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An end of an era: Vodafone UK turns off 3G services

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An Open Letter to Vodafone UK

James Whatley writes, this week, with an impassioned open letter to Vodafone. Write to your MP. Call your local radio station. Send letters to Arun!

– – –

(Not another mobile web rant, promise.)

Dear Vodafone,

Let’s get one thing out in the open before we start:

I love you.

There. I said it.

It’s out in the open for the entire world to see.

You and I have been together now for over ten years and although there have been a few ups and downs along the way, somehow we have always managed to pull through.

Red, what can I say? The years have been great.

I still regret the affair I had with Orange back in the 90s and I know that my foolish dalliance with 3 is best forgotten. I was weak. Led astray by promises of ‘revolutionary’ handsets and blinded by their multitude of minutes. Ultimately I was betrayed by my own greed. They just weren’t you Red.

After all these shortfalls, you were there for me, waiting to take me back with open arms whenever things went wrong.

I am a card carrying member…

Fwd: Whatley on Wednesday - An open letter to Vodafone

… of your love parade and I am proud to say that I recommend you and your network to anyone looking to change providers, (and often to those that aren’t). Everything from the fantastic customer service to the virtually non-existent drop-call rate, Vodafone you put a smile on my face by never letting me down.

But as the years have gone by (and my monthly spend has slowly gone up) I have felt, lately, a strange detachment forming betwixt you and I.

Thing is, there is some shall we say, room for improvement.

When you rolled out 3.5G? Brilliant! Amazing in fact! But at £2.35per meg you and I both knew that something had to give… and it did! You went and released your own little data bundle… And at the same price as T-Mobile’s too! What a fantastic move… But no, you had to spoil my fun by going and capping it at 120mb. C’mon… You know can do better than that!

Signal strength is second to none. I cannot count the amount of times I’ve been out and about with friends and being the only Vodafone subscriber of the group has meant I was the only one in the with a signal.

However when it comes to your Tariffs, you may have great coverage but it seems that this comes at a price too. You’re, dare I say it, high maintenance.

Admittedly you’ve tried to wean me off my old school 3000mins per month tariff for ages now but you have nothing that comes anywhere near it currently. 1800mins for £75?! Shocking. You’re good but you’re not that good Red.
I’m not budging. Yeah ‘Stop the Clock‘ – is pretty cool but can I have Vodafone Passport?

‘Not on such an old tariff Mr Whatley”.

RUBBISH!

Voda, you know I feel about you. Take me on my word: You need to catch up! You could be left behind! 3, who were once the laughing stock of the UK operator market, now have one of the sexiest offerings around with their X-Series.

See, o2 got the iPhone, (you did well to avoid that), and you went and got the N95 8GB for an exclusive amount of time. Excellent choice. But why did you have to cripple it with your own firmware?
It’s like three steps forward and two steps back sometimes, really.

Hopefully, when the iPhone v2 comes along you’ll be right there waiting to grab it and pass it onto to your loyal followers. Hell, if YOU get the next version of the iPhone, I might even get one.
Now there’s a statement.

Can you imagine? With you Voda and your super HSDPA (3.5G) and solid CS, network etc…

It would be killer.

But hey – that’s the future – let’s talk about now.

Let’s move onto the one thing that gets me the most… and I’m sorry to bring this up… (I mention it every time we speak) the ONE bugbear I have with you? The teeny tiny thing that I just cannot stand?!

MMS

Tell me, Red, why do you not offer ANY MMS bundles?

None. Nada. Zip. Absolutely, positively ZERO. NOT. A. THING.

Videos, sound clips, pictures… all charged 35p-50p a go. It drives me nuts about you. WHY OH WHY OH WHY?!

You offer one of the latest and best phones (the aforementioned 5MP beauty from Nokia) and you don’t offer ANY MMS bundles to support it?!!!!!?!!!

You say that the requirement isn’t there, that the advent of picture messaging has not been the success that the networks thought it would be…
Well, if you charge for every single MMS sent and don’t allow anyone to add anything to their monthly tariffs then what on earth do you expect?!

You gladly give me video call minutes (which I actually use from time to time) every month as part of my tariff, but not video messaging?! Insane.

