Vodafone launches unlimited national SMS packs

Vodafone has recently launched unlimited national SMS packs for both prepaid & postpaid subscribers. Following is the pack details for Pre-paid customers:

• Unlimited local and national SMS (upto a max of 500 SMSes per day) at a recharge of Rs 52 (Validity : 30 days)
• Unlimited local and national SMS (upto a max of 500 SMSes per day) at a recharge of Rs 34 (Validity : 15 days)

For postpaid customers monthly unlimited national SMS pack is Rs.80 per month. To activate this pack send ACT TEXT to 111.

To know more about these packs send “TEXT” to 111.

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

Recently, from almost a month SMSs from Banks, Service Providers, Companies have started prefixing something like ID, AT, VK…etc. What’s all this after all!!? Here I am to explain you what it is! Normally these SMSs originates from a Bulk SMS provider where you can use 11 digit Alpha-Numeric characters as "Sender". But there were some security risks in this method. I was able to give a phone number as "Sender" & it appears as that person at the recipient end. Basically there was a chance to send SMSs as a different person! I was actually using this to fool my friends.

But the new TRAI regulation insisted bulk SMS providers to restrict the "Sender ID" to 8 characters. Other three characters should be used to specify who is the service provider & where it’s originated from. Say for example: HDFCBANK sends an SMS to you using bulk SMS provider located at Tamil Nadu which uses Airtel. You will receive it as AT-HDFCBANK. First character specifies which service provider the message is being originated & the second character specifies from which location it’s originated. Here is the table which has details of these SMS codes:

Service Provider Codes:

So, combination of these two constitutes the first two digit of ?Sender? followed by an hyphen (-) & actual sender name.

Few people use PIN locking system to lock their phone to avoid un-authorised access. Though this is a good option, it pisses you off sometime. Three wrong entry of PIN code will result in SIM blocking. Once SIM gets blocked, phone starts asking PUK code to enter. If you again enter wrong code for three times, SIM gets completely blocked. You have to walk into your service provider outlet to get a replacement SIM card.

PUK code is a SIM specific code assigned by your service provider. No way you can guess & enter it. So, when it asks for the PUK code, don’t do anything, get the PUK code from your service provider. Airtel has a easier way of getting PUK code. For getting PUK code of a Airtel number, send PUK<space>PhoneNumber to toll free number 121. You can make use of any other Airtel number to send this message since your SIM might have been blocked already.

If the above method doesn’t works or your service provider is not Airtel, call to customer care using any other mobile phone which uses the same service provider. They will ask some details about you to make sure you are the owner of the SIM card. Questions might include your billing address, email ID, numbers you recently called or messaged etc. They might even ask you number printed on the SIM card, so be prepared with all details before calling them. Once you get the PUK code, enter it into the phone & your phone will return to normal.

This information has been provided by Tech Bangalore visitor Michael via comments, who also won “Best Commentator Award” for the month of October. You can refer to his complete comment over here.

1. Select Menu / Services / WAP / Settings

Edit Profile – On selection, there is a list just select the first or any profile and u get two options
1. Activate Profile
2. Edit Profile

Select Edit Profile and edit the following fields as below:

1. Rename Profile: Vodafone_gprs
2. Homepage: http://live.vodafone.in
3. Data Account: Vodafone_gprs

4. Connection type u get three options:
Connection-oriented
1. IP Address: 010.010.001.100 give done
2. Security: Off

Connectionless
IP Address: 010.010.001.100
Security: Off

HTTP
Proxy Address: 010.010.001.100
Proxy Port: 9401 (NOTE: I think as mentioned above this is for Tamil Nadu, so whichever city or country your from ask for your mobile operator IP or Proxy whatever)
Select Done

Save Settings if asked and Then give Activate Profile

Browser Options
Timeout: 300 by default, I just put 150 just in case a page takes too long to load

Show Images: On
Ok Save Yes

Then there is Data Account Below Wap
GSM Data (I just left this alone)
GPRS Select Edit
1. Account Name: Vodafone_gprs
2. APN: portalnmms
3. Username: (Leave Blank/None)
4. Password: (Leave Blank/None)
5. Auth. Type: Normal

I dont know about MMS coz I don?t usually use, but anyway just for safety I chose the second one under Data Accounts and edited as follows,
1. Account Name: Vodafone_MMS
2. APN: portalnmms
3. Username: (Leave Blank/None)
4. Password: (Leave Blank/None)
5. Auth. Type: Normal

BUT there is Under Messages Itself an option for MMS where in you have
Message Settings / Server Profile
Edit first profile to
1. Rename Profile: Vodafone MMS
2. Homepage: http://live.vodafone.in
3. Data Account: Vodafone MMS
4. Connection Type:
Connection-Oriented
1. IP Address
010.010.001.100
Connectionless
1. IP Address
010.010.001.100
1. Proxy Address
010.010.001.100
2. Proxy Port
9401
Username: (Leave Blank/None)
Password: (Leave Blank/None)
Done / Save / Yes
Activate Profile – Yes

In Menu / Settings / there is something called Network Setup under which you have GPRS Connection, there are two options When Needed or Always. Either works I guess I just left it on When Needed. (makes more sense)

Operator logo will be displayed on the mobile screen.By default it will show operator name ex: Airtel, Hutch..etc. You can display other images or text as operator logo instead of name of operator by installing new logo. There are many web sites providing operator logos, just google it.But what I tend to explain here is removing logo part completely. You might have experienced a problem while using any celebrity wallpapers on your mobile, where logo displayed almost on face of celebrity which is disturbing. You can remove operator logo by installing a blank logo. From your mobile wap browser goto address http://victorynet.de/wap/betreiberlogos.wml and install blank logo. Now goto your phones display settings & check for “Operator Logo” option, set operator logo ON. It makes blank logo as on & displays nothing. If you make it OFF, operator name will be displayed.

Hutch introduced a new service which lets you back-up your data stored on your mobile phone. Through this service you can back-up Phone Book,SMS,MMS,Games,Applications,Ringtones…etc.
This could be help full to back-up all your critical data & you can recover them when you lost handset or changing handset. There are two types of services one for GPRS enabled handsets & another for Non GPRS handsets. In GPRS enabled handsets you can back-up all the data mentioned above,but in Non GPRS handsets you can only back-up Phone Book. To avail this service sms BACKUP to 52585 & follow instructions. Your data will be protected by username & password. After activation it automatically backs up your data.When you lost handset or changing to other handset sms RESTORE to 52585 & all the data stored in server will be sent to your new handset. Charges for GPRS enabled handsets are Rs.50/month & for Non GPRS handsets it’s Rs.30/month.

To Activate Hutch GPRS type sms as PH & send it to 123
Click here for location other than Karnataka.

Charges: