Exercise caution with personal hotspot on Voda UK

[tibi08]

I just wanted to post something to say how unclear the Vodafone UK charging policy is for the personal hotspot. When you look at the settings on the iPhone, it is far from clear that its use would be subject to additional charges over your normal tariff (which typically includes 1Gb of data).

The wireless hotspot uses a tethering APN and its use is subject to additional data charges, the details of which can be found here: iPhone Tethering and Personal Hotspot charging

- Vodafone eForums

Tethering is charged separately from the 1GB of mobile internet use that you get as part of your pay monthly price plan. As soon as you tether your laptop or netbook to the internet, you'll pay £5 for 500MB that lasts for 30 days. Use more than 500MB in that time and you'll pay £5 for each extra 500MB.

- Voda website

I wonder how many people have paid £5 already without even realising it.

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/iphone/tethering.html

 

[AlfaLavala]

So I've upgraded to 4.3 and Personal Hotspot appears in my menu. I wasn't signed up to Tethering beforehand, so does it now know the tethering settings?

Where can I see these on my phone? Under Settings -> General -> Network ->Cellular Data network it only shows APN for Cellular data and MMS.

 

[bobbba]

I quite like vodafone's charging setup for this. It kind of suits my needs. Ideally it would be free but at least it's not a fixed monthly charge option.

 

[A2DY]

any Voda tariff automatically has the tethering bundle that you pay for as soon as you use it,

I used about 30kb for two months using the BT tethering (whe just testing etc) and was charged £5 each time,
I love the idea of the WiFi tether and would use it every now and again but only for a few mb, £5 is just silly when I only use about 300mb of my exisiting allowance!

 

[MattZani]

Hopefully TetherMe goes around this

 

[tibi08]

I quite like vodafone's charging setup for this. It kind of suits my needs. Ideally it would be free but at least it's not a fixed monthly charge option.

I actually agree with you, but I don't think it's very transparent of Vodascum (as I like to call them). Why are they so unable to communicate with their customers? They sold me an iPhone 4, they must know I have it. Why not let me know about the pricing arrangement for the new feature?

 

[Interstella5555]

You mean actually read a contract or Terms of Service for something you're paying for and signing? Wow, kids are out of control these days.

 

[bobbba]

You mean actually read a contract or Terms of Service for something you're paying for and signing? Wow, kids are out of control these days.

I think you'll find that the tethering costs via personal hotspot on ios 4.3 was not included in the t & c's at the time of the iPhone 4 release...

 

[tibi08]

You mean actually read a contract or Terms of Service for something you're paying for and signing? Wow, kids are out of control these days.

That's all very clever, but I am more careful than most on reading t&cs and I never read any such thing. But I guess you were just being a smartass and I took the bait.

 

[A2DY]

They sold me an iPhone 4, they must know I have it. Why not let me know about the pricing arrangement for the new feature?

its not a new feature? tethering has been possible since voda first got the iphone? nothing new about it?

 

[Youngy]

its not a new feature? tethering has been possible since voda first got the iphone? nothing new about it?

The 'Personal Hotspot' is a new extension to tethering.

 

[A2DY]

The 'Personal Hotspot' is a new extension to tethering.

no personal hotspot is just a new name for tethering,

before you could "tether" with BT or USB
Now you can "tether" with BT, USB or WiFi, and changed the name in settings to "Personal Hotspot"

Nothing to do with Vodafone, not in their control if you update the OS to 4.3 or not, I can't see why they should need to tell everyone about the charges again after agreeing to a contract with them?

I do think it shouldn't cost but can't complain about it after agreeing to the contract,

 

[yetanotherdave]

hmm, i just got off the phone with vodafone CS who were quite clear and double checked for me.
Extra data for tethering is £10 per month for 1.5gb or £15 for 3gb, to get this you need to sign up for it and you pay every month regardless of what you use.

