Internet through Vodafone mobile connect USB modem

This is similar to USB internet data card provided by Reliance & Tata Indicom on CDMA technology. But this is from Vodafone on GSM platform through EDGE technology . You have to insert a SIM card into this modem & connect it to your laptop or desktop to have internet access. Vodafone website has not specified anything about speed, but they claim “speed that’s three times faster than your wired dial-up connection”, anyway I don’t believe in that! In India it connects to Vodafone EDGE network, so you can have access to internet wherever Vodafone network exists. Vodafone says “Gives 3G Broadband speeds when you travel abroad” as 3G is not implemented in India.

Charges & Tariff:

Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem will cost you Rs.6,499. Aw! that’s too expensive, HCL Laptop is available for 13,990! There are two monthly plans:

Overall this service is too much expensive :(. But if you don’t worry to pay for enjoying mobility, then this is the better one to go for. I heard Tata Indicom & Reliance data cards are extremely slow even in Bangalore!
More details on Vodafone Website

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I am starting Future Tech catogory in Tech Bangalore with this post. It just my view on future technology & future possibilities. So what am talking about here, assume a virtual mobile phone on your PC which you can call , SMS & all basic functions you do with your mobile phone. Ya, I know it’s already there, provided by many companies online to ,make international calls for cheaper rates. But what am talking about is, it should be provided & connected to your current service provider. Say for example, You have Airtel prepaid connection on your actual mobile phone, & Airtel will also provide a desktop application to call, sms…etc. Your desktop client (virtual phone) will be linked with Airtel Prepaid account & you will be charged as per your plan. Options may also be provided for syncing your actual phone with virtual phone for contacts, messages etc.

Advantages:

1. You can avoid microwave radiations by using virtual phone on PC.
2. Better call experience, because of using mic & speakers of computer.
3. Messaging will be much faster with typing on keyboard. Typing on mobile even using t9 dictionary is a hassle.
4. No need of mobile handset, if you are always online!

This is technically feasible as per my knowledge.

Blocking unwanted calls from people you hate or from unknown people is the feature I think we should have on our mobile phone by default. I personally tired up with lot of promotional calls from tele-callers. Though many banks & services offers you to register for “Do Not Disturb”, you still receive many calls from other tele-callers. Vodafone was the first to provide “Call blocking system” to help it’s consumers avoid such calls (but at Rs.99/month). But I have not yet heard of similar service by other providers.

Fortunately there is an application which blocks unwanted calls on any network. Epocware Handy’s Blacklist is a series 60 application that blocks unwanted calls. In first run options will be provided for blocking calls from your contact list, recent callers or unknown numbers. It also provided with an option of adding rejected calls into black list automatically. It also keeps log of all blocked numbers for 60 days.

The dis-advantage of software is, It will not notify you when a call is blocked. You have to check your log to know which numbers are blocked. The application is priced $19.95 (Rs.785), I think is the better option to go instead of paying monthly rental to service provider for same. Purchase this application here.

Here follows manual settings of Vodafone GPRS:

For Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh: (This setting is tested by myself in Bangalore)

Account Name: Vodafone_gprs
Homepage: http://live.vodafone.in
User Name: (no need)
Pass: (no need)

Access Point Settings:

Proxy: Enabled
Proxy Address: 10.10.1.100
Proxy Port: 9401
Data Bearer: Packet Data

Bearer Settings:

Packet Data Access Point: portalnmms
Network type: IPV4
Authentication: normal
User Name: (no need)
Password: (no need)

For Tamil Nadu:

Account Name: Vodafone_gprs
Homepage: http://live.vodafone.in
User Name: (no need)
Pass: (no need)

Access Point Settings:

Proxy: Enabled
Proxy Address: 10.10.1.100
Proxy Port: 9201
Data Bearer: Packet Data

Bearer Settings:

Packet Data Access Point: portalnmms
Network type: IPV4
Authentication: normal
User Name: (no need)
Password: (no need)

Anyone of these settings may also work rest of Indian states. I would like to thank Tech Bangalore commentators Mr. Ameer Ali & Churchill for sharing this valuable information.

