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.
Smartone-Vodafone (Option 1):
1200 minutes of talk time outside of the Smartone-Vodafone network
800 minutes of talk time within the Smartone-Vodafone network
Free SMS within the Smartone-Vodafone network
Voice mail, Call forwarding, Caller number display, Call waiting and Conference call
20MB/day of Internet browsing (HTTP traffic)
20MB/month of Data traffic (all traffic except HTTP, ie. POP3, IMAP, etc.), extra usage will be at a rate of HKD0.01/KB
I looked at my bill from September and notice that I had approximately 8MB of data usage outside of the HTTP protocol. I used approximately 700 minutes within the Smartone-Vodafone network and 130 minutes outside of the network.
I then looked at PCCW’s “Web + Talk” HKD98/month tariff plan, to see if it is something more appropriate for my usage habits. I found that for HKD98/month, there is no contract commitment. Plus the plan gives you the following.
PCCW “Web + Talk” (Option 2):
600 minutes of talk time outside of the PCCW network
600 minutes of talk time within the PCCW network
Free SMS within the PCCW network (the sales person told me there was no free SMS, but their web site claims there is)
Unlimited use of PCCW WiFi hotspot
60MB/month of data usage (the sales person claims this is HSDPA, but the web site claims it is GPRS), any extra data traffic will be charged at a rate of HKD10/10MB, with a maximum of HK298
Basing on my September usage, I use on average 18MB per day of data traffic, I am expected to pay and extra HKD298/month to cover the extra data usage. Giving me a total cost of HKD98 + HKD12 + HKD298 = HKD408/month.
So I decided to give Smartone-Vodafone’s new Internet Browsing plan a try. Starting on November 12th, I am using their new Internet Browsing Plan, “IOM Value Pack” for HKD136.00 per month + HKD12.00 for MTR and Administrative charges = HKD148/moth.
Note that the HK96.00/month and HKD116/month plans require contractual agreements of 15 months. As many of you know I am against committing to any contracts for mobile tariff plans, as these prices usually drops within 6 months time. Due to the heavy competition in Hong Kong’s mobile market.
Smartone-Vodafone “IOM Value Pack” (Option 3):
600 minutes of talk time outside of the Smartone-Vodafone network
600 minutes of talk time within the Smartone-Vodafone network
Free SMS within the Smartone-Vodafone network
Voice mail, Call forwarding, Caller number display, Call waiting and Conference call
600MB/month (20MB/day) data usage.
The thing about Smartone-Vodafone’s data allowance is that it only covers HTTP traffic, or in their words “web browsing”. They really should be more specific than calling it “web browsing”. I understand that anything more technical may be confusing for the average user, but they should clarify what “web browsing” mean in a footnote, detailing the Internet protocols. For the moment I can only deduce that “web browsing” covers any traffic using the HTTP protocol (ie. HTTP GET, HTTP POST, HTTPS activities).
Any extra data usage over the 600MB/month (20MB/day) or outside the HTTP protocol will be charged at HK15.00/15MB. Given my September month’s usage (8MB of data usage outside of the HTTP protocol and less than 20MB/day HTTP traffic) I am expected to be charge an extra HK15.
This gives my monthly bill under the IOM Value Pack plan to be HKD136 + HKD15 +HKD12 = HKD163/month.
So my options are:
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
HKD296/month
HKD408/month
HKD163/month
Smartone-Vodafone
PCCW
Smartone-Vodafone
I will report back in a month’s time to see if my new plan choice is the right one for an average iPhone user in Hong Kong.
I have now confirmed with Smartone-Vodafone that the Internet Browsing plan; now known as IOM plan, indeed only cover HTTP and the corresponding HTTPS traffic. So any web traffic through Mobile Safari on your iPhone and any applications; whether it is downloaded from the Apple AppStore or unauthorized 3rd party, that uses the HTTP Posts and Gets will be covered in the Internet Browsing plan.
Any POP3 traffic will be outside of the Internet Browsing plan allowance and Smartone-Vodafone has a separate POP3 Email monthly plan for HKD30/month. As a result any IMAP or Exchange Push traffic will be count as regular Data traffic. I think this omission of IMAP and Exchange traffic from the Email monthly plan is the wrong thing to do for Smartone-Vodafone. Why would anyone choose POP3 over IMAP or Exchange email is beyond me. Especially when the iPhone is only one of many devices most users will use to access their emails, and definitely not the primary device. I urge Smartone-Vodafone to listen to its customers and change their Email monthly plan.
A few days ago I posted an article, Smartone-Vodafone’s Stubbornness, here about the decision of the local carrier, Smartone-Vodafone including a Task Bar on every browser page one visit while using their EDGE network. I will not go into details please, please read it in my previous article.