HOWEVER

you can use your inclusive 1gb of data to tether, free. No extra charge. IF you go over your 1gb you will be charged at a rate of £5 per 500Mb. This is ad-hoc, you don't need to sign up for anything and if you don't use tethering or don't use over your 1gb, you don't get charged anything extra. Obviously the data is all your mobile use and tethered use combined, so there's a real chance of using it all up and getting charged the extra £5.

This is good for me, I currently pay £5 per month for 1gb internet on my ipad, which I don't really use. I can cancel it and just my iphone on the occasions I want it. Plus I can tether my mbp if needed

this clearly contradicts totally what their website says!!

 

[A2DY]

HOWEVER

you can use your inclusive 1gb of data to tether, free. No extra charge. IF you go over your 1gb you will be charged at a rate of £5 per 500Mb. This is ad-hoc, you don't need to sign up for anything and if you don't use tethering or don't use over your 1gb, you don't get charged anything extra. Obviously the data is all your mobile use and tethered use combined, so there's a real chance of using it all up and getting charged the extra £5.

This is good for me, I currently pay £5 per month for 1gb internet on my ipad, which I don't really use. I can cancel it and just my iphone on the occasions I want it. Plus I can tether my mbp if needed

this clearly contradicts totally what their website says!!

sorry but unless something has changed in the last week or so that is wrong,

I only use about 300mb of my allowance per month, last 3 months i've used about 50mb a month to tether and paid £5 each and every month.

Seems either there has been a massive change of fees or the person you spoke to doesn't know what they're talking about?

 

[yetanotherdave]

sorry but unless something has changed in the last week or so that is wrong,

I only use about 300mb of my allowance per month, last 3 months i've used about 50mb a month to tether and paid £5 each and every month.

Seems either there has been a massive change of fees or the person you spoke to doesn't know what they're talking about?

looks like the latter he did sound very certain, and when I asked him to confirm what he was saying, he went to double check it, however
https://twitter.com/vodafoneuk/status/53531431162490880

 

[A2DY]

looks like the latter he did sound very certain, and when I asked him to confirm what he was saying, he went to double check it, however
https://twitter.com/vodafoneuk/status/53531431162490880

i am sure if you rang when you get your bill with a £5 fee on and complained they would refund and give you a £5 discount monthly from then on,
many people have already done that and been sucessful going from other posts on here and vodafones own forum,

Otherwise could look to JB and then get it for free? The only phone vodafone charge to tether is the iphone, every other phone gets it for free! so I personally dont see the problem if you can find a way aroud it

 

[yetanotherdave]

i am sure if you rang when you get your bill with a £5 fee on and complained they would refund and give you a £5 discount monthly from then on,
many people have already done that and been sucessful going from other posts on here and vodafones own forum,

Otherwise could look to JB and then get it for free? The only phone vodafone charge to tether is the iphone, every other phone gets it for free! so I personally dont see the problem if you can find a way aroud it

interesting, I've managed to get a recurring £5 discount for the duration of a contract before when I signed up for a plan including data and they didn't include it.

and why charge for iPhone and not other phones? that makes no sense.

 

[A2DY]

interesting, I've managed to get a recurring £5 discount for the duration of a contract before when I signed up for a plan including data and they didn't include it.

and why charge for iPhone and not other phones? that makes no sense.

they will do it, voda will always discount in my experience, (when i last upgraded to the iP4 i ended up over £200 in credit from gestures of goodwill from moaning about little things, ended up paying for the phone and 2 months line rental!)

and technical reason they use for the charge is that using the standard data and tethering data use differnt APN's (i think thats what its called, like access points) most other phones use the same so they can't tell the difference.
They say this means they have no choice, this is obviously wrong as three don't charge so they must have the ability to put under the same allowance,

 

[Seyeclops666]

They had to back down under People Power in Australia!!

I just wanted to let you know that having spoken to my brother in Australia Vodaphone and other providers were forced to stop charging for using your own (already paid for) data when using your Iphone's personal hotspot (Tethering)!!

People kicked up a stink, refused to pay and complained to the regulators - so why the hell are we just taking this on the chin??