Iphone 4 using vodafone (hotspot/tethering)

  • Thread starter Thread starter shavin
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 84
  • Views Views 40,934
Hello,I joined this forum just to post some information that *may be* helpful to other people.I'm a videshi but I'm in North India every winter and I've had a pre-paid Vodafone connection for about five years. Just *maintaining* that connection is a challenge, what with complicated and often unclear 'rules' about validity, but it's better than taking a new one each visit. Doing that can be even more of a challenge, and you run the risk of being cut off any time between three days and two weeks after you think you've submitted every possible piece of paper, and if by that time you're in a different 'circle', you can probably imagine the difficulty of getting anyone from Vodafone to take responsibility or help out.As I've said often the slogan should be changed to 'happy to help, but can't. This is all, of course, a result of poor or non-existent staff training.Anyway, this year I've had the same problem described in this thread. By the way, you may be interested to know that to get an APN that allows Internet with 3g on my iPhone 3GS *anywhere outside Kolkata*, I had to visit a New Zealand website unlockit.co.nz. ONE BOY in the Connaught Place Vodafone office knew about that. The Park St Kolkata people think you have to get a post-paid service to make it work. I almost believed that, because almost nothing about the way Vodafone works would surprise me.Well, that got the 3G Internet working. I thought it would get tethering going as well, but as you've guessed, it didn't. Calling 111 produces incomprehension at the other end, no matter what language you try. Logging an issue via the website didn't produce anything either, although it's possible that they called when my phone was off. But even if they did, they could have emailed or tried to call again.So then I had to go to Ahmedabad, where I am now. Today, I dropped in to the Vodafone office in Relief Road. I wasn't hopeful. But when I explained the issue, he said 'have you tried sending 'ACT iPhone' to 111?' I hadn't thought of that, and this thread seems to indicate that it doesn't work like that. It doesn't. The reply came back saying so. Then he suggested sending the same to 144. I thought this couldn't possibly work but I nearly kissed him when it actually
 
Woops, I posted the last time in over-excitement at getting tethering to work. But I had almost finished anyway.One other thing: The confirmation message says that the charge for this is Rs 100 per month. I don't think that's written anywhere on their website but, look, just to get the thing working I'd pay without too much complaint.Now I don't know whether this will continue to work, or whether it's just a Gujrat thing or what.But the fact that I'm typing now on a little netbook proves that it works, at least here and now.If this is all correct, why the hell doesn't Vodafone put the information? That would save us all from dealing with the 'happy to help but we can't' people.Thanks for the help this thread provided to me. I hope this information helps someone else.RegardsLurgan
 
Again...in case anyone's interested...there's a bit more.What I hadn't noticed in my excitement yesterday was that the message from Vodafone about the Rs 100 per month also said that there was a charge of 5 paise/ 10 kB of data additionally. So I haven't even *tried* to work out how that affects me, but it does look like I might be paying twice for the same service. The other thing is that the Vodafone 'happy to help but we can't' people just called. She was a pyari larki and I know she would really, really, really have been happy to help, but she couldn't.First she tried to tell me that the Rs 100 business might be some kind of roaming charge for tethering, apparently only applicable to iPhones. So I asked her where that is written on the Vodafone website (or anywhere at all) and she couldn't find it. Then she thought I *shouldn't* have to pay the Rs 100, because, yes, my 3G 'plan' is supposed to include Internet access and tethering.So then we're back to my problem being that tethering isn't working, so can she help (apart from saying that it should be)?At that stage she said she would refer the whole thing to 'the appropriate department' (I think she put it like that) and they would ring me back. Let's see.Then I told her about the notion that Vodafone can 'Activate iPhone services' from their side, which is the valuable information I have taken from this thread, and asked whether she knew about that. She didn't. Had never heard of it. I asked whether she could see a list of my services on her computer and she said she could. Then I asked whether 'iPhone services' was listed there, and it wasn't. (I'm unable to view my services using MYSERVICES to 111, perhaps because I'm on pre-paid? Anyway, it doesn't work, so I don't know how to send a message to view my own services.)So now, let's see whether someone else from Vodafone calls, and if so whether they've heard of 'activate iPhone services'.BTW, if it's of any interest or consolation, mobile phone companies are also useless in Australia when it comes to delivering what they promise, or giving you a knowledgeable person to talk to when things don't work. They are also notorious for things like 'capped' plans that turn out not to be capped at all. Vodafone Australia is known as one of the worst, and this year was in deep soup with the consumer regulators, essentially I think for taking money to which they weren't entitled. It's not really the same company as Vodafone India though, it just has the same name.Enough for now.Lurgan
 
