is really free until May 2006? I note another thread where someone says they have received a text message from o2 saying that their free trial is over and they will be charged after 31st March.

I cannot see that o2 aren't aware of this, or that they cannot measure it as they are a technology company :roll:.

As I only had the Welcome Download (5MB) in the first month, and nothing appeared to be logged (on the website anyway), how would I know if I was part of their free trial? (mentioned above about text message stating it had ended). Are we sure that they are not logging it and it just hasn't appeared on the website due to a technical problem (only for them to present a bill later). Is there a limit to how long after you have used this that they can bill you?

Many thanks

Anon

Same here. I think their billing system is slightly broken. I got the same text message too, but it's not showing anything under my account when I log in (if it was intentionally offered, surely they'd add it to inclusive amounts as they like showing you what you get for 'free' on this page).

I wonder if they're planning on fixing the billing system in May 06 then :?:

[CRJL]

Heres the deal I got. I had been with o2 for 18months never upgraded as it was a company phone that I took over. I had to take a new number.

Tried to order my exec online but the system would not let me upgrade so I phoned them up. They had no exec's in stock but told my local 02 shop had.

Went to the shop. Its online200 (even though its a shop brought phone. I got told on the phone the shop could not do this tariff).

I get 200mins any network 500 texts free ITS (what ever that is).

I also get free use of 3g or gprs and I quote from the man in the o2 shop "You should only get the o2active for free for 3 months but I can tell you now they will not charge you for using it until next year as they system is not working as it should, but keep that to yourself mate" I have only this for a month and got my first bill with exec yesterday. Im online none stop on the exec. I work in a 3g area so all my breaks are spent hammering o2 active checking mail and on msn.

I would say over the month I have spent 10hrs online.

Did I get charged No. Is Data even showing up on my bill no.

O2 I love them.

[predo]

i got a text from them like 2 days ago saying that o2 active is going to be paid for from 2nd of May.

[christopherwoods]

I received a text message from O2 the other day...

"We hope you have enjoyed your O2 Active free trial. Don't worry, you can still use it though, and it's only £2.35/Mb".

For those who are using it, it looks like the party's about to be over...

... Anyway, when I got that message, I just went SOD THAT! I've never used O2 Active anyway, I refuse to even have the Active OS running on my XDA as it just makes it mash up and eventually crash.

[benjdc]

iv been with o2 for 7years and have never been charged! i received the text today, and it sucks, will have to wait and see if it actually takes affect. Lame!

[andysummers]

I'm a little bit confused by what we are actually talking about here. Is O2 Active a service that is provided, separate to a GPRS connection or something? I dont have the O2 Active OS installed on my XDA as it slows it down something chronic! And I dont ever go to
I've not had any texts from O2 yet saying that any trials are about to run out. I've had ym XDA IIs for about 8 months now, and in that time I've only ever seen GPRS charges on my bill when I have been out of the country, it says stuff like "non-eu gprs charges" when I went to Australia. I regularly use the GRPS connection to surf the web and get emails on to my phone, and now I've figured out how to use the phone to connect as a bluetooth gprs modem on my laptop I'm sure I'll be using it even more but not if it's gonna be over £2 per meg for data charges! :-)

[jacro]

O2 Active is an app (part of the O2 customisation) that contains links to predefined O2 urls, but otherwise uses the same GPRS connection.

The discussion in this thread is about the use of the GPRS connection NOT the O2 Active app. I removed that looong ago - I have not yet been charged for GPRS data.

I have had the 'charging after march' message recently, so I'm waiting with anticipation to see what happens then...

[christopherwoods]

You'll just get a white envelope one day mid April, with a big thick bundle of paper and the words

O2 Online GPRS Bill (Arrears)


printed on the top :D

[benjdc]

hahah i hope not!

[zoidster]

Hmm , someone mentioned £2.35 per MB , whereas the text I got definately said £3 per MB

This is what has annoyed me - not that they are charging (well, not just that :lol: )
But £3 per MB ?? ,when they have been giving it away up till now ? OK so perhaps they are trying to recoup their losses ?
But for some reason I had in the back of my mind that when O2 did start charging , they'd have a really good value rate (£1 a MB or something)

I wasn't expecting them to make their GPRS the most expensive in the country !

(Unless , of course , the £2.35 thing is accurate )

[welshbloke]

From what I understand O2 have never given away GPRS they simply could not charge for it because of the current billing system. This is why when you are overseas you get billed (they get billed and pass on to you).

Also from what I understand you will soon start to be billed as advertised now that they have resolved their problems with the GPRS billing platform.

The upshot of this is if you got a GPRS bundle you did not actually make any savings and it cost you money because those that did not never got charged. Not sure if this is naughty on O2's behalf.

[christopherwoods]

Hmm , someone mentioned £2.35 per MB , whereas the text I got definately said £3 per MB

(Unless , of course , the £2.35 thing is accurate )


http://chriswoods.co.uk/files/o2activesms.jpg

;)

I like the way they pretend it's been a promo all this time. :D I remember when I bought my phone back in September, I asked the store manager "so I hear that the GPRS is on a free trial and it's gonna end soon... This true?"

"er...... yeaaaah, it's a free trial"

:D:D:D:D cheeky lying bastard. Maybe we should all sue them for misrepresentation under the sale of goods act. ;)

[Timewarp]

I like the way they pretend it's been a promo all this time. :D

:lol:

I wonder if it'll actually be charged from the date shown?

Mine shows a different date and price :?

[zoidster]

So where are you all going to go then ? (once o2 begin charges )

I have contracts with o2 , Voda , T-mobile and orange - and am not sure which way to go

Perhaps T-mobiles "web&walk" is the way to go ? - I am toying with the idea of getting an Orange PAYG sim and doing the £1 a day thing - but I would rather get a decent deal on one of
my existing accounts !

I do have a favourable deal with Vodafone though (only because they screwed up my first 6 bills )
£8 pm gets me 1000 off peak minutes , 500 texts and £60 worth of data (works out at 25MB) - but I am not sure if 25mb will be enough , plus the fact that most of my calls are peak time :cry: so I'd have to pay for those

If anyone finds anything really good let me know !

[mono33]

Hi all you all say abt o2 gprs being free but u dont say if u get get gprs free on t mobile ive just joined them and would like to know if u can get free gprs i do get 40mb but would like more thanx mono33

[CRJL]

I have spoken to a "Friend" today that works for o2.

The billing system they used in the u.k did not allow them to charge or monitor the amount of GPRS trafic being used by accounts.

This has been fixed and they can now monitor the amount of Data being used.

The diffrent txt's being sent out to people stating different amounts all depends on what the rate was when you took out your contract. This has been 3 differnet rates

£2.35 / £2.75 / £3.00 Per MB.

My "Friend" also informs me that they have been able to bill for GPRS since January but have just been monitoring usage. They have been doing this so when they start to charge they can see what effect this has on usage for the GPRS service.
My "Friend" also warned me that the online billing service (your account) can be up to 10 days behind on GPRS usage.

Im 85% sure this info is accurate but you never know.

[talkingbollox]

Word is that there will be an "all you can eat" data tariff on t-mobile for £7.50 starting next month. http://www.mobiholics.net/index.php?s=1190830526ab7a26409946310e36e810&showtopic=43&st=20

[stualpha]

anyone have any updated information on the o2 grps situation?

Mine's still free, I took out my contact in February 06 with the XDA exec, and a GPRS bolton for £5 a month. Not data usage shows up on my account on the O2 site :D

Anyone else getting charged ?