Set your connection free

LAPTOP users can now access the internet from a craggy beach on the Akamas peninsula with the introduction of Vodfaone Mobile Connect service.

Vodafone Mobile Connect (VMC), which begins service on Monday, provides Internet connection for one’s laptop using the mobile phone network.

The wireless service allows one to send emails and SMS messages from anywhere where there is 3G network in place or Cytamobile-Vodafone roaming, which includes most areas in Cyprus. The service also offers international access.

The package includes the 3G/GPRS datacard Vodafone Mobile Connect Card (which goes into the PCMCIA slot of a laptop), the CD for installing the software and a quick start user guide.

One does not need to own a mobile to access the wireless service.

The service is targeted to all those who use laptops, work several hours away from the office or travel abroad frequently.

The cable-free and infrared-free connection is available anywhere that International Roaming Agreements for GPRS or 2G or 3G networks are in place.

3G is Cytamobile-Vodafone’s third-generation wireless mobile network (GPRS is the second-generation wireless mobile network), which delivers data speed connections up to 7 times faster than a dial-up landline connection.

The 3G network allows for connection speeds that reach up to 384 kps while the GPRS allows for connection speeds of 56 kbps.

A Vodafone Mobile Connect specialist told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that 3G is available in the urban centres and surrounding regions of Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos.

In more remote regions like Akrotiri, the Troodos mountains, the Famagusta regions and Akamas, wireless connection is available through the GPRS network.

The only places where access is unavailable is wherever there is no mobile access. For this reason, there is no access in most of the north.

The service is available through two monthly plans, both of which first require a £10 connection fee and offer different fees depending on the total amount of megabytes transmitted per month.

One megabyte of data roughly equates to 50 browsed web pages, 200 text-only emails, 25 text-only Microsoft Word pages, or 2 minutes of an MP3 file.

The service also enables international wireless connection from anywhere in Europe, the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia, among other places.

But the Mobile Connect specialist said that fees were much higher abroad than they were in Cyprus. Access abroad through vodafone networks costs £2.56 per megabyte of transmitted data and through other networks costs £10.24 per megabyte.

For information: www.cytamobile-vodafone.com
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