It’s CeBIT time and wireless operators in Germany have been keen these days to announce new price plans for mobile data. One of the most exciting announcements for me is Vodafone Germany’s announcement of lowering the price for their WebSessions data price plan while roaming. So far, they were charging 30 euros a day for Internet access to roaming customers in one of their partner networks. Now, they’ve lowered the price to 15 euros. While still too expensive for private use, it will help business travelers a lot.
And the cream on top: WebSessions also work with Vodafone Germany prepaid cards and a 24 hour web session can be bought either via the monthly phone bill (post paid), via the prepaid account or via credit card. Credit card payment is especially useful for business travelers needing a receipt for their company.
A WebSession is started by establishing an Internet connection via the "event.vodafone.de" apn. Afterwards, web access is redirected to a portal page on which the payment method can be selected. The fine print: The session duration is 24 hours and there is no limit on the number of reconnects during that time. The data volume, however, is limited to 50 megabytes after which access is blocked. For most people, that should be more than enough. More on the technical details when I had a chance to try it in practice.
I had a quick look at the web site of Vodafone U.K. (the mother ship…) to see if they have similar offers. I came up empty handed!? So it looks like the national divisions have quite some power when it comes to price plans. Let’s hope other Voda subsidiaries follow the good example.