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Vodafone UK: "Select a data plan and start 3G service on your iPad."

tico24

tico24

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 17, 2007
480
2
Eastleigh, UK
So, my iPad and Vodafone microsim arrived yesterday.

The apple website says "Select a data plan and start 3G service on your iPad."
I can't for the life of me find out how to do this and ended up having to call Vodafone to activate the sim and get 3G working on my ipad.

Any other UK iPad owners got any ideas what I did wrong?
 
tico24 said:
So, my iPad and Vodafone microsim arrived yesterday.

The apple website says "Select a data plan and start 3G service on your iPad."
I can't for the life of me find out how to do this and ended up having to call Vodafone to activate the sim and get 3G working on my ipad.

Any other UK iPad owners got any ideas what I did wrong?
Click to expand...

Settings -> Cellular Data -> View Account.

(With the O2 sim, that pops up a window for you to access the sign up/account page)
 
from what I have read, the Vodafone tarrifs arent manageable on the iPad like o2 and 3 are, you need to do it over the phone.
I dont think you did anything wrong..
 
Just got off the phone with Apple, it seems that Vodafone weren't ready for the launch and that their activation server isn't working yet. Apparently there's a similar situation going on with o2. Guy I spoke to said he'd phone me back when he has updated information, very friendly, so I'll keep you posted.
 
Hexxeh said:
Just got off the phone with Apple, it seems that Vodafone weren't ready for the launch and that their activation server isn't working yet. Apparently there's a similar situation going on with o2. Guy I spoke to said he'd phone me back when he has updated information, very friendly, so I'll keep you posted.
Click to expand...

Awesome - makes sense. It'll be a lot easier when I can manage it on the device itself, but the telephone call wasn't exactly difficult.
 
I tried phoning them, couldn't activate it because it was technically a contract and I'm not 18. Nowhere on Apple's site is this actually mentioned, though. I'll be putting a PAYG frankenSIM in then it seems.
 
Hexxeh said:
I tried phoning them, couldn't activate it because it was technically a contract and I'm not 18. Nowhere on Apple's site is this actually mentioned, though. I'll be putting a PAYG frankenSIM in then it seems.
Click to expand...

I agree - that wasn't made clear prior to calling them. For everyone else's information, Vodafone will need to run a credit check before activating your sim.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Got to say I just poped into a Vodafone store and they got me up and running. They also said they hve microsims in stock so anyone that can pass a credit check can have one. They are so lovely in my area. Up and running in minutes. Already have my iPhone with them so they just added to my account. I went for 1GB but might have to up it as I've used 100MB in two days (mine arrived yesterday).
 
Just cut up an old vodafone PAYG sim, put it in, changed the APN and it just works! £1 free credit too, so two days of browsing free.

APN you need for PAYG is pp.vodafone.co.uk :)
 
tico24 said:
100mb in two days is 2gb a month - I suspect once the novelty factor has worn off a bit, you'll end up using less data. As far as I'm concerned, I recon you're on track to use 1gb in a month.
Click to expand...

Yeah I guess you're right - I was shocked I managed to use 50MB yesterday as I never go over 200MB on my iPhone. I guess I over-killed yesterday it was so exciting!!!!
 
Does anyone know when Vodafone on device management will be working? Will it ever work?

I am very happy with the performance and network coverage of Vodafone but I don't want to be ringing them up all of the time. It was an extremely painful experience to get my Vodafone SIM working! I need on device activation!

Just tried an O2 SIM and the on device activation worked beautifully. I am currently trying the £2 for a day of data deal. But O2's coverage is not good enough so not an ideal long term option for me...
 
Hats off to O2 for being the only operator that has worked with Apple to give us a good experience with the iPad. The others just want the revenues, they're not interested in the customer experience, that much is clear.
 
Anyone know why Vodafone requires a credit check and O2 does not? Since you effectively pre-paying, what would be the purpose of such a credit check?
 
