Vodafone Live!, not available on the N86 [UPDATED]

POST UPDATED 12/10/09 – Scroll to the bottom of the article for the latest…

Vodafone, oh Vodafone, why do you upset me so?

Regular readers of my work will know that I have an ongoing love affair with Vodafone UK, or ‘Big Red’ as I affectionately call her.

Voda-moan
A mini Voda-moan

We’ve had our ups, our downs and our fallings-out, but over the years we’ve grown to appreciate our mutual quirks and subsequent relationship demands. Lo and verily,  today we have another… hurdle to overcome.

Some of you may remember me wondering just where my handset of the moment, the N86, would land when it reached these shores. I speculated that it would be land on the lap of Big Red, but alas they passed and plumped instead for the N97.

Ah well.

So far, so what eh?

Being the Nokia aficionado that I am however, I wasn’t going to let a small thing like no carrier support prevent me from owning my handset of choice, so I promptly went out and bought one.

End of story, right? Wrong.

Thing is, among the myriad of reasons for me having been a Vodafone customer for the best part of 15yrs, one of them – today at least – is its home portal, currently going under the name of Vodafone Live!

It’s through this portal that I find music, games and mainly, my train times. I don’t drive and when I make plans, I keep them. I often plan my journeys with an almost military-like precision and Vodafone ‘My Trains’ is an invaluable service that I use pretty much every day, without fail.

From here I may choose to visit different parts of the Live! service… but this particular saved bookmark is nearly always my jumping off point.

Now, look at these two pictures….

Vodafone Live Vodafone Live on the N86

Something’s wrong with the one on the right, right? Of course there is.

Even worse though is this, the Vodafone Live Homepage:

Vodafone Live Vodafone Live on the N86

Both pages are from http://live.vodafone.com, both are connected using the Vodafone Live APN. The only difference is the handset I used; my old N95 8GB is on the left and on the right, my beloved N86.

I asked @VodafoneUK about a possible fix on Twitter, to which they replied (over three tweets):

Using the WAP access point will give you best chance of it rendering properly however it maybe a case of it not being Vodafone Live! compatible if it’s not rendering normally through the WAP access point. It may be worth posting your settings on the eForum to make sure everything is set up as much as it can be bearing in mind the N86 isn’t a phone we stock. Thanks.

The first part is fine. Naturally I’d check to make sure I was using VF Live as the default access point. I did. I am. The latter part, ‘bear in mind isn’t a phone we stock’… hmm. This was backed up and re-iterated by a couple of Vodafone staffers who also said ‘we don’t support phones we don’t range’.

This is also fine. A perfectly justifiable reason for not rendering your web pages. However, to me at least, this is EXACTLY the reason that you should be doing just that for these devices. Here I am, with a T-Mobile exclusive device (for argument’s sake) and I’m looking for a new network. I decide on Vodafone and sign on for a SIM-only deal. Then I discover that my phone isn’t supported on their webpages, so I decide to go somewhere else.

You see where I’m going with this, right?

The N86 is a similar screen size, build and design to the not-too-shabby (and Vodafone supported) Nokia N85. If it’s a simple case of switching the user agent* sniffer to present the N85 screens for the N86, then this is not a big job. Nor is it complex. Quick fix. Done.

*For the uninitiated, a user agent is basically the identifier string for the browser that you use when you browse the web (mobile or otherwise). For instance, the user agent string for the N85 looks something like this:

NokiaN85-1: Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.3; U; Series60/3.2 NokiaN85-1/11.047; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 ) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413

Whereas the N86 user agent string looks a little something like this:

NokiaN86:  Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.3; Series60/3.2 NokiaN86-1/10.086;; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 ) AppleWebKit/525 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 BrowserNG/7.1.13380

(Thanks to friend of Really Mobile Richard Hyndman, CTO at Mippin for that extra detail)

A final thought…

Back in my youth, while working through college, I had a friend who spent a his time working at a rather large chain of fast-food restaurants. The Manager of which had a policy that meant that for any food voucher or special offer coupon presented at the counter, no matter for which chain (be it for McDonald’s, Burger King, Wimpy etc), if they could fulfil it then they would honour the voucher.

As he told me at the time:

“It is better to please someone else’s customer who might come back another day than to tell them you’re not interested and never see them again.”


————- UPDATED – 12/10/09 ————-

A member of @VodafoneUK’s PR team has literally just been in touch to let us know that the Vodafone Live! pages have now indeed been provisioned for the Nokia N86.

Here’s a screen shot to prove it…

Huzzah! Its a-Live!
Huzzah! It's a-Live!

Congrats Vodafone, you’ve just earned 20 ReallyMobile points.