@LurganThe whole issue with tethering has to do with the Carrier Configuration file that is part of iOS. It defines the preset APNs for every carrier partner Apple has worldwide. This forces the device to use the preset APN and hides the option under settings where you can manually change APNs. I don't know why, but Apple still has a Carrier Configuration file in iOS for Vodafone India even though they are no longer an official iPhone carrier. For Vodafone India, the preset APNs for data and tethering is set to 'iphone'. This APN only works on the Vodafone network if you have iPhone services activated on your connection (the default APN for all other devices is 'www'). When you try to set the APN using the unlockit website or thru the iPhone Configuration Utility it only allows you to set the APN for data services. The iPhone actually has separate options to set APNs for data and tethering. So effectively you are changing the APN for data and not tethering. Talking to CC over the phone will not solve your problem. I am speaking from experience. Most of them don't even know that there is something called iPhone services. Quickest way to solve the issue is to visit a Vodafone store and talk directly with the person in charge of 3G services (they usually have one rep assigned to handle 3G queries). Tell him/her that tethering doesn't work on your iPhone and ask them to put in a request to activate iPhone services. Get a ticket number for your request. Your issue (hopefully) should be solved within 24 hrs. Good Luck.
 
@VodafoneIndia
Yaar, this is FORUM!! You cannot give the usual diplomatic answers like your CC gives on 111.
You have to socialize with the members here and talk to them as a friend. Be bindass. You can communicate them via PM if you do not want the other members to see what you write.

Btw, I'm on some sort of ban list with your CC. When I press 9 to connect to the CC, the tape loops back to the beginning. I called from my mom's vodafone number and explained the CC about it and now they have blacklisted my mom's number also. I'm afraid to call the CC from my dad's vodafone number. Tumare CC ko uppur se order mila hai ki mere se baat karneka hi nahi hai. Is this your way of dragging my butt to your vodafone gallery? It's ridiculous!!
 
#Garfield

Thanks for the help. I think even *I* understand the problem now.

But I haven't found the person in charge of 3G in Vodafone stores actually helpful. In Delhi, he put me through the 'unlockit' APN changer, which was fine for data, as you say, but not tethering.

And in Ahmedabad, he sent ACT iPhone to 111, as I've outlined earlier.

Anyway, I've replied to Vodafone's request on this forum like this:

>I do not really want you to call and discuss the issue. I just want you to activate iPhone services for my phone, so >that I can tether to my laptop. Then let me know by email that it has been done.

If nothing happens, I'll try again in Connaught Place in a few days.

(I wouldn't like to add up the time I've spent on this matter, that should really be seamless. Can I send Vodafone my invoice for time spent unnecessarily?) (Yes, *joke* for literal-minded readers.)

