The thoughts of a true technology versatilist
People overseas have asked if I can recommend a stored-value SIM package for them during their stay in Hong Kong, so instead of repeating my answer over an over I’ve decided to create a post.
Before reading this post one needs to understand one thing about the mobile market in Hong Kong. It is very competitive and the rates and packages change frequently; around every six months. So aside from the following recommendations you should also verify my information when you arrive in Hong Kong.
My broadband service provider, Netvigator (by PCCW), throw the switch of my broadband connection this morning to upgrade it from 30 Mbps to 100 Mbps.
Although Netvigator has fiber services to homes unfortunately this is not available for my home. Instead what Netvigator offers at my address is DSL at 100 Mbps. Since my DSL modem was recently (3 months) upgraded all that was needed was a setting change at the PCCW exchange.
With this new technology it means most customers who receive broadband services from Netvigator will have or will soon to have 100 Mbps bandwidth if they want to upgrade.
Continue reading “100 Mbps Broadband Upgrade [Updated]”
Recently you may have just purchased one of Apple’s latest gadgets, the iPad WiFi+3G, from the 9 countries officially selling them, or plans to get one of the iPhone 4 from either Canada, France and UK. This is because all iPad WiFi+3G (except the ones sold in Japan) and iPhone 4 sold in Canada, France, UK and Hong Kong are SIM-unlocked. Meaning they will not be locked to a particular GSM carrier, therefore users can choose to put GSM SIM cards from any carriers into these devices and they will work.
That’s true with a small exception, these GSM SIM must be the micro-SIM format rather than the more commonly used “mini-SIM” among GSM carriers around the world.
With the pending iPad official release by Apple Hong Kong some time in July, mobile carriers in Hong Kong have begin to release tariff plans designed specifically to target iPad owners.
Among them only 3 HK currently has a data plan that comes with either a regular mini-SIM or the new micro-SIM. The rest of the carriers are offering data only 3G tariff plans that includes a free USB 3G modem. All of the plans also come with free WiFi network.
Continue reading “Choosing a 3G Tariff Plan in Hong Kong for iPad”
Early this year both PCCW and CSL launched their HSPA+ network. As a result improving the speed and capacity of their respective networks. Offering a theoretical downlink speed of 21Mbps and uplink speed of 7Mbps.
On Wednesday, November 4th Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) launched their HSPA+ upgrade to their 3G network.
The difference between SMV’s announcements and the others, is that SMV also released a document to clarify the theoretical speed of HSPA+. Where as other mobile carriers in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world, only focused on marketing the HSPA+ networks’ capability of 21Mbps speed, leaving the actual ability to achieve 21Mbps as small prints in their promotional materials. Such practices of these other mobile carriers are very misleading for layman consumers. I will attempt to explain further, to help clarify this theoretical speed of HSPA+ for layman consumers.
Early this year both PCCW and CSL launched their HSPA+ network. As a result improving the speed and capacity of their respective networks. Offering a theoretical downlink speed of 21Mbps and uplink speed of 7Mbps.
On Wednesday, November 4th Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) launched their HSPA+ upgrade to their 3G network.
The difference between SMV’s announcements and the others, is that SMV also released a document to clarify the theoretical speed of HSPA+. Where as other mobile carriers in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world, only focused on marketing the HSPA+ networks’ capability of 21Mbps speed, leaving the actual ability to achieve 21Mbps as small prints in their promotional materials. Such practices of these other mobile carriers are very misleading for layman consumers. I will attempt to explain further, to help clarify this theoretical speed of HSPA+ for layman consumers.
Started about 14:00 yesterday (August 17, 2009) Hong Kong time access to majority of the Internet web services hosted outside of Asia was unreachable.
This first happened at my home with Netvigator Home Broadband service. I Tweeted about this hoping to get confirmation from others in Hong Kong. I also left to tried to see if the problem is localized to my building or district (Wanchai). I visited a Starbucks in Causeway Bay. After logging into PCCW WiFi connection at Starbucks I confirmed that most Internet web services were unreachable.
A friend then came and logged into the PCCW WiFi University service and was able to connect to each of the web services I was not able to. So I proceeded to try using Smartone-Vodafone to reach these Internet web services. I was too successful in accessing these Internet web services via Smartone-Vodafone’s HSDPA network.
This morning China Unicom released an explanation, as reported by Shanghai Daily, the reasons for yesterday’s Internet interruptions for its customers. PCCW’s Netvigator service released a short news item in their Customer Service section of their web site, placing blame on “severe weather conditions” that caused “multiple submarine cable faults” claiming that “Some customers may experience traffic congestions” with”international traffic”. I have encountered Error 500 for services I tried to access, but in Netvigator’s “news item”, it claims that their “systems are in normal operation and are working closely with partners to divert traffic”.
I cannot see how they can claim their “systems are in normal operation”, when I had paid for and expects the delivery of broadband Internet service at 8Mbps. So I called Netvigator’s Technical Support line, 1000, and filed a complaint and asked for details of compensation to customer for the interruption.