Loge said:
Anyone know why Vodafone requires a credit check and O2 does not? Since you effectively pre-paying, what would be the purpose of such a credit check?
Click to expand...

The Vodafone agreement is effectively a contract. It's a one month contract. I'm not very impressed and I think I will be cancelling mine unless they can let me manage it on my iPad. I really can't be bothered with ringing up call centres!
 
Seamaster said:
Hats off to O2 for being the only operator that has worked with Apple to give us a good experience with the iPad. The others just want the revenues, they're not interested in the customer experience, that much is clear.
Click to expand...


How are you finding the O2 3G service? I've not experienced much problem at all, it's not of course as fast as wifi but very acceptable speeds. :)

davidChief said:
The Vodafone agreement is effectively a contract. It's a one month contract. I'm not very impressed and I think I will be cancelling mine unless they can let me manage it on my iPad. I really can't be bothered with ringing up call centres!
Click to expand...

This is what detered me from using the other providers in the first place, all that phoning up every month is going to quickly get tiresome. They need to set it up so you can activate and cancel 3G service directly from the ipad asap.
 
Elise said:
How are you finding the O2 3G service? I've not experienced much problem at all, it's not of course as fast as wifi but very acceptable speeds. :)
Click to expand...

It's fast where they have coverage but there are large parts of the country round by me where I get so signal at all. Vodafone seem to have much wider coverage round here.
 
Totally agree, utter pain to try and get it setup - took over 15 minutes (lady kept apologising for the delay) just to try and get the sim activated, def a contract as they do a credit check, for which you need a credit or debit card.

In the end I told them to forget it and just cut up an Orange PAYG instead.

Think i'm gonna get a sim for all the operators and use frankensims until i get the one with the best coverage in my area.
 
Loge said:
Anyone know why Vodafone requires a credit check and O2 does not? Since you effectively pre-paying, what would be the purpose of such a credit check?
Click to expand...

That's a very political question.

It has a lot to do with the pressure being put on all retailers that hold databases of individuals details and the Experian group who want this information.

Government and private groups can utilise the vast databases held by Experian.
 
Elise said:
How are you finding the O2 3G service? I've not experienced much problem at all, it's not of course as fast as wifi but very acceptable speeds. :)
Click to expand...

Perfectly acceptable in urban areas. It'll be even better when O2/BT sort themselves out with regard to Openzone access.

The problem with O2 is coverage outside the major conurbations. I'm up and down to London Village every week, and there are huge sections of the East Coast rail line where there's no 3G at all outside of stations.
 
Loge said:
Anyone know why Vodafone requires a credit check and O2 does not? Since you effectively pre-paying, what would be the purpose of such a credit check?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is technically post-pay. You are billed afterwards for the plan you select plus any charges if you go over the package you select. For O2 you pay at the time you select and when you have used up your allowance it stops working until you buy another package.
 
Oh dear. Vodafone's performance is just getting worse and worse. I just received the following email from them:

"If you've got an iPad MicroSIM: Sorry, but you won't be able to manage your bills online with My account. Don't worry - we'll carry on sending you paper bills."

So that means you:

1) Can't manage your contract through their own 'My Account' portal.

2) Can't manage your usage or account on the iPad (unlike O2).

3) Have no way of tracking your usage.

Pathetic!!

http://twitter.com/dh130i/status/15238431201
 
Tried to confirm with Vodafone. Failed:

http://twitter.com/plinkk/status/15238566365
@VodafoneUK When am I going to configure your service on my iPad? I'm getting impatient here. You know launch day was last Friday right?

http://twitter.com/VodafoneUK/status/15239484037
@Plinkk Have you called the activation team since receiving your micro sim? ^AW

http://twitter.com/plinkk/status/15239646604
@VodafoneUK Yup. But there's no way I'm calling the activation team when I want to start/stop the service. When can I do it from my ipad?

http://twitter.com/VodafoneUK/status/15239762443
@plinkk We ahve no further news when an app will be available at the moment ^AW

*bangs head against wall*
 
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