Early Details of Euro Vita 3G Tariffs Trickling Out?

We’re all aware of the decidedly ridiculous data tariffs that US owners of the 3G Vita will have to tolerate, but there’s been next to no news about what European 3G Vita owners may have to pay if they want to get online on the move.  Vodafone will be the sole provider of mobile data across Europe for Sony’s handheld – and some tariff pricing details are accessible on their German website if you’re prepared to do a little digging.

Now, I am rather relying on GCSE German and Google Translate here – so apologies for any minor translation problems.  It’s also unknown whether these prices will just apply to Germany, so things may be a little different country by country.  That being said, I’d imagine that they are reasonable ballpark figures for what we can all expect come February 22nd.

Righto, with that disclaimer out of the way, let’s see whether the tariffs are stupidly or ridiculously priced.

Pre-Paid Monthly Contracts

The cheapest option – with a rather paltry 300MB of data – will set you back €9.99 (~£8.30) per month.  The next option up, granting you a rather more sensible 1GB of data, will costs €14.99 (~£14.50) per month.  The, erm, deluxe option – with a moderately ridiculous 5GB of data – clocks in at €24.99 (~£20.80) per month.  But the tariffs aren’t the only cost you’ll be shouldering – each of these tariffs is subject to an additional monthly charge of €10 (~£8.30) as well; and you’ll subject to a 24 month contract for all of these options too.  Cripes.

The more expensive tariffs include something called a ‘Vodafone Ultracard’, which allows sharing of the same account between up to 3 mobile devices.  This might be useful for people who want a single contract to cover a number of 3G devices, but I would imagine that many people would probably go the route of tethering these devices to their mobile phone.  Another perk that the more expensive tariffs seem to have 24 €5 ‘Online Advantage’ credits, but I haven’t got the foggiest what they are – they may be a way to add extra data should you need it.

Another interesting difference between these tariffs is speed – going with the cheapest monthly fee will result in your data speed being throttled to 1.8Mb/sec.  It’s worth noting, however, that you won’t be able to download games via 3G (this is apparently by design on Sony’s part) – meaning that the 3G functionality would mainly be used for online gaming, looking up trophy details and using the ‘Near’ application.  In other words, a limited bandwidth might not be too much of an issue to begin with.

There’s no denying that these tariffs are quite expensive for what you get – but, much like getting a phone on contract, the upfront cost of the 3G Vita is subsidised by the ongoing tariff charges.  The upfront cost of the 3G Vita will be €49.90 (~£41.50) on the cheapest two tariffs and €29.90 (~£24.90) on the most expensive.

So what’s the bottom line for you, the consumer?  Here’s a summary of the costs – complete with the eye-watering totals for 24 months of ownership – for your perusal:

Now, I don’t know about you, but just about all of those options result in a bottom-line cost that’s moderately eye-watering.

Pay As You Go

I would imagine that Pay As You Go (PAYG) is the preferable option for most prospective 3G Vita owners.  The good news is that all of the PAYG options come with 1GB of data – but the bad news is that either the shelf life of the data is ridiculously short or the cost of the data is ridiculously high.  Also, if you go for the PAYG option, the upfront cost of your 3G Vita wouldn’t be subsidised.

The cheapest option – costing €3.95 (~£3.30) – only lasts for 24 hours.  That, as I’m sure you’ll agree is a tad silly.  Extending the shelf life of the data to a week or a month will set you back €12.95 (~£10.80) or €39.95 (~£33.20) respectively – but the PAYG costs could very quickly stack up if you’re using the 3G feature of your Vita frequently.

Will You Be Priced Out of a 3G Vita?

For me, seeing these figures makes the 3G Vita a tough sell over the WiFi version.  Although the contract option would be more convenient, the bottom line costs of ownership are bordering on ridiculous – and the PAYG options range from borderline useless to stupidly expensive.  Whilst the inclusion of a 8GB memory card and a code for WipEout 2048 sweeten the deal a bit, I still struggle to square the deals on offer with being value for money.

At the end of the day, the jury’s still out as to how useful a 3G Vita would be anyway, and seeing how much it’ll cost you casts further aspersions on whether it represents value for money.  Furthermore, how much bandwidth the Vita eats on a day-to-day basis is still a bit of an unknown.

Yes, the 3G Vita does have inbuilt GPS – a feature that the WiFi version lacks – but that’s a feature you’ll end up paying a hefty premium for.  My advice?  If you want a Vita, go for the WiFi option and take advantage of a mobile hotspot (such as the excellent Huawei MiFi hotspot which you can get from 3 Mobile in the UK) or just tether it to your phone.

So, dear readers, bearing in mind that the official UK tariff pricing is still to be accounted, how much is too much for a 3G Vita in your eyes?  Does it even need 3G capabilities at all?  I, for one, have changed my Vita pre-order from a 3G to WiFi based on this information.  But it’s your points of view that really count – so let us know what you think in the forums.