Vodafone and BBC iPlayer

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

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Today, the BBC have launched an iPlayer application for a few more Nokia phones, but via 3G its only available to users with 3 or Vodafone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2009/06/bbc_iplayer_application_on_nok.html

I can, however, find no mention on the Vodafone site about this. Does anyone know what the charges are for using it? I suspect there is some sort of special deal going on because if you have, say an Orange account, you can only use iPlayer over Wifi and not 3G.

Anyone know any more info?

And for the purposes of billing is iPlayer via the mobile application the same as iPlayer on my laptop using my mobile as a modem?
 
Assumption is of no real use? Why don't you ring vodafone and ask.

Being a bit more helpful though.. Are you on an "unlimited" internet tariff? If so then this will be included.. if not then I doubt it will be included but ring them up and ask :p.
 
I rang them up and the person on the phone didn't know.

I am on an unlimited data plan but it has a 'fair usage' policy of just 500mb a month. A 60 minute iplayer Episode is 600mb!
 
[TW]Fox;14281981 said:
I rang them up and the person on the phone didn't know.

I am on an unlimited data plan but it has a 'fair usage' policy of just 500mb a month. A 60 minute iplayer Episode is 600mb!
Click to expand...

with 3, and on my g1, it comes from my allowance, the quality over 3g isn't amazing though, watchable but the wifi is loads better. Ah yes something useful, i select what quality I want to watch at so I think it's fair to say the low quality one will be well under 600mb.


the selection isn't the usual 'watch in high quality' one, i get the option 3g or wifi)


2 secs i'll see if it mentions size on my app. (ooo er)
 
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Watching iplayer through your laptop via a mobile phone modem is definitely not the same as watching it on your phone. The mobile application will be a much lower bitrate/resolution. I'd expect a hefty bill if you're watching it through your laptop.
 
Galaxy said:
Watching iplayer through your laptop via a mobile phone modem is definitely not the same as watching it on your phone. The mobile application will be a much lower bitrate/resolution. I'd expect a hefty bill if you're watching it through your laptop.
Click to expand...

Any idea what this bill will be?

All I can get out of Vodafone is:

If you’re a very heavy user, and you exceed this limit, you may be charged for your extra usage.
Click to expand...

Great, but HOW MUCH will I be charged! I also wouldnt call 500mb a month 'very heavy' use either.
 
[TW]Fox;14283080 said:
I'd like to watch Top Gear on my laptop using my 3G Phone. This is better than being ripped off by £10 to use Hotel Wifi.
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That's the very reason they don't like you using your phone as a modem :p

Also why they're charging £15/month for iPhone owners to be able to do so, and that doesn't even come with much data, the stingy so-and-sos.

Edit: and as for charging you extra for usage over the fair usage policy, that's ridiculous. What I've heard from O2 is that if I go over my fair usage policy (or approach it) they send me a text warning me of the fact, and if I continue to exceed it, they cut me off til next month when I'm back online again, much better than charging me for excess bandwidth. I don't know what the fair usage limit is, but I haven't hit it yet, although I haven't been streaming HD YouTube.. :p
 
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Oh they are more than welcome to ban me from the internet for a whole month once i've downloaded Top Gear given I wont be using Vodafone data for 40 days afterwards, I just dont want a bill for £93054920584093658996537689427986547396853
 
[TW]Fox;14283585 said:
Any idea what this bill will be?

All I can get out of Vodafone is:



Great, but HOW MUCH will I be charged! I also wouldnt call 500mb a month 'very heavy' use either.
Click to expand...

Well at 650MB per 1hr at standard quality on BBC iplayer you'll be about 150MB over your limit. I've read that mobile phone companies can be quite flexible regarding limits, but judging from that statement it seems like they're free to charge as much as they want. Note that with Vodafone Mobile Broadband (USB stick), every 1GB out of the quota is charged at £5, so it definitely won't be cheap, in my opinion!

Vodafone tend to be the worst in terms of fair-usage policies. Others are more generous at 1GB.

If you're looking for a cheap mobile broadband experience, have a look at 3 pay as you go sim cards, their prices are quite reasonable at £5 a month for a rather flexible 1GB - officially you can't use your phone as a modem, but it works... albeit a little intermittently :p

Edit: maybe play it safe and use the lower bandwidth version of iplayer from the website? that way you'll use less than 500MB and should be safe from any charges...
 
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It's just data usage so how ever much data it pulls down you'll be charged for. I have an unlimited plan with 3 which is 1GB Fair usage. I think I may reset my data logs and see how much an episode of Top Gear pulls down or something.

So surely you just need to find out how much Vodafone charge when going over the fair usage?
 
DanH84 said:
an episode of Live at the Apollo:
45mins wifi: 63mb 3G 36mb
Click to expand...

That's helpful thanks. It seems to be of nice quality over 3G on my E71 doesn't seem much different when I use the House Wifi.

36mb is naff all really I can't imagine watching that much on the move often.

[TW]Fox;14283585 said:
Any idea what this bill will be?

All I can get out of Vodafone is:



Great, but HOW MUCH will I be charged! I also wouldnt call 500mb a month 'very heavy' use either.
Click to expand...

500mb is quite heavy usage, but they are of course presuming you are just using 3G over your phone for browsing and the odd MP3 download perhaps and not using it as a modem as it's agains the T+C? or at least it is with 3!
 
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This is where they need to address this whole stupid statement of unlimited data... 'yes it is unlimited, but by the way if you go over 500MB there will be a problem'.

500MB can be easierly reached in a matter of a week and is hardly what I call heavy use.

Taking that figure of 36MB for an iplayer programme - If you like to watch iplayer twice a day for a week by the end of the week you are at 504MB.

The fair usage policy need to be changed to more like +2GB to enjoy the phone and the apps these days. I can't be bothered constantly using an app which logs data transfered and being careful not to go over it.. hardly unlimited. Things need to change.
 
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with fair usage don't they normally restrict services rather than charging you? otherwise it would just be a 500mb allowance. isn't it Vodafones unlimited data plan with 500mb fair usage allowance?



although someone else on a random internet forum says on it:


DO NOT ever go above your monthly allowance (500MB in this case) as the charges for doing so are purely ridiculous. Voda's latest charges are £2 per MB when over the allowance.
Click to expand...


which if true, is crap.
 
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Did anyone work out whether this was available over the air?

I pulled a couple of mobile iplayer apps down to my phone, and the missus pulled down the iphone version of iplayer. All insist on a WLAN connection. The ones on my vario even insisted on the WLAN connection when I was connected to the internet via usb and activesync. It was a month or two ago though, so.....
 
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