Keep it up! 🙂

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Author: James Whatley

Chief Strategy Officer in adland. I got ❤️ for writing, gaming, and figuring stuff out. I'm @whatleydude pretty much everywhere that matters. Nice to meet you x

129 thoughts on “Vodafone Live!, not available on the N86 [UPDATED]”

  1. “Requirement 4.7.11: Our homepage must look like a cryptic re-encoded URL for anyone that doesn't have a precisely on-range device” – you've been rifling through our bins again 😉

    No, it shouldn't look like that. As you can see from the train times images – it should be getting a basic version which we can ensure works on every phone. So, yes, the front page for N86 should be filed under “bugs”.

    This is the first time in 6 years, to my knowledge, that C/B have crossed over.
    T
    (My opinions are my own and not those of any corporate behemoth)

  2. To make the inevitable car analogy, if you buy your car from Ford but fit after-market wheels – they can't guarantee Ford tires will fit any more. Vodafone UK does what it can to support non-ranged handsets. Pop over to the Vodafone forums and you'll see plenty of people getting the right settings etc.However, I would agree that there needs to be a better “text-only” version of live.Regarding implementing it. Without going in to all our internal structures – Vodafone live runs in UK, France, Germany, South Africa, Romania, Austria, Netherlands and a dozen other countries. I'm not saying that running a mobile portal is like dealing with the United Nations, but making changes can be “complex”.Vodafone My Web is a completely new product specifically designed to work with as many handsets as possible. T(This is all my opinion and not that of any FTSE listed company)

  3. To make the inevitable car analogy, if you buy your car from Ford but fit after-market wheels – they can't guarantee Ford tires will fit any more. Vodafone UK does what it can to support non-ranged handsets. Pop over to the Vodafone forums and you'll see plenty of people getting the right settings etc.

    However, I would agree that there needs to be a better “text-only” version of live.

    Regarding implementing it. Without going in to all our internal structures – Vodafone live runs in UK, France, Germany, South Africa, Romania, Austria, Netherlands and a dozen other countries. I'm not saying that running a mobile portal is like dealing with the United Nations, but making changes can be “complex”.

    Vodafone My Web is a completely new product specifically designed to work with as many handsets as possible.

    T
    (This is all my opinion and not that of any FTSE listed company)

  4. But in this analogy Vodafone aren't a car manufacturer they are a road! If I buy a car I expect to be able to drive it on any road. It's not like James has turned up in a speedboat.Mippin don't have any issues supporting every handset, perhaps Vodafone's acquisitions team should have a whip-round?

  5. But in this analogy Vodafone aren't a car manufacturer they are a road! If I buy a car I expect to be able to drive it on any road. It's not like James has turned up in a speedboat.

    Mippin don't have any issues supporting every handset, perhaps Vodafone's acquisitions team should have a whip-round?

  6. “It’s not like James has turned up in a speedboat.”

    It’s only a matter of time before he gets cast as Bond.

  7. Hi Lee,I definitely cant fault the service you personally provided me during all the issues I had with credit checks etc when signing up but what about data settings for SIM only customers?When I enquired how I obtain these for an N82 I was simple told that the N82 was not supported by Vodafone and to look at the forums. After searching around I found the GPRS settings but am still experiencing issues with MMS and its got to the stage where I simply cant be bothered anymore which means lost revenues for Vodafone.Vodafone should have a serious look at O2's SIM Only offering. The online billing was smooth and easily understood but most importantly everytime I put my SIM card in a new handset the WAP, mobile web and MMS settings were pushed to me straight away…Ed

  8. Hi Lee,

    I definitely cant fault the service you personally provided me during all the issues I had with credit checks etc when signing up but what about data settings for SIM only customers?

    When I enquired how I obtain these for an N82 I was simple told that the N82 was not supported by Vodafone and to look at the forums. After searching around I found the GPRS settings but am still experiencing issues with MMS and its got to the stage where I simply cant be bothered anymore which means lost revenues for Vodafone.

    Vodafone should have a serious look at O2's SIM Only offering. The online billing was smooth and easily understood but most importantly everytime I put my SIM card in a new handset the WAP, mobile web and MMS settings were pushed to me straight away…

    Ed

  9. oh i know this case from myself lol .. and guess what, Vodafone Austria gave me the same lame Excuses, so i jumped Ship to T-Mob few Months ago (well, the “device not on stock, so see how you get along with it yourself”-problem was one of the smaller ones).. not really a big fan of Vodafone anymore

  10. oh i know this case from myself lol ..
    and guess what, Vodafone Austria gave me the same lame Excuses, so i jumped Ship to T-Mob few Months ago (well, the “device not on stock, so see how you get along with it yourself”-problem was one of the smaller ones).. not really a big fan of Vodafone anymore

  11. We manage fine with a 2 person dev team using WUFL and our own historic data. If nothing can be done we degrade gracefully to a basic version.

  12. We manage fine with a 2 person dev team using WUFL and our own historic data. If nothing can be done we degrade gracefully to a basic version.

