Mobile data users have to pay for the privilege

By PETER GRIFFIN

The Qtek and Sony Ericsson P800 phones are capable of impressive things - they can also bleed you dry if you get carried away using them.

The reason is that mobile data usage on Vodafone's mobile data network is not cheap.

A casual plan starts at 10c for 10Kb (kilobytes), a couple of brief emails in reality.

Just accessing the front page of Yahoo on the P800 racked up 79Kb. That's 80c just for starters. Stick to the email.

Vodafone does offer data plans for set monthly fees that give large data users better deals.

On both devices you will be able to access email through the account you have with your existing internet provider with a couple of exceptions.

To do so via Vodafone's GPRS mobile data network, which charges by capacity rather than time online, you won't be able to access Xtra email accounts.

Clearnet will expect you to pay an extra monthly fee for the privilege.

For the Qtek you can download Vodafone's mobile data usage metering software from Download.com, which will keep tabs on your data usage.

Yahoo

Vodafone

Download.com