Freedom My Way

I have been using the free Vipnet Mobile Broadband SIM in my phone for 10 days now and it’s been great! In all the years I have been going to Croatian seaside, I was newer able to use internet, so this is a nice change.
There was just one tiny problem before I was able to use my new mobile broadband: internet settings. As you might know, in order to use data transfer on your mobile, you need to set three things:

- APN (access point name)
- user name
- password

If you phone is supplied by your mobile provider, those settings might already be set, othervise you need to obtain them and set manually. The call to Vip support cost me EUR 3 – due to roaming charges; the number is free for Vip users, but my SIM is data only, no voice

I soon received an SMS with folowing settings:
- APN: data.vipnet.hr
- user name: 38591
- password: 38591

Palm Treo 680 worked with those settings. In order to use a PC, you need to configure your phone as a modem over serial Bluetooth link. You then initiate DUN (dial up networking) from your PC. Username and password are the same as above, dial up number is standard GPRS dialup:

*99#    or    *99***1#

The 1 stands for first network settings configured in your phone (you might need different number here).
While Treo 680 worked OK, my UMTS phone Samsung SGH-Z400 needed an additional setting: in Windows modem setup, under Modem Initialization following AT command string needs to be entered:
at+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”data.vip.hr”

The last item is APN and is dependent on your mobile network provider.
Looks like Nokia and some other phones also need this setting. Unlike Palm Treo 680, those phones seem to use the internet settings we entered in the phone for browsing only and ignore them completely when using Dial Up Networking – they obviously use username and password provided in Windows DUN dialog, where APN is not provided (and hence needs to be entered as modem initialization string).

***

In 10 days I used about 170MB and still had 30MB left when I also bought the USB stick for $26 – with HRK 20 included + free 200MB data option. The stick is a bit more convenient, since you yust plug it in & connect, whereas with the phone, BT must be on on at both ends, DUN settings correct and still we have to take care that the phone battery does not run flat.

***: I was only able to write this post to position marked witg ***. Looks like my Tre0 680 only support text entry box with 2000 characters…

I will start with mobile internet in Croatia. I am writing this post on the beach in Punat, island Krk, on my Palm Treo 680, using Vipnet prepaid data only SIM card. I am staying here for 14 days plus I will return to Croatian coast for a couple of weekends or several days in September.

Before going here, I did some research on the web (as I always do before any endeavor). I was looking for a solution that cowers two months and includes several hundred MB of data transfer. Since I am not financially free or affluent yet, I was looking for cheapest option .

Since Croatioa is not in EU (yet), GPRS roaming here is even more expensive: EUR 0.75-0.95 per 100kB, or $10,000 to $13,300 per GB! Unbelievable! This is robbery at broad daylight! My provider does have a deal with Croatias T-Mobile and the 60% off tariff is only $4,800 per GB! Needless to say roaming was out of the question.

There are three cellular network providers in Croatia: T-Mobile, Vip (Vodafone) and Tele 2. All of them offer prepaid solutions for internet access. I eliminated Tele 2 first since their only option is HSDPA/UMTS/GPRS USB stick that costs 395 HRK ($79). You get HRK 394 on your account, but over a period of 6 months and upfront cost was too much plus I was concerned about their coverage on the Croatian Islands. The other two had similar offers – HRK 200 ($40) for USB stick, 1 HRK ($0.20) per MB of data, which comes to $200 per GB.

T-Mobile offers two options:

SIM card only for HRK 100 ($20) with 100MB included or

USB GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA modem for HRK 198 ($40) with 100MB included

Data costs HRK 1 per MB – $200 per GB. You can activate a daily option for HRK 20 and you get 100MB of data, but must spend it in 24h.

Vipnet (Vodafone) also offers two options:

SIM card only for HRK 20 ($4) with 20MB included or

USB GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA modem for HRK 179 ($36) with 20MB included + another 80MB if you charge your account for at least HRK 35 ($7). Plus you get additional free 200MB of data for activating an account before Aug 31 2009.

They also have options, but they last 30 days: 75MB for HRK 50, 200MB for HRK 100 ($100 per GB), 500MB for HRK 200 ($80 per GB).

The USB modem can be bought in the webshop for HRK 151 ($30), but you can only register with Croatian address, so this option was out

I decided to go with Vipnet. Then I found a Croation computer magazine Bug mentioned on a forum. Their 200^th issue (Yul-Aug 2009) offers coupons for Vipnet:

- free data SIM (preloaded with HRK 20) with 3x200MB free data over three months

- HRK 50 off the price for USB modem

I bought the only copy of the magazine they had for EUR 5 in a magazine stand close to my office. When I got to Croatia, I obtained the free SIM first. Spent about 150MB in 10 days using my phone (Palm Treo 680) & laptop with Bluetooth dialup. Then I got the USB stick too for $26. It works great, but speed of corse depends on location and network load (Its the height of the season, so lots of tourists are overloading the network).

I did not really need the USB stick, but it is more convenient then BT dialup. It is of corse locked to Vipnet SIMs, but unlocking codes can be found on eBay. Perhaps my next project

Mobile Internet

The Mobile Internet series of blogs is intended as comparison and advice about mobile internet access options and prices (using cellular networks) in Europe. Maintaining an Internet business implies having internet access wherever you are . That’s easy at home or office, but if you are traveling and not staying at a hotel or other place with internet access and are not keen on going around coffee shops with a laptop trying to find an open wi-fi, mobile internet is in my opinion your best option.

My cellular plan (in Slovenia) includes 1GB of data per month. Data only plans with one or 2 year contract cost about EUR 10-20 per GB which is quite reasonable. But when going abroad, the problem with mobile internet are exorbitant charges for GPRS roaming. In EU, the voice call roaming charges were regulated recently and are quite reasonable, but the data transfer charges are extremely overpriced: EUR 2 per MB or EUR 2,000 ($2,800) per GB of data! This means data roaming costs 100 to 200 (!) times more (or in percent: ten thousand to twenty thousand percent more) than at home! And that’s after regulation; previously prices were even higher! Hello EU regulators, anybody there?

So, data roaming being out of question, the only option is getting a local provider’s prepaid SIM with data or data only SIM. This is what I plan to do in Croatia soon…