It’s been like this since September 1st 2006 Vodafone and I’ve let it go month on month on month… This has got to stop!

Voda, I love you, and I think that you love me.
Try this, do it for the sake of us…

Make MMS free for a month.

Yes. That’s right. FREE. Like you did with Mobile TV, (albeit that was for three months), try it. SEE the uptake.

Look after your customers.
Love them.
Save them money.

And above all, save ME money. Help me love you more.

Yours hopefully,

James Whatley

27 COMMENTS

  1. Sounds an awful lot like Verizon Wireless here in the states. Well Vodafone owns 45% (or thereabouts) of Verizon Wireless, so I can’t say I’m shocked. I think VZW might have somewhat better bundles, but like Vodafone, you pay for that excellent coverage you have.

  2. Talking about Vodafone and Verizon, why isn’t Verizon part of the Vodafone Passport plan? Would seem to make sense, it would be a great selling point for both Vodafone and Verizon IMHO.

    Oh, and has anyone ever tried getting a data plan on a non-Vodafone phone? I have and they’re less than helpful (one young female member of staff even insinuated it would be illegal for us to have it on my sister’s unlocked iPhone!)

  3. Always a good read James. Lets hope someone holding a bat with some power at Vodafone reads it. Orange is just as bad though, if not worse, with it Unlimited data package capped at 30, yes 30! megabytes! I dont feel so betrayed as you though, as I fell out of love with Orange long ago when they got took over by people who go to work with onions round their neck.

    What on earth is that Vodafone Best care thing about? Does it entitle you to a showering of rose petals, and smoked salmon vol-au-vents whenever you happen to stroll into a Vodafone shop unannounced?

  4. I like you had a passing relationship with H3G in the ‘early days’ of their operation – and to be frank, the whole experience was horribly sub-optimal. So, it was with a little reluctance that I bit the bullet last year and took out a X-Series post paid account in order to get my hands on a late build Nokia N95, Slingbox and bucketfuls of other bundled stuff.

    I was hugely surprised (and pleasantly this time) to find that H3G appear to have ‘grown up’ – the service offering (which includes roaming onto Orange 2.5G when out of range of H3G 3G coverage) is frankly pretty super.

    The combination of the HSDPA capable 3G coverage in urban areas (description – ‘Smokin’!) and the Orange EDGE in rural areas (the only GSM network that gets into my 370 yr old house in rural Wiltshire) is superb! [Quick question here – how do ou get Orange coverage/data services WITHOUT paying those ridiculous Orange UK data tariffs? A: Use H3G (with unlimited data for GBP 5 per month – yummy!]

    As for the shovelware value-added bits, I have virtually unlimited (FREE) Skype calling from my N95, ouTube viewer, Orb media streaming, MSN Messenger, customised EBay client, Facebook, Jaiku, streamed broadcast TV, Yahoo! Search, GMail push e-mail client, Mobilcast and loads more – all on an unlimited data tariff, so no worries about making good use of the apps.

    And – good use is what I am achieving – last month I managed just over 4Gb data without breaking into a sweat – and all for a fiver a month…..

    Another little known fact – H3G PAYG offer a similar PAYG data offering on prepay – cost is GBP 0.50 per day, or GBP 2.50 per week, or alternatively GBP 5.00 per month. – so TIP: Do not buy the highly advertised Huawawei USB dongle device with GBP 10 per month (1GB capped) post paid bundle – better to get a PAYG SIM and drop it into a Bluetooth capable 3G handset and operate on the GBP5 per month pre-paid plan!

  5. I hear ya dude. Voda (Or Big Red, as I like to call them) are without doubt the service of choice for people like me, standing in the middle of nowhere, wondering how I got there, after a drunken night.

    How did I get into Vodafone, over 15 years ago?

    Some bloke down the pub told me it was the choice of ground crew at Heathrow airport, and with that level of interference, I thought to myself why the F not!

    Plus all the other stuff . . .

    J : )

  6. I’m with PhoneBoy, I would fork over a year in advance to get $5/month unlimited 3G. It is ridiculous that I pay $20/month here and it’s only 2G, because my E61i does not have 3G for the US. Come on Nokia…

  7. @Jeb and @Steve Rowlands – I got it in the post late last year… I thought it was just a gimmick.