Lurgan
 
@GarfieldIf you can, would you mind giving me an opinion about whether having a pre-paid or post-paid connection makes any difference?I went to the Connaught Place shop today, where Akash is the 3G man. His final thought is that you can't activate iPhone services for a pre-paid connection, and that I should migrate to post-paid. Actually, I'd like to do that anyway, but don't want to go through the paperwork again and the inevitable interruption to use, when somebody, somewhere, anonymously decides there's a reason, any reason, to deny the service.By the way, there has been no response from Vodafone either by email or phone to my last approach to them, after they read the forum posts.L
 
You should be able to activate iPhone services whether you are on a prepaid or postpaid connection. I have it activated on my postpaid connection. But I'm sure there are other members on this forum who have it on their prepaid connection. By now you might be well aware of the fact that Vodafone Execs have very little knowledge/expertise about their network/services/trouble shooting. Have you tried forwarding your last email to their Nodal Officer? It usually gets issues resolved faster and they usually call you with a resolution. That approach has worked for me in the past when I did not get a resolution thru their regular channels.
 
You should be able to activate iPhone services whether you are on a prepaid or postpaid connection. I have it activated on my postpaid connection. But I'm sure there are other members on this forum who have it on their prepaid connection.

By now you might be well aware of the fact that Vodafone Execs have very little knowledge/expertise about their network/services/trouble shooting. Have you tried forwarding your last email to their Nodal Officer? It usually gets issues resolved faster and they usually call you with a resolution. That approach has worked for me in the past when I did not get a resolution thru their regular channels.

Actualy the problem is prepaid connection.
I have iPhone 4 and 3g is officially unavailable on prepaid.
And Lurgan, rs 100 charge is for edge service.
Also, the most helpful vodafone place in delhi/ncr is in sector - 18 in noida.
 
I have been meaning to post an update in case anyone is still following this thread. Your post reminded me, AJ, so thanks for that.

In response:

I don't know whether there's a difference between the Delhi and Kolkata circles, but the Park St office in Kolkata definitely thinks that 3G is available on pre-paid. Is there a place on the Vodafone website that days that 3G is officially unavailable on pre-paid?

You might well be right about the Rs 100 charge, but when activated it also activated tethering for me on 3G, as described earlier. I have no idea of the mechanism.

Thanks for the advice about the Noida Vodafone office. I'll keep that in mind for further enquiries in Delhi.

Update on my problem:

It's more or less fixed! I should say that Vodafone did call after reading this forum, but the person hadn't read the posts properly and maintained that it was just a problem of working through the iPhone menus. The same lack of comprehension, so no help at all.

But I took Garfield's advice, and forwarded an email to the Kol Nodal Officer. That produced an almost immediate callback, but it still took another week to fix the problem. At first, several different officers called and were at least prepared to check the settings on my service on the Vodafone side. They agreed that there was some 'provisioning' needed there, and I'm just about sure that's the same as Garfield said, activating the iPhone APN.

The last person I was in contact with from the Nodal Office was extremely helpful and called back at least four or five times, when she had promised to do so, to tell me that she was waiting for some other department to do the 'provisioning', to tell me when it was done and to check that everything was working later. She even called back the following day to make sure it was still working! That last couple of days was fantastic service from Vodafone; it's just a pity it took weeks and weeks, and a lot of misinformation from them, to get to that point.

The moral of the story is probably, as Garfield and others said, to go to the Nodal Officer. At least there they seem to feel some need to deal with you and keep in contact about your problem.

Finally

The above fix all happened in Varanasi, so it's the Eastern UP circle. I have just come back from a week in Bihar and the behaviour of my connection there was extremely unpredictable. Sometimes I had Vodafone 3G and everything including tethering was fine. Sometimes I had only an Edge connection, but that was still OK for data and tethering. Sometimes I had just a basic Vodafone connection of some other sort that was only good for calls and SMS. Other times I had no connection at all for hours, and sometimes my phone gave me an Airtel connection (all this automatically). It was impossible to get and hold a 3G service by selecting 'Vodafone' manually. And this was all in Patna! And yes, I reset the network settings plenty of times.

Strangely enough, in rural Bihar I seemed either to have no connection at all or a useful 3G or Edge one.

I can only put this down to network vagaries in Bihar. and I'm not planning to spend a lot of time there so it probably isn't crucial.

Thanks for the help from the forum and especially Garfield.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back