According to Netvigator service policy, if any interruptions is longer than 24 hours their customer is justified for compensation. The Technical Support representative tells me that I should call back after the service is back to “normal”, since they have no idea how long the interruptions will last.
I asked the Technical Support representative if all Netvigator customers will be compensated after the service returns to normal, and he gave me a convoluted answer that basically say that not all Netvigator customers will experience the problem. So I ask for my official complaint to be logged.
I suggest everyone who are effected by the PCCW’s Netvigator Broadband Home service interruption to call Netvigator and demand compensation and to ask for your complaint to be logged.
When I the create the post, To iPhone 3G S or Not?, I was not able to enable the MMS function on my iPhone 3G.
Before I explain how to enable MMS on an iPhone 3G running the iPhone 3.0 firmware, let me explain my context.
My iPhone 3G is the officially “SIM unlocked” version of the iPhone 3G directly from Apple Online Store Hong Kong. It capacity happens to be a 16GB version. I installed the iPhone 3.0 firmware “Golden Master” version onto my iPhone.
The following applies to any carrier situations, no matter whether the carrier in question is an official carrier partner with Apple in the country.
[Update: 12:10, June 18, 2009]
Added MMS settings for PCCW. Please note that these settings had not been tested on the iPhone. Please leave a note in the Comment section if you’re a PCCW customer and tried it on your iPhone 3G.
[Update: 13:01, June 18, 2009]
Thanks to reader Jon for pointing out the typo in the MMSC for Smartone-Vodafone.
[Update: 14:01, June 18, 2009]
I just received some news from Smartone-Vodafone that contradicts the information I received from them in two separate occasions, which is the fact that they do not charge their customers for receiving MMS.
The latest information is that they will charge HKD0.04/KB; a maximum of HKD12.00/MMS, to receive MMS.
This comes back to my original point I always had with MMS, the technology will not get wide adoptions and acceptances by consumers until the carriers remove these ridiculous pricing.
I for one will not use it!
I encourage all to not use it and ensure you do not pay the fees to show our disgust.
[Update: 17:11, June 18, 2009]
Thanks to reader Karay who pointed to a person calling himself “markmall_hk” on UWants.com, I have now updated the MMS settings for all mobile carriers in Hong Kong.
[Update: 01:10, June 20, 2009]
Added settings for CTM in Macau.
[Update: 01:20, June 20, 2009]
Thanks to reader Niels for the China Unicom 3G settings in mainland China.
[Update: 01:30, June 20, 2009]
Thanks to reader Ju for confirming the settings for PEOPLE.
[Update: 15:10, June 20, 2009]
Thanks to reader Todd for confirming the settings for CSL
[Update: 22:00, June 23, 2009]
Thanks to the folks at iPhoneHacks.com we now have a set of instructions for our US friends who are stuck with AT&T.
[Update: 12:15, June 24, 2009]
Thanks to reader Filipe for supplying the settings for CTM Macau non-prepaid SIM card customers.
[Update: 16:00, June 25, 2009]
I just double checked Smartone-Vodafone’s web site and it clearly states that “3G SmarTone-Vodafone customers” can receive MMS for FREE.
So I do not understand why the previous Customer Service representative claims that I have to pay the HKD0.04/KB when I clearly told her that I was on a 3G plan, plus she had my account opened in front of her.
[Update: 12:00, June 26, 2009]
Added the instructions to enable to the “Cellular Data Network” option within the Network settings pane.
This evening (20:52) my girlfriend received a call on her mobile from PCCW Netvigator telephone salesperson. Like in most cases when one receive this sort of unsolicited telephone call, she simply told the salesperson on the phone that she does not have time to talk, which was the case this evening, as she was at a friend’s house.
Instead of giving up and move on to the next “victim” on their call list, the salesperson calls her back and said, “… I was not calling to give you an offer, but if I was I would not offer it to you.”, then hung up.
First of all these sorts of calls are unsolicited and I would consider them to be SPAM calls. I will be writing to OFTA to file a formal complaint of PCCW Netvigator salesperson’s attitudes. Of course, PCCW’s salespersons are already famous in Hong Kong for having one of the worst customer facing attitudes so that is not too surprising.
I wish OFTA would have an ordinance like the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance for regular telephone calls.
As I still found my Smartone-Vodafone charges too high, I decided to look for alternatives, including those from competitors, like: PCCW, Three and People.
For those of you who’ve been following my ideal iPhone tariff plan search in Hong Kong, you will know that I had been using Smartone-Vodafone’s 3G voice plan (HKD128/month) + Internet Browsing (HKD38/month)+ Data plan (HKD118/month), giving me a total monthly bill of HKD296/month (including the MTR and administrative fees).
What did these combinations of plans gave me? I will only focus on the features that matters for an iPhone user.
Continue reading “New Tariff Plan from Smartone-Vodafone for iPhone”