    Then funnily enough, yesterday, (the day the letter was published), I got a follow up letter saying that `’Best Care’ had been following my account and that I would benefit from adding Vodafone Family.

    Hehe…

    But yeah – I called them up to investigate – just means they like me more than you… 😉

    I also asked about MMS: “Nothing in the pipeline.”

  8. “Some bloke down the pub told me it was the choice of ground crew at Heathrow airport, and with that level of interference, I thought to myself why the F not!”

    ?WTF?

    …goes to show how misinformation, misunderstanding, inertia, and speculation will keep people who should have shifted MNO’s a long time ago stuck in that cosy rut.

    3UK do still have a massive historic image problem, as a straw poll of taxi drivers will show (IMHO they are the best MNO performance barometer – very price & coverage sensitive). But that’s history. The smart money has already shifted (As James Body thouroughly elaborates). Every MNO in the world has issues, things they could do better, but if you can live with a foreign call centre (should you be xenophobically-inclined), then the combo of data speeds, rates and coverage is hard to beat.

    £0.02

    Mike

  9. MMS bundles…hmm. Do you send lots of MMS messages to email addresses? How about £5 for unlimited photo/video uploads via email – no additional data charges, and up to 2meg of attachments per email? On Vodafone.

    Now would that be something that interests you? (I’ve been watching too much Entourage)

  10. @John – Don’t send any MMS to email addresses. None.

    The point is I like sending pictures and videos to *everyone*. If I’m out and about and I see something I like or if I see something that reminds me of someone dear, I’ll snap it and send it and share it with them immediately.

    It’s personal, it’s instant and I *know* the recipient will get it almost immediately.

    My dear friend James Body makes a very compelling case for 3’s x-series….

    …Voda? You hear that? I’m being tempted again!

  11. I like the concept John, the only issue I have is that I don’t always want to attach pictures to email. I wouldn’t mind paying premium at all for Vodafone data. I just want to be able to use the likes of Qik, ShoZu, various IM services, ShopQwik and so on, without excessive charges and without having to think “Is this allowed? Or am I about to get screwed?”. If it’s 30/month with a Vodafone modem stick on a fair use policy of 3GB per month, why not let customers add a 1gig or 2gig data bundle to their existing line for an extra twenty quid a month?

  12. @James, don’t do it, don’t consider 3UK. If you sit down calmly and look at the 3UK offer, and then look at your Vodafone bill — and then realise that they’re adding VAT on to a lot of published prices (thought you were paying 10p a message? NOOOOO look again) — then you’ll start to evaluate Vodafone in a slightly different generally very expensive light. You’ll also wonder exactly why you’re allowing the Big Red to dictate what you can and can’t do with your data connection (by price).

    Vodafone works though. Very well. Which isn’t to say 3UK doesn’t work — they’ve got a very, very good network, particularly data-wise. There is just always something to be said for Vodafone’s spectrum. If I was to sum it up: Telephone calls don’t get cut off in lifts.

    (Or ‘elevators’, if you’re American)

  13. Ewan – it’s great to get that from you, thanks.

    Thing is – it’s not just the coverage, it’s the *service* too.

    Ok – for me, as a power user, my phone gets a LOT of (ab)use. GeekYouUp, who comments on here sometimes, will be able to tell you the amount of times I’ve destroyed/mangled/bricked my handset and all it’s taken is one quick call to Vodafone (along with some explanation like “Er.. it broked it”) and I get a new one within 24hrs.

    …and I don’t even have insurance!

    On top of that – and it’s not about being xenophobic Mike – I like being able to speak freely on the phone and not have to worry about local colloquialisms being misunderstood.

    Although that ^ is not a reason for not leaving Voda, it is a reason for not going to 3.

    Brand loyalty huh? Powerful thing…

  14. @Johnny G: Shoulda prefaced my comment with something like: no dig at you, man.

    It’s the former RF engineer in me: when I hear patent rubbish like ‘That level of interferance’ being used as a reason to change MNO, it just winds_me_up.