Today when I accessed these same web pages using the browser (MobileSafari) on my iPhone while on the Smartone-Vodafone EDGE network, this Task Bar is no longer there.
I do wish that I had some part in making this happen. I want to think that my blog is visited by employees of Smartine-Vodafone. Not just any employees, but someone high enough in their company to be able to execute a change in policy.
At the same time there is also a possibility that it was a coincident, and Smartone-Vodafone had always planned this change.
I will just think it is the former. If my assumption is true, this will further re-enforce my believe that Smartone-Vodafone is the only local carrier who make great efforts to serve it’s customers better. By first listening to what it’s customers need, which we all know is the first step in building a loyal customer base. Especially during this tough economic times.
Over the past year I had been trying to convince my current mobile carrier that their silly task bar; designed for WAP sites, on old generation mobile phones, is useless to me and should not be appearing on my phone, especially when I am using an iPhone.
They insist that this task bar is there to “enhance my surfing experience”, which I consider to be wasting valuable screen real estate for content of the web pages I visit. I told them that I did not signup to their service knowing that this task bar will be obscuring my surfing experience, and I believe that I should have the rights to remove this task bar from the web pages that I visit through their network (EDGE, HSDPA, etc.).
Recently this annoying task bar became larger; it doubled in height, occupying even more of the limited screen real estate on my phone.
Take for example the well designed Google Calendar. First let’s look at the Week view of my calendar displayed on my iPhone.
The screen shot on the left is my Google Calendar accessed via WiFi connection. You can see that with Google’s current design I can see about 4 events across three days. If there were more events on Nov. 6th I may get up to 6 events on the first fold of the iPhone browser.
The screen shot on the right, is the same Google Calendar Week view accessed via Smartone-Vodafone’s EDGE network. You can see the presence of the useless Smartone-Vodafone so called “value added task bar”. I have no idea what the two ions on the task bar are for, my guess is that the second icon is to allow the user to save the current web page into the user’s Smartone-Vodafone bookmark on their server. Of course I do not need that, since all my bookmarks on my iPhone are synchronized with the Safari browser on my Macintosh (for Windows iPhone users, their bookmarks would be synchronized with their IE browser on their Windows OS computer).
This time looking at Google Calendar’s Event view. The screen shot on the left is one of my Google Calendar event accessed via WiFi. i do not have much information in this event, what is missing are additional notes, contacts details, location or a long event title. If I did, the screen shot on the right will have wasted much of the valuable screen real estate both at the top and bottom of the page.
I had always say to everyone I know in Hong Kong, Smartone-Vodafone is not the mobile carrier with the best connection, the best price or the best customer service. What they are, is the only Hong Kong mobile carrier that make an effort to serve their customers the best they can and make their customers believe that they want to deliver the best services possible. I hope this stubbornness is not a sign that they are loosing their edge and becoming like the rest of the carriers in Hong Kong who only care to gauge as much money from their customers as possible.
I do not want to prevent or ask Smartone-Vodafone to stop “innovating”. All I am asking for, is to allow the customer, the one they are trying to serve, the choice in receive these “features” on their mobile phones.
I urge for all smartphone, iPhone, soon Google G1 and Blackberry Thunder users on the Smartone-Vodafone network to complain to them, and make a request to allow us the option to remove this useless task bar that no mobile users of these categories of mobile phones will ever use.
Apple HK made the iPhone 3G available to everyone with a HK shipping address via Apple Hong Kong’s online store.
This made Hong Kong the hub (and “source”) of iPhone 3G that are free from the shackle of the money hungry, backward thinking mobile carriers. As of the writing of this post Apple Hong Kong’s online store shows a 24 hours delivery time and free shipping. I am certain when news spread of this availability, the inventory will go quickly.
I was always against the idea of having to commit to Three HK for a 2-year contract just to gain the privilege of purchasing an Apple iPhone 3G. Now I have less of a barrier to bring this great device to the mobile carrier of my choice (”Smartone-Vodafone”).
Ah… my first generation iPhone worth even less now. Them are the breaks, especially with technology devices.
Is this move by Apple a sign of things to come for other (47) iPhone selling countries? Is this Apple’s way of changing their strategy to put as many iPhones in the hands of consumers as possible? This has always been one of the pain points of critics.
In hindsight, did Apple make the right move, by first capitalizing on the revenue gain from the few carriers reselling iPhones, Apple not only stir up the excitements for the device, but was also able to string the carriers along with the privilege of exclusivity.
Steve Jobs always says that Apple is a software company focus on delivering the best, complete user-experience to the end-users. Assuming this action in Hong Kong is indeed a change in Apple’s iPhone strategy, this means they are indeed focusing more on what one can do with the iPhone rather than simply selling iPhones. You can say it is a means to an end.
