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dongles and vodaphone
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Author:  migmogs [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 12:41 pm ]
Post subject:  dongles and vodaphone
hi all

well , another bit of the cyprus move puzzle is now being looked at....as we are about to buy a laptop so that we can keep in touch every day with edd's specialists, friends and family

so this has brought up internet conections and what dongle to buy when there, as there will be times when edd will be too ill to leave the aprtment for days

so we want to be able to access the internet in our apartment

we have been looking at the option of a monthly pay as you go dongle situation

which would be the cheapest network once there?

and where would we go to buy the needed cyprus dongle to use when there?

We have heard from over here that Vodaphone is available in Cyprus and that they run a cheap net option.is that so?

the apartment comes with a pay as you go cyprus mobile phone........as there is no land line installed

we will be staying in the Peyia Valley Apartments

we know that we could use the free internet cafe's ..but want to be able to have 24 / 7 conection time if possible......especially with edd's health probs...as there could be days when he won't be fit enough to go outside the apartment

cheers in advance

maggie :wink:
Author:  Jean [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
If you go to Cyta offices they will talk you through the various dongle options, but please be aware that if you want a contract (pay monthly) dongle they will want a €500 deposit! If you buy a pay as you go dongle it costs about €50 (including some credit), and then you just top up by buying a normal soeasy top up card. :greetings
Author:  migmogs [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
thanks jean

we would want the pay as you go dongle
are there Cyta offices in Peyia?
or are they in Paphos?

cheers

maggie :wink:
Author:  franky [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
MTN requires a €200 deposit (if you don't have the 'yellow slip' yet).

Considered that Edd might not be able to leave the apartment for days I would highly recommend you to get the €50 for 25GB package as the 25% higher fee peanuts is compared to 5 times as many data.

Please, do not go the soeasy prepaid way, while it might be tempting it *IS* unaffordable. You will pay per MB and keep in mind that the Facebook newsfeed close to 2MB is nowadays. Even the BBC homepage is always growing in size. You will constantly be topping your data plan.

5GB should be sufficient for a month of heavy browsing and even quite some videos and photos. When I was still in the UK and used my iPhone often as ersatz when on the road, I averaged around 1.3GB/month and I'm a heavy user but this did not include any Facebook or Youtube videos, mainly reading, email and writing.

Smartest way to test whether 5GB is sufficient for you or not would be if you know someone who has a 3 dongle and get a £15 (or 3GB) topup for this dongle and see how long it lasts you when browsing the web as you plan to do.

Edit: Link to MTN prices http://www.mtn.com.cy/index.cfm/id/51/l ... taservices
Author:  migmogs [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 4:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
franky wrote:
MTN requires a €200 deposit (if you don't have the 'yellow slip' yet).

Considered that Edd might not be able to leave the apartment for days I would highly recommend you to get the €50 for 25GB package as the 25% higher fee peanuts is compared to 5 times as many data.

Please, do not go the soeasy prepaid way, while it might be tempting it *IS* unaffordable. You will pay per MB and keep in mind that the Facebook newsfeed close to 2MB is nowadays. Even the BBC homepage is always growing in size. You will constantly be topping your data plan.

5GB should be sufficient for a month of heavy browsing and even quite some videos and photos. When I was still in the UK and used my iPhone often as ersatz when on the road, I averaged around 1.3GB/month and I'm a heavy user but this did not include any Facebook or Youtube videos, mainly reading, email and writing.

Smartest way to test whether 5GB is sufficient for you or not would be if you know someone who has a 3 dongle and get a £15 (or 3GB) topup for this dongle and see how long it lasts you when browsing the web as you plan to do.

Edit: Link to MTN prices http://www.mtn.com.cy/index.cfm/id/51/l ... taservices


Hi and thanks for such a great answer :D

but please bare with me here

as I am truly "blonde" on this issue :oops:

so if you think baby "a b c" etc etc you will get the picture :oops:

would the cost be 50 Euro's per month?
or is the 50 Euro's the start off amount with a card to top up as you go along?

I like the sound of having the 25 GB package

as we have lots of friends etc etc we want to keep in touch with and pictures to share etc etc

we also have been ruined with a quite a fast internet set up at home from BT :roll:

would we purchase a sim card or a dongle?

not sure as to what we should do as both of us are techy numpkins :oops:

so all help and advise is allways warmly accepted

cheers

maggie :wink:
Author:  franky [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 6:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
migmogs wrote:
would the cost be 50 Euro's per month?
or is the 50 Euro's the start off amount with a card to top up as you go along?

The €50/month is a monthly contract and includes 25GB traffic each month. Depending on how long you subscribe for you can get the dongle (with SIM) for free.

Quote:
I like the sound of having the 25 GB package
as we have lots of friends etc etc we want to keep in touch with and pictures to share etc etc

we also have been ruined with a quite a fast internet set up at home from BT :roll:


I don't know about your surfing habits but in this deal, I find it silly not to pay the €10/month more, especially considered that you are getting this as your only connection (not as a second package for when on the road).

Remember that the dongle gives you total freedom and you can use this almost everywhere: house, garden, pool, pub or while on a trip.