    To be specific, what ‘Interferance’? Are you/the bloke down the pub implying that aircraft/airport radar or radio systems interfere with non-Vodafone mobile communications? I’m sure every airline, airport operator, regulator, handset/network vendor and MNO in the world would be interested in this assertion. The frequency bands that radar/aircraft radio and MNO’s use are pretty far apart, whereas the MNO’s are all squeezed in to – relatively speaking – the same postage-stamp sized bands. If there were ‘interferance’ then it would afftect EVERY MNO – including Vodafone. Their network is essentially no better/worse than any other. Dropped call rates in the UK networks are all around the 1% mark. You can’t get better without spending an exponentially huge amount of cash, so the MNO’s accept that on average, around 1 in 100 calls will fail. If you live/drive in a poor coverage area you will have more (my old house was 1 in 10), if you live in a CBD you will probably have one in a thousand.

    The engineers at the 5 UK MNO’s are all much the same. They are engineering graduates, with loads of experience. Most of them have worked for several MNO’s. Some for many, as contractors. The planning tools they use are much the same. The RF networks are much the same. Same vendors, same standards. The handsets are the same (literally). Some networks (the newer or updated ones) will handle data better, having flatter architectures / fatter pipes joining the dots.

    Regarding my apparent ‘self serving shallowness’ (nice), here’s some truthiness. 3 years ago at launch 3 had far fewer sites than they do now (like around half), so naturally they had more dropped calls. They now have as many as the rest (in some cases many more 3G sites), with roaming onto the largest 2G network (O2). The days of MNO’s having a pub pissing contest over voice coverage are basically gone. 3G coverage is still a differentiator, hence the sometime-this-decade Voda-Orange tie-up and the announced 3-T-mobile deal. I assume O2 will stick with wet string for the time being 😉

    So in the UK, coverage is not an issue for the vast majority of people, on any MNO. Maybe 95%.

    This is good for customers, as MNO’s are forced to compete on price and service, which we have seen come on in spades in the last year. As James points out he’s been historically pretty happy with his Voda service, but lately wishes for a bit more love.

    As I said, and as UK banks/fixed-line operators rely upon, most people can’t be arsed shifting, even if it would save them heaps / deliver better data performance. Historically as the first UK MNO (Jan 1, 1985), Voda will have a lot going for them in brand loyalty. Hence my ‘stuck in a rut’ analogy. But hey, as this survey points out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7187577.stm , if paying more makes you think you get better service/coverage, feel free. It’s your ca£h 😉

    IMHO, listen to independant sources. Which? magazine etc. Someone with no interest apart from getting the consumer the best deal, with the best service and (increasingly irrelevant differentiator) the best coverage.

    Cheers,

    Mike

  15. ‘Telephone calls don’t get cut off in lifts’

    @Ewan: Gaaaa! where’s the science? Dropped call rates are the same now (or below the threashold of a user’s noticability radar. Can we collectively agree that technically, voice calling on *ANY* UK MNO is not an issue any more?

    It just distracts from the real discussion, which should focus on (as you rightly point out) tariffs, T’s & C’s, and customer service.

    @James: so those really careful Voda customers with a 5 year old handset in good nick are subsidising your destructive frenzy? 😉

    Disclaimer: 2 years back I had a spat with Voda, which required CEO Tim Miles’ intervention to sort out. I was 6 months into an 18 month contract, had paid over ***£4,000*** (yes, four GRAND) in charges in those 6 months (mostly UK data charges and Vodafone on-net roaming in Europe), then when I switched from contracting to a full-time job and wanted to cancel the remaining 12 months the F**kers wanted an early termination fee. Like they hadn’t_got_their_money’s_worth_already.

    But I’d use them again – I’d not hold a grudge and loose a good deal, should they have one. That spat apart, I thought the coverage and service I got were fine, down to an outside-the-square solution one CSR came up with for a tricky account issue.

