| Author |
Message |
jFA
Posts: 4
Phone Model:
Motorola V180
Service Provider:
cingular |
 
Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:49 am |
|
They (Cingular) say that its $.0195 KB for usage international - OK...well how much is that likely to be if you connect to the internet for 30 minutes or one hour - it seems like it would be outrageous - but since I don't have any familiarity with the usage here, i have no basis on which to evaluate or compare what typical consumption would be - how many kbs per half hour or hour of use - can anybody educate me?
|
 |
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
|
JCMyersIV
Posts: 122
Phone Model:
V635 & BB 7290
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:21 pm |
My input is that it would depend on what you're doing for those 30 minutes. If you were actively searching the internet/dowloading documents, etc. - those 30 minutes could be quite expensive. GPRS is typically operates at around 30Kbps, EDGE is 70-100Kbs or more - these are ranges, but it doesn't take a math wiz to figure out that if you're getting 30Kbps (net of overhead), and the rate is $.0195/KB (remember 8 bits to the byte, or 8,192 bits per Kilobyte):
bits per second = 30,000
KB per second = 3.662109 (30,000 / 8,192 bits in a KB)
price per kilobyte = $.0195
price per second = $0.071411
As recently as September, Cingular didn't have a way of reporting international usage, so I wasn't charged roaming on my last international trip, but I was just using my blackberry...
When I was in Australia earlier last year, and my service was with T-Mo at $.015/KB, I was averaging about $2.50/day in usage charges. Just based on the difference in rates, that would equate to around $3.25/day with Cingular's roaming rates...
If you hook up your laptop, and get a high speed EDGE connection, watch your usage monitor regularly - 7cents/second is $257/hour; yikes!
Did I get my math right?
|
|
jFA
Posts: 4
Phone Model:
Motorola V180
Service Provider:
cingular |
Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:25 pm |
|
Yes Thanks for the reply - -I do believe you got it right - I had thought about $300 per hour but i didnt believe that was possible - thats just too impractical to consider.
|
|
toowoomba
Posts: 12
Phone Model:
LG
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Mon Jan 24, 2005 4:06 pm |
Its important to remember that GPRS is charged by PACKET not by HOUR.
Do you plan on receiving a continuous stream of data for 1/2 hour? (video conference?)
For example, I spent about 15 minutes on my cell phone checking the weather to see if snow was going to hit and where. I went to the NOAA wap site, downloaded a radar image, a 24 hr text report, then a satellite image, and that was 20kb. Those were very detailed screen sized images too.
If you're just reading sports scores, CNN text news, stock quotes, etc on your phone, its nothing significant.
But...if you plan on hooking your phone up to your computer and doing some serious gaming, surfing, image download etc, you're better off with a cable modem plan.
|
|
paulcagle
Posts: 3
Phone Model:
Nok 3595
Service Provider:
T mobile |
Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:44 pm |
|
if you have a cell phone that is internet capable you can try stormspotr . go to http://www.blueoxe.com
|
|
Cptech31
Posts: 594
Phone Model:
LG
Service Provider:
Hmm what service |
Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:10 am |
|
now if you plan on using your phone for more then 30 mins a month on the internet and you are worried about costs why not get medianet unlimited at 19.99 a month and you can while in the US use as much data you wnat with out add charges execpt the mrc of 19.99
|
|
elmo01
Posts: 2202
Phone Model:
Samsung SPH-M510
Service Provider:
Bell Canada |
Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:20 am |
| jFA wrote: | | They (Cingular) say that its $.0195 KB for usage international - OK...well how much is that likely to be if you connect to the internet for 30 minutes or one hour - it seems like it would be outrageous - but since I don't have any familiarity with the usage here, i have no basis on which to evaluate or compare what typical consumption would be - how many kbs per half hour or hour of use - can anybody educate me? |
data useage is not calculated in units of time... its calculated in filesize in kilobytes
so it depends how much data is transferred between your device and the server...
to put things in perspective... 1 kilobyte (1024 charaters) is approximately equal to one 8.5x11 sheet of paper with a 1 inch margin all around
typcical filesizes...
a picture 200-300 k (medium resolution)
your avarage email ( a few lines) 10k
and so on....
so if you are in an international roaming situation and you transfer 1MB of data (in and out) (relativley average useage for light traffic)
1048576 x .0195 = 20447.232 cents or about 20 bux
|