5GB will be enough for most people, especially if you don't watch videos online and don't have people sending you music. But it's easy to go over that and then the meter ticks fast and hard.

Once you start watching videos there's no limit anymore, just to give you an idea: a 1 hour TV episode on the BBC iPlayer averages 700MB. If you have a 720p (HD) camcorder, uploading 1 minute video in highest quality to Youtube or Flickr is almost 100MB.

If you use Skype voice, count around 50MB per hour (Skype auto-selects which transmission quality to use, this is the quality for better connections) and 5 to 6 times as much when using Skype video.

Quote:
would we purchase a sim card or a dongle?

You purchase both. Think of it this way: the dongle is a 'mobile phone', but without phone function. The SIM card connects the dongle and tells the provider what you have access to (your data plan). Without SIM card your dongle is useless and can not function.

Quote:
not sure as to what we should do as both of us are techy numpkins :oops:

so all help and advise is allways warmly accepted

Don't hesitate to ask.
Author:  kersalkid [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
"Once you start watching videos there's no limit anymore, just to give you an idea: a 1 hour TV episode on the BBC iPlayer averages 700MB."

What does this mean ? .........."there's no limit anymore" , does that mean you can watch iplayer as much as you want ?
Author:  migmogs [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
wow

we don't watch videas etc etc on our computer

what I can't get over is the costs
50 euros per month is horendous :banghead
my sister uses a dongle over here in the uk
£12 per month :shock:

why is it costing so much?

and are there no other alternatives?

or are you all a captive market?

what is the vodaphone one?

cheers everyone

maggie :wink:
Author:  migmogs [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 10:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
another thought

we have sky in the apartment

are there sky internet packages to be had?

cheers

maggie :wink:
Author:  franky [ Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
migmogs wrote:
what I can't get over is the costs
50 euros per month is horendous :banghead
my sister uses a dongle over here in the uk
£12 per month :shock:

why is it costing so much?

This is not the UK, this is Cyprus. Here we don't have 4 providers competing for a market of millions, instead there's two with a monthly rate package: one is one of the most expensive mobile providers available (Vodafone), the other is MTN.

Just telling us £12/month in the UK is no help. TYou have to tell which provider they use so a comparison can be made. But here's one for you: 3 offers 15GB monthly data for £15/month.

Here in Cyprus you pay:
€39,25 for 5GB via MTN (or €50 for 25GB)
€32 for 3GB via Cyta/Vodafone (or €50 for 20GB)

The Uk is one of the leading countries and has very low mobile internet charges compared to many other leading nations. Cyprus is a small country with only 800,000 inhabitants and we can honestly be happy that internet already rather fast here (especially wired). Mobile the area of coverage is not bad either and there's plenty of free wireless hot-spots.

There are other options, there's several wireless internet providers but they aren't cheap either and often where you are decides which one is available.

Remember one: size of the market often decides and the more competitors the cheaper things MIGHT be.

One quick look at the new data plans for iPhone in both UK and US and one knows that the cheap mobile internet bubble in the UK will bust very quickly and as spread and use grows, providers will start to charge more again, to cover their costs and possibly make a profit. Initially (over the last 3 years) it was very important for mobile internet providers in the UK to have as many subscribers/users as possible to cover costs for their service expansion as much as possible but more than that justify the investment to cover as many areas as possible.
Now these subscriber growth numbers are less important but providers will start to look at a return on investment and trust me when I tell you that the price for mobile internet will increase over the next 24 months in the UK. Traffic is expensive and with more and more people joining more and more traffic 'highways' need to be created and normal coverage won't be sufficient anymore because too many people will be online at the same time, creating bottlenecks.
Author:  migmogs [ Sat Sep 25, 2010 7:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
again

thanks a million all very interesting stuff :D

another thought

we have sky in the apartment

are there sky internet packages to be had? that are cheaper?

cheers

maggie :wink:
Author:  beverley [ Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
When we moved to Peyia in 2005 our apartment had no electric and no phone line so we made do with a cytanet sim card on pay as you go.We were amazed at how cheap it was to phone anywhere from Cyprus (including daughter in Australia) either other mobiles or land lines.It probably has gone up a bit now with the exchange rate to the euro but it is still cheaper than it is in the UK.
We used the internet cafes in Coral bay a couple of times a week for e mails etc and now there are bars etc that have WiFi you can use too so it need not cost a fortune to keep in touch.
Cytanet offices are in Paphos up near the Police station unless it has moved.
Author:  migmogs [ Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
cheers bev

that is really good to know

we have a mobile in the apartment left by the owners

i am taking it that it will be cytanet..as he has said that it is so cheap to use

it's only because edd is so ill that I am thinking of a more at home route

as we will want to pick up our mails etc etc

got to be honest

I will truly miss being on-line

as i use it every day in 1 way or another

cheers

as always for being so helpful :clap

maggie :wink:
Author:  migmogs [ Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: dongles and vodaphone
hi all

well in 6 more days

our cyprus 6 months begins

nervous but excited would be how we feel at the moment

on the Dongle stuff where is the MTN office?

is their one near to Peyia?

or is it in Paphos?

as we will want to get set up

ASAP

cheers

maggie :wink:
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