    Cheers,

    Mike

  16. An all you can eat send to email package is a total cop out.. It’s a neanderthalithic step.. Vodafone is a *mobile* network.. Sorry John, I know you work for Voda and are genuinely trying to add sensible suggestions.. it’s just this is rubbish. JW’s email wasn’t my own style, but I agree with the sentiment. The removal of MMS bundles by Voda (i’ve been with them for years), really hacked me off.. Other than money grabbing greed, there is no other reason for it.. Talk about holding things back 🙁

  17. Sorry to come to this so late. I think there is an entire Monty Python sketch to be had out of Vodafone Ireland vs UK. “250 of us in t’carboard box…..”. The setup over here is laughable. €8 for 15MB a month or €8 for 500MB of Vodafone Live. Those are your entire set of data options. I, like a fool, went for the latter (what a bargain I thought). Except Vodafone Lies, as I call it, is http/pop/smtp and that’s it. No IM, no Jaiku, no IMAPS, nothing. Constant timeouts and a litany of sites which just fail to load make it a 1990’s WAP joke. I tried getting them to associate one of the “mobile broadband” sperm-modem packages to my N95-8GB but they don’t know how. From what I can gather, even if they did do it, I’d lose all voice features on my phone. The full tale of woe here: http://tinyurl.com/2wjb5u . There was some hope 3 Ireland with the X-Series would be competitive but it sounds like they are doing the same port-blocking nonsense as Vodafone. I’ll just have to emigrate or something 🙂

  18. As an addendum to this post:

    Today Vodafone, I love you just a little bit more.

    This morning I got a note over Skype from Richard Hyndman, Head of Development at Mippin, telling me about Yoigo:

    “Dude, cheeky hint if you want to use your N95 out there (in Barcelona) http://www.yoigo.com/
    It is a company similar to UK’s carrier 3 (Three).
    I have just called Yoigo, and they have confirmed me that you can buy pre-paid SIMs with a British passport, the SIM card cost 10€, you have 10€ credit on it, and you have unlimited 3G data access for 1.2€ per day.
    That would be £6 for the card and unlimited data for the whole of MWC…”

    Nice one, cheers Rich.

    Only problem? My handset is network locked. Bugger.

    Dialling 191…

    “Good morning Mr Whatley, my name’s Ann how can I help you today?”

    “Yes hello, I wonder if you could. I’m off to Barcelona on Sunday and I’d like to buy a Spanish SIM upon arrival so I don’t get overcharged using my VF account for the duration of the trip.”

    “I can see what Mr Whatley…”

    “The only problem I have is that my handset is locked… aaaaaaaand I was *wondering* if you guys would give me the unlock code so that I could use the Spanish SIM?”

    “Yes of course Mr Whatley, not a problem.”

    This took minutes and I had an email from Vodafone, with my unlock code within, by the time I got back to my desk. So of course, I dropped a note back to Richard exclaiming my happiness:

    “I’m going to try that…” he said.
    Note – Richard is not with VF, he’s with TMO.

    2mins (and a few expletives) later…

    “I just called T-Mobile they said it would cost me £15 and take 28days to get the unlock code…I said “but I’m going away on Monday”. they said they couldn’t help… I tell you when I’ve got my shiny new N95 8GB (bought SIM Free the other day) and my contract expires? I’m going to leave T-Mobile. I’ve had enough.”

    “RIch, can I quote you on that?”

    “Yes! Even the fact that I worked for T-Mobile for 3yrs contracting and 2yrs permanent and the fact that I have a half price phone & contract won’t save them this time. Correction: That is, half price FOR LIFE isn’t going to be enough to save them… and I’m taking my Wife with me!”

    He then went to rant about dropped calls, level of service, 3G (or lack thereof in his office), etc etc etc….

    For the record, Rich got his N95 with TMO a full month before I got mine on VF and we’re both on 18mth contracts.

    Customer service is, and always has been, paramount to me when choosing *any* product/service.

    TMO lost two high value customers today.

    Bad form.

