Click below to
find interesting
information from our
July 2011
newsletter
relating to:
Roaming
Travel
Mobile phones
Roaming
iPhone
voicemail
while
roaming
When Visual
Voicemail was
introduced
earlier this
year, travellers
discovered that
it is actually
cheaper for
international
travellers to
use than calling
into Telstra's
voicemail
service to
listen to
messages, even
taking into
account
Telstra's $5
monthly Visual
Voicemail access
fee. It's even
better for
Vodafone
customers, as
Vodafone charges
no monthly fee,
and includes the
feature as
standard.
If you're
using the
iPhone's "Visual
Voicemail"
feature while
overseas, you
may have
discovered that
it doesn't work
if you turn off
data roaming.
The reason is
that Visual
Voicemail cannot
be accessed via
Wi-Fi, only
through the
mobile network's
data roaming
connection -
which you should
disable as
leaving data
roaming switched
on all the time
while overseas
can get
very
expensive,
very
quickly.
It
sounds
counter-intuitive
given Visual
Voicemail itself
doesn't use
Wi-Fi, but the
trick to using
it cheaply is to
only use it
while connected
to a Wi-Fi
hotspot (which
prevents the
iPhone pulling
down a whole lot
of unrelated
internet data
over the 3G data
roaming, as the
iPhone always
uses Wi-Fi in
preference to
3G).
However, it
will still
download Visual
Voicemail
messages (and
only them)
through the 3G
data roaming
connection, as
they cannot go
through Wi-Fi.
Once they have
arrived on your
phone, you
should
immediately
disable data
roaming again.
By enabling
roaming data to
check your
Visual Voicemail
messages, you
run the risk of
forgetting to
turn it off, and
then downloading
plenty of other
data apart from
your voicemail
messages, which
could result in
a bill of
hundreds, or
thousands of
dollars.
Of course
voicemail on our vSIM
post-paid
alternative
doesn't get
charged at
exorbitant
rates, and is
much simpler.
Travel
Cheap
flights
Actually
that's
any
modern
flight.
According
to
Flight
Centre's
boss,
Graham
Turner,
flights
on the
"kangaroo
route"
to
London
are 60
times
cheaper
now than
64 years
ago.
The
typical economy
return fare to
London is now
around $1,800,
or about a week
and a half wages
for the average
worker. In 1947,
the first year
Qantas started
flying the
route, fares
(adjusted for
inflation) cost
the equivalent
of $110,000
(then £585) or
130 weeks of the
average wage.
Many factors
have caused this
dramatic
increase in
affordability,
including market
deregulation,
much larger and
much more
efficient
aircraft capable
of flying much
larger numbers
of passengers
much longer
distances
(notably the 747
jumbo-jet
introduced in
the 1970s).
In 1947 the
Lockheed
Constellation
carried just 29
passengers and
required six
stops for
refuelling (and
the occasional
engine change -
aircraft weren't
so reliable in
those days) for
the three-day
journey (Darwin,
Singapore,
Calcutta,
Karachi, Cairo
and Tripoli)
with overnight
stops in hotels
in Cairo and
Singapore.
Mobile phones
Telstra
throttles data
As a result of a
campaign by the
Australian
Communications
and Media
Authority,
Telstra will
start throttling
mobile data
speeds once
customers exceed
their monthly
quota, in an
effort to avoid
‘bill shock’.
Rate-limiting
(throttling) has
been a feature
of the fixed
broadband
market, and
Telstra’s mobile
broadband plans
designed to be
used with a USB
dongle also use
the feature — so
that speeds are
throttled to
64kps, similar
to a dial-up
connection, when
a customer’s
allowance has
been exceeded.
Customers will
also be able to
top-up their
mobile data
quota directly
from their
handsets, and
will also
receive “near
real-time” SMS
alerts when
their data quota
hits 80 and 100
per cent.
In addition,
Telstra is also
planning to give
SMS alerts that
provide advice
on the volume
and costs
associated with
overseas roaming
data.
We'd rather they
just cut the
prices instead
of telling us
how expensive it
is.
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