  13. kind of serves you right for a) liking Vodafone so much and b) not using a handset which Voda supports, no? In an ideal world where carrier portals were properly open, perhaps you should be surprised but we live in the real world where the dysfunctional carrier still reigns supreme (for the time being anyway)

  14. kind of serves you right for a) liking Vodafone so much and b) not using a handset which Voda supports, no? In an ideal world where carrier portals were properly open, perhaps you should be surprised but we live in the real world where the dysfunctional carrier still reigns supreme (for the time being anyway)

  15. “Then another one with updated firmware (have to keep the old firmware to test that with new features).”That must be why Vodafone's Nokia firmware updates take so long (or never arrive).

  16. “Then another one with updated firmware (have to keep the old firmware to test that with new features).”

    That must be why Vodafone's Nokia firmware updates take so long (or never arrive).

  17. “It's not like James has turned up in a speedboat.”It's only a matter of time before he gets cast as Bond.

  18. “It's not like James has turned up in a speedboat.”

    It's only a matter of time before he gets cast as Bond.

  19. I quite agree. As much as I love Mippin (they’re a major technology provider behind http://vodafone.com/myweb ) they’re not selling anything. No one rings their call centre up to complain when something isn’t compatible.

    As I’ve said – I’d like to see a better basic version. But without being able to sell content through it, there’s little incentive to do so.

    T
    (These comments are my preciouseses – no one else’s)

  20. I quite agree. As much as I love Mippin (they're a major technology provider behind http://vodafone.com/myweb ) they're not selling anything. No one rings their call centre up to complain when something isn't compatible.As I've said – I'd like to see a better basic version. But without being able to sell content through it, there's little incentive to do so.T(These comments are my preciouseses – no one else's)

  21. I quite agree. As much as I love Mippin (they're a major technology provider behind http://vodafone.com/myweb ) they're not selling anything. No one rings their call centre up to complain when something isn't compatible.

    As I've said – I'd like to see a better basic version. But without being able to sell content through it, there's little incentive to do so.

    T
    (These comments are my preciouseses – no one else's)

  22. I appreciate the in-depth response, I do.

    However I only have one answer to one of your questions. Which is:

    “So, should we show links to the games, music, apps etc? Or should we remove them? Or should we show them, but on download present a warning that what you’ve bought may not work and there are no refunds if we don’t support your phone?”

    Yes. You should.

    “We don’t recognise your handset as a Vodafone Live! handset, we think the best service is X but cannot guarantee it will work 100%. If you’d like to talk to Vodafone about upgrading to a Vodafone Live! handset we do support, please call 08700 700 191 from your handset or click here to carry on.”

    Give the user the choice, offer to up-sell them AND include a call to action.

    Surely this is a better option than just having the service bork everytime I need to check my trains?

  23. I must say Lee (and it’s something I’ve expressed privately to Terence too), even though a solution is yet to present itself, I do appreciate the time and effort Vodafone are taking to engage with this issue.

    I’m looking forward to VF360, much.

  24. Serves me right for liking Vodafone so much? Eh?

    I pay Vodafone a *shed* ton of cash every month to use their network, surely I – as the paying consumer – should be able to use whichever handset I choose.

  25. Like I said…in an ideal world your love affair with ‘Big Red’ may bear fruit. But we don’t and the only love you’ll get from an MNO will be fraught with trauma for quite some time to come.

    Good luck though. Looks like Voda’s CSR are observing. Keep up the pressure!

  26. I appreciate the in-depth response, I do. However I only have one answer to one of your questions. Which is:”So, should we show links to the games, music, apps etc? Or should we remove them? Or should we show them, but on download present a warning that what you've bought may not work and there are no refunds if we don't support your phone?”Yes. You should.”We don't recognise your handset as a Vodafone Live! handset, we think the best service is X but cannot guarantee it will work 100%. If you'd like to talk to Vodafone about upgrading to a Vodafone Live! handset we do support, please call 08700 700 191 from your handset or click here to carry on.”Give the user the choice, offer to up-sell them AND include a call to action. Surely this is a better option than just having the service bork everytime I need to check my trains?

  27. I appreciate the in-depth response, I do.

    However I only have one answer to one of your questions. Which is:

    “So, should we show links to the games, music, apps etc? Or should we remove them? Or should we show them, but on download present a warning that what you've bought may not work and there are no refunds if we don't support your phone?”

    Yes. You should.

    “We don't recognise your handset as a Vodafone Live! handset, we think the best service is X but cannot guarantee it will work 100%. If you'd like to talk to Vodafone about upgrading to a Vodafone Live! handset we do support, please call 08700 700 191 from your handset or click here to carry on.”

    Give the user the choice, offer to up-sell them AND include a call to action.

    Surely this is a better option than just having the service bork everytime I need to check my trains?

  28. I must say Lee (and it's something I've expressed privately to Terence too), even though a solution is yet to present itself, I do appreciate the time and effort Vodafone are taking to engage with this issue. I'm looking forward to VF360, much.

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