Is Smartone-Vodafone’s IOM Value Pack Right for iPhone?

Smartone-Vodafone logoOver a month ago I decided to switch to the Smartone-Vodafone “IOM Value Pack“. You can read why I make this move in my previous post, New Tariff Plan from Smartone-Vodafone for iPhone.

I had shared my experience here on my blog with my experience of using the iPhone in Hong Kong since June 2007. You can follow all of these posts by using the iPhone category.

Today is the last day of my bill cycle at Smartone-Vodafone, so I am now able to report if this “IOM Value Pack” is suitable for iPhone users in Hong Kong.

First I will provide some statistics on my iPhone voice and data usage in the past 30 days.

Internet Browsing as they called it = 27.378MB
Data Usage = 4.373MB
RSS Usage = 13.579MB
POP Usage = 0.340MB

As the IOM Value Pack at HKD136/month includes 600MB/month (20MB/day) Internet Browsing, I am within the limit. The Data Usage, which is most likely the result of IMAP email and other application usage. The POP usage is from one of my email account that I grab mail from, and the RSS reader, these all total 18.292MB, Since the IOM Value Pack charges HKD15/15MB, the extra usage resulted in an additional charge of HKD30.00, giving me a final total of:

HKD136.00
HKD30.00 (extra data usage)
HKD12.00 (MTR fees)

Total = HKD178.00

This is still cheaper than what I was paying prior to switching to the IOM Value Pack.

6 Replies to “Is Smartone-Vodafone’s IOM Value Pack Right for iPhone?”

  1. Hi, I've been reading with interest your comments re the IPhone and best contract. If I simply buy the phone from the Apple store (unlocked) and then get the sim from vodafone (they have a deal on at the moment) will it be as simple as putting it in and turning it on, and I'm good to go? Also, is there anything I need to be aware of when I am choosing my contract?I'm looking at the 3G contract for $68, then considering adding the $28 internet bundle which Vodafone say will give me approximately 70 pages per day.Thanks

  2. Sorry to dig up this old thread, but were you able to work out whether Maps and the iphone YouTube app are counted as Smartone web browsing, or standard data?

  3. That's okay… Smartone-Vodafone to this date still unable to provide me a clear definition of what's “Internet Browsing” and what's extra data. Of course the sales and Customer Services say that anything through the Safari browser is considered “Internet Browsing”, but I do not believe that is true, as I had found that traffic through some applications like NetNewsWire are also counted as “Internet Browsing”.I am not sure how Smartone-Vodafone is identifying the packets, or whether they bother to go to that level of details to decide whether data traffic from the iPhone is “Internet Browsing” or regular data.

  4. Do you think Smartone-Vodafone count all HTTP data as “Internet Browsing”? (i.e. including youtube which is over HTTP protocol?)

  5. According to Smartone-Vodafone's FAQ “YouTube traffic” is included in their “Internet Browsing” traffic of their IOM plans.This FAQ note implies YouTube traffic through the native browser of the mobile phone and does not explicitly mention the iPhone. As you know when the Safari browser encounters a video in most cases it will trigger the YouTube native application to play the H.264 version of the video, rather than streaming it as FLASH video to the browser.I had since confirmed with Smartone-Vodafone that their billing system had made exception for the iPhone to include traffic from the YouTube native iPhone application as part of your monthly allowance of 600MB “Internet Browsing”.

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