For those who don’t know about Twitter, Twitter is a service which ask you “what are you doing?”. But it’s deviated a lot from this theme & evolved as a big microblogging platform. You can just update whatever you want through web, IM or Phone. Others can follow your updates & can receive updates via all three mentioned mediums.

When you update Twitter through SMS, you will be charged one international SMS. Eventhough there is an Indian number, it’s not working to update. If it works also, you will be charged atleast 3 Rs. I love updating while travelling, so my mobile bill went up because of sms charges. So I started searching for an application which can update twitter using GPRS. There are many apps which does this job. But Cellity Tweeter caught my eyes because it’s tiny (abt 17kb), clean & works on almost any GPRS enabled phone.

Cellity Tweeter uses your GPRS connection to update twitter & very much economical compare to SMSs. You can also view your timeline & public timeline. You will need to have working GPRS connection, Airtel Online or Vodafone. Airtel Live will not work.

SMS Gup Shup is a free group messaging service by webaroo. SMS Gup Shup is a feature rich service when compared to local player Activ Mobs. You can create a free account on SMS Gup Shup and add up to 100 friends (mobile numbers) into a group. If you send a message to group, it will be delivered to all members present in that group!

Group Creation:

Everything is easy with SMS Gup Shup. To create a group you can either create an account online at www.smsgupshup.com or just send CREATE GROUPNAME to 567673434

Adding Friends:

To add friends you can invite your friends by inviting them through web interface by giving their mobile numbers or email IDs. Your friends will be instantly added & start receiving your messages. You can also add friends through SMS. Send INVITE MobileNumber1, MobileNumber2….to 567673434.

Sending Messages:

Again you can use web interface after sign up to send messages to your group which is absolutely free :-). You can also send your messages to 56767343, which will automatically delivered to your group members. Messages to 56767343 may cost you up to Rs.3/msg depending on your operator.

Despite of you adding your friends to your group, anyone else also can join your group through online or sending sms JOIN GroupName to 567673434. For example: I have created a group TECHB for Tech Bangalore to update users about new posts. Anyone can join group by sending sms JOIN TECHB.

Group creator will have rights to remove a user from the group. You may not want your father inside your group ;-). Currently you can create only one group with one login (one mobile number).

Tired up receiving unwanted calls? irritated by calls from your old boy/girl friends? don’t want your boss to call you when you are on nice vacation ?! Here is a service by Vodafone to block numbers which you don’t want to receive calls. There are two types of filtering system: Black List & White List.

Black List:

Add all the numbers which you don’t want to receive calls to “Black List”. To do so, you need to activate this service by calling 55144 or dialing *514# from your phone. Activation of service takes up to 24 hours according to Vodafone Website. After activation user can create black list by entering 10 digit mobile number & for non-mobile numbers, enter numbers with STD code starting from ZERO.

White List:

Add numbers to white list which you want to receive calls. Others numbers will not be able to call you. This will be helpful while in roaming, where you can receive calls only from people you choose.

Black List & White List both cannot be active at once. This service is charged Rs. 99 / Month which I think expensive for average users.

I never imagined whether this kind of web site will be launched. I am talking about www.YourBillBuddy.com which fetches your bill from your service provider & gives you complete analyses. Web site is capable of fetch & read your mobile bill. It even gives you an option to upload your mobile bill & it even reads that! It gives you graphical analysis of Number wise call distribution, Bill Break up which gives break ups like SMS, Local Calls, STD etc. Following are few

After analyzing your bill, you can check Bill Buddy’s recommendations of plans from other service providers which best suits you. It also gives you data on how much you can save if you switch to that plan & how much could be your average monthly bill.

The website is still in Beta stage, but working pretty good.

Vodafone took over Hutch about 6 months back. Started re-branding a week ago. But still operator logo has not changed, It is showing “Hutch” which many of us don’t want to see. To get free Vodafone logo on your mobile sms “VODAFONE” to toll free number 56565. You will receive Vodafone logo, just save that.