As a result more focuses will be placed on the AppStore in iTunes Store, and the debacle approval process that Apple had employed thus far for 3rd party applications. If Apple really going to focus on what one can do with the iPhone; aka software, then Apple will need to improve the development process, making it much more seamless and less of a walled garden.
May be Apple should consider the Mac OS X and Darwin approach, where it takes an open operating system like FreeBSD created Mac OS X and then released a version of it as Opensource called Darwin. Imagine Apple taking something like Google’s Android, transform it into a new version of Mobile Cocoa and then contributing back to the Opensource Android platform.
With this proposed approach Apple will differentiate itself among the handset manufactures in terms of design, which Jonathan Ive consistently delivers. And on the great user experience of the Apple version of the Android compatible mobile phone.
Back when Apple first announced the availability of the iPhone 3G to 73 countries around the world, with many of those having more than one carriers receiving the privilege of selling the phone. I had predicted the plan of Apple is to introduce the iPhone through exclusive carrier to build up the hype. Then it allows certain countries more than one carriers to sell the iPhone so that consumers receive a choice, but when the carriers not able to differentiate themselves among its competitors, Apple steps in and say, “you [the carriers] cannot say we did not let you try.”, they had for a year and a half. Now [the end of 2008] they take over and sell the phone independent of any 3rd parties and no one can complain they did not give them a chance.
If my analysis is correct, you may not want to rush out and get the iPhone 3G from Apple Hong Kong’s online store. That is because the third phase of Apple’s iPhone strategy will happen in Hong Kong when Three (”rumored”) looses its exclusivity late October. Just in time for Apple to lower the price for the Christmas shopping season.
Most people; especially the critics, need to remember that Steve Jobs manages Apple like a chess master, he is always thinking many moves ahead of all of us. So don’t be so quick to criticize his decisions. Over the years [24+], being a user of the Macintosh and making it my computing tool of choice, I have learnt to accept the fact that Apple; particularly Steve Jobs, knows better.
There was a report last night that the iPhone 3G sold by the carrier, Three, in Hong Kong is unlocked; meaning it is not tied to a specific carrier.
This news was a bit hard to believe as news from other countries like US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, the iPhone 3G sold there are all locked to the respective mobile carriers.
Therefor, if you do not want to stick with Three’s service you now have a choice, but the cheapest choice is:
HKD4680.00 + HKD188 x 24 months + MTR Fee (HKD12 x 24) = HKD9480.00 - HKD1742 = HKD7738 (including the rebate you will receive over 2 years)
Now I have first hand confirmation from a friend who purchased one of these iPhone 3G at Three HK. He was able to put in a PCCW SIM card while having full access to all functionalities of the phone including EDGE and GPRS functions.
Is this really worth it. I say not, especially if you already have an iPhone (1st generation). Wait for the other carriers in Hong Kong; namely PCCW and/or Smartone-Vodafone receive the rights to sell the iPhone 3G.
Well not exactly… that are dropping POP3 in the list of protocol that comes free with their “Internet Browsing” plan.
For those iPhone users in Hong Kong who followed my advice and subscribed to the Smartone-Vodafone’s “Internet Browsing” and the GSM 2G/3G Data plans, you should have received a SMS from Smartone-Vodafone to inform you that they will be dropping the POP3 protocol within the “Internet Browsing” plan.
One less protocol in the already limited features list of this “Internet Browsing” plan; you can see my article, “iPhone Hacked in Hong Kong on Smartone-Vodafone“, from a Smartone-Vodafone customer’s point of view on using the iPhone in Hong Kong for my opinions on this plan.
I am not certain if this decision of Smartone-Vodafone is the direct result of too many Smartphone and iPhone users using the Internet Browsing plan for POP3 and IMAP access. It is very obvious that their Product Development department did not think clearly about this plan before they launch it, and now they are trying to recover by dissecting the features of this plan further. Spawning even more VAS from it.
If you are one of the many iPhone users who took my advise in the article, “iPhone Hacked in Hong Kong on Smartone-Vodafone“, then there is no need for you to do anything. Unless your POP3 usage is so large that it exceeds your current 2G/3G Data plan monthly quota. In that case you may want to weight the benefit of upgrading to the higher 2G/3G Data plan of the new “POP3″ VAS to the Internet Browsing plan.
Note: that Smartone-Vodafone only speak of POP3 and they did not mention IMAP, nor did they exclude any POP3 access over a VPN. So you should take these into consideration if you need to argue with them on your next phone bill.
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.
Apple HK made the 
There was a report last night that the iPhone 3G sold by the carrier, Three, in Hong Kong is unlocked; meaning it is not tied to a specific carrier.
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