New Telecom Datacard....the T-Stick!

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › New Telecom Datacard....the T-Stick!

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#146108 10-Jul-2008 13:55

Would that be AGPS then which requires 'operator location based services'? Very different to real GPS.

friedCrumpet

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#146121 10-Jul-2008 14:16

undecided: the 1GB+ plan is a tier 2 contract, so (off the top of my head) it would be $500 to disocnnect in first 3 months, $350 to disconnect in first year, or $185 in the last year.....or if you want to save money, after the first year just change it right down to the $10/month mobile broadband flexi at no cost.

Thanks, that comes out to be a really good deal - if it's $350 without a term plan, but with the term plan counting in disconnecting after 6 months makes it $50 more expensive - and you get ~$30/1GB to boot. The $30 mark is about where I think 1GB should be priced at so I am very seriously considering it. I'd rather have a dataplan on my phone but vodafone has yet to come to the party with a deal that could match that (cue iphone grumblings... :P)

The only thing stopping me is if I will be able to get it to run in linux on my EEE. I guess if it handles mac it can't be that hard. I have had some success getting the older pcmcia cards to work before.

Oh btw it wasn't the links to the product I couldn't find, it was information about the disconnection fees :)

freitasm

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#146187 10-Jul-2008 16:18

The software worked with my old cards no problem. But still freezes. I am going to uninstall it and do a clean install instead of updating from th previous version and let you guys know how it goes.

mushtac

157 posts

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#146711 11-Jul-2008 12:43

I'm a Telecom customer but was not happy with the pricing of Telecom mobile data so I purchased a Vodem, from what I can gather the pricing of the T-stick is similar to the Vodem but my main concern is data speed and coverage. I would really like to change from the Vodem to the T-stick mainly for billing purposes (no Vodafone bill just for Vodem) can anyone comment/compare data speed and coverage. Might be a bit early for this sort of comparison but been waiting for a long time for Telecom to have more competitive mobile data pricing. When the Vodem 3G signal is low it will drop down to 2G/GPRS, does the T-stick have a similar setup?

undecided

44 posts

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#146726 11-Jul-2008 13:06

Long story short, yes, it operates similar to the Vodem in that sense.

The best coverage areas (80% of where NZ'ers live, work and play) (or so they say) are covered by EVDO REVA, which is superior in terms of speed (up and down) and coverage to Vodafones HSDPA which I believe has minimal coverage (mainly in big cities)

When not in REV A coverage you will be in Rev 0 or 1x, which are still superior to the equivelents that Voda has.

Telecom = REV A = 800kbps dwn, 300kbps down (averages)

Vodafone Equivelent = HSDPA = 800kbps down, 200kbps up

Telecom = REV 0 = 600 down, 100 up

Vodafone equivelent = GPRS = 50 down, 15 up

Telecom = 1X = 80 down, 80 up

Vodafone equivelent = GPRS

Feel free to correct me

I am merely posting in a few free mins on my lunch break

Telecom for the win

bbman

646 posts

Ultimate Geek

#146937 11-Jul-2008 18:25

EVDO Rev A certainly is far superior to Vodafones current 3G offering, average speed and coverage make the biggest difference. EVDO has a huge foot print per cell verus Vodafones current 2100MHZ 3G network.

In saying that by 2010 Vodafone will have 3g on all sites nationwide with even faster overall speeds so by then if Telecom does nothing Vodafone may have the network of choice.

So at the moment EVDO is deffinately the way to go, at least until Vodafone have a real nation wide 3g offering and or Telecom upgrades all sites to EVDO REV A or ontop of that commits to a 850 MHZ UMTS like Telstra. Both are only an announcement away, well i hope they are:)

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freitasm

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#146946 11-Jul-2008 18:45

I installed the software on anothe machine and I think I know what is the problem... When th Watcher "connects" it shows a toast notification on Windows XP. On my Windows Vista machine the notification never comes up and then the Watcher freezes.

I will check if I have any option to disable notifications and test again.

Other than this the connection is perfect and the built-in microSD card reader works well...

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undecided

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#146987 11-Jul-2008 22:22

So does it connect and let you browse at all or does thr whole system freeze once it connects? that aint a good start......

freitasm

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#146997 11-Jul-2008 22:55

Everything works fine, it is just the watcher program - which you really don't need once drivers are installed.

3puttssuck

744 posts

Ultimate Geek

#147154 12-Jul-2008 15:27

Hi All.
First post to this great forum. I stumbled across geekzone last week and there are some very knowledgeable peolpe here!!.
Anyways.... a T Stick question. I'm keen to get one but I don't know what plan I need. I will use it to make a 15 min skype call 3 to 4 times every 5 weeks and may be 30 to 60 mins web browsing 3 to 4 times every 5 weeks. Any thoughts / advice is most welcome and appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

nzbnw

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#147200 12-Jul-2008 18:01

I would go for the 1GB plan simply because of the 6 months @ 1/2 price promo. If you want to change to the 200MB+ plan after 12months, it should be no charge to do so.

nzbnw

mcbeth1888

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#148028 15-Jul-2008 11:11

Hey guys,

this offer looks like a great deal - and not to sound cheesy but the more you read the better it seems. check the termination fees out....as per telecom website

24 - 22 months remaining - $199
21 - 13 months remaining - $99
21 -1 month remianing - $50

and the card on an open term costs $$349.

so i buy the card on the 24 month plan at $49, disconnect say a month and a bit later and pay $199. I now have a contract free t -stick which cost me in total $248. or i wait three months and the card costs me $148! who would be so stupid as to buy one open term !

and you also get free security suite and a free email. Telecom must be a helluva confident in this product as it really does seem like a good deal with no string s attached.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#148035 15-Jul-2008 11:31

Yes, a contract free t-stick that you can only use on the telecom network. :P

It works out quite well if you decide to change service providers I suppose, but why would you do that in the first month anyway when you would have to buy a new data device, and on the telecom one you get 1GB of data for less than $30 a month for the first six months (and the next GB is capped at $11 ) which is heaps cheaper than any alternative at the moment.

That’s even cheaper than the basic plan on ADSL (which is 200MB of data for $29.95) and not far off the Go plan (3GB for 39.95)

(warning – once you go over the cheap extra 1GB of data with the mobiel data device, the next one will cost you a whopping $583.
“If you go over the monthly data allowance of 1GB, the next 1GB will be capped at $11.25. Any additional data you use over and above this extra 1GB will be charged at the flat rate of 57c per MB.” )

mcbeth1888

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Wannabe Geek

#148065 15-Jul-2008 13:04

I guess you have a point that it would be cheaper per-month to stay on the contract as the contract gets you the cheaper data, but I think the whole Voda-iphone-pricing-contract debate has shown that a lot of NZ'ers are wary of tying themselves into long contracts with large break-out fees.

if this t-stick is being pushed to your ordinary home customers then their circumstances can change all the time and it is nice to know that you can buy out for a pretty cheap price if you are skint/ lose job etc. (then sell the thing on trademe!)

mcbeth1888

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Wannabe Geek

#148066 15-Jul-2008 13:04

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