    James Whatley’s last blog post..When giving presentations…

  19. I hate it

    My worst experience began with Vodafone when I firstly activated my mobile connect services on 4 June 2008 on my existing number. After making a request to activate it I realized its too costly as compared to the free wi fi connectivity on my iphone, so, I wanted to deactivate it. Vodafone follows a procedure to activate or deactivate the services by messages. I sent a message to deactivate it but never got a confirmation. Then I called customer care to deactivate. They said it has been deactivated. My bad experiences with Vodafone underlines:
    1. So I called to confirm it and got a respond that due to some technical problem you haven’t deactivated it before but we will do it now manually and not by an sms. Then I never checked it whether it was deactivated or not.
    2. I was on the scheme to get the bill on my mails, which mind it, they never send me.
    3. Then When on 28 November, I call customer care centre to ask for my bills to be send for the last 4 months, what I see there is Mobile connect charges on me every month. (I have activated for 199 plan, and on the rocks they were charging me 499 every month.) Firstly they never send you a bill on your mails and then they over charge you on the services you have already deactivated. But now when I have asked the bills and have the records of the Last 6 months in which I was charged unnecessarily the amount every month, you are not cooperating with me.
    Besides being an old customer of Vodafone, I am a member of Consumer court under the act Consumer Protection 1986.

    I think you would be concerned and take the immediate actions for it.

    Reference number: 1384006470, 1386858906, 1386856480, 138971988, 1393783506, 1392703088, 1392733790, 138971988.

    Moreover when I talked to the senior executive at 111, name Sandeep, he told me that my problem will be solved. And for that matter I said I will wait to pay the bill of November so that I can get the refund.

    Current Status; they say I won’t get any reversals.

    Please I would like to say the concerned authority that they should take some serious steps.

  20. I hate it

    My worst experience began with Vodafone when I firstly activated my mobile connect services on 4 June 2008 on my existing number. After making a request to activate it I realized its too costly as compared to the free wi fi connectivity on my iphone, so, I wanted to deactivate it. Vodafone follows a procedure to activate or deactivate the services by messages. I sent a message to deactivate it but never got a confirmation. Then I called customer care to deactivate. They said it has been deactivated. My bad experiences with Vodafone underlines:
    1. So I called to confirm it and got a respond that due to some technical problem you haven’t deactivated it before but we will do it now manually and not by an sms. Then I never checked it whether it was deactivated or not.
    2. I was on the scheme to get the bill on my mails, which mind it, they never send me.
    3. Then When on 28 November, I call customer care centre to ask for my bills to be send for the last 4 months, what I see there is Mobile connect charges on me every month. (I have activated for 199 plan, and on the rocks they were charging me 499 every month.) Firstly they never send you a bill on your mails and then they over charge you on the services you have already deactivated. But now when I have asked the bills and have the records of the Last 6 months in which I was charged unnecessarily the amount every month, you are not cooperating with me.
    Besides being an old customer of Vodafone, I am a member of Consumer court under the act Consumer Protection 1986.

    I think you would be concerned and take the immediate actions for it.

    Reference number: 1384006470, 1386858906, 1386856480, 138971988, 1393783506, 1392703088, 1392733790, 138971988.

    Moreover when I talked to the senior executive at 111, name Sandeep, he told me that my problem will be solved. And for that matter I said I will wait to pay the bill of November so that I can get the refund.

    Current Status; they say I won’t get any reversals.

    Please I would like to say the concerned authority that they should take some serious steps.

  21. I hate it

    My worst experience began with Vodafone when I firstly activated my mobile connect services on 4 June 2008 on my existing number. After making a request to activate it I realized its too costly as compared to the free wi fi connectivity on my iphone, so, I wanted to deactivate it. Vodafone follows a procedure to activate or deactivate the services by messages. I sent a message to deactivate it but never got a confirmation. Then I called customer care to deactivate. They said it has been deactivated. My bad experiences with Vodafone underlines:
    1. So I called to confirm it and got a respond that due to some technical problem you haven’t deactivated it before but we will do it now manually and not by an sms. Then I never checked it whether it was deactivated or not.
    2. I was on the scheme to get the bill on my mails, which mind it, they never send me.
    3. Then When on 28 November, I call customer care centre to ask for my bills to be send for the last 4 months, what I see there is Mobile connect charges on me every month. (I have activated for 199 plan, and on the rocks they were charging me 499 every month.) Firstly they never send you a bill on your mails and then they over charge you on the services you have already deactivated. But now when I have asked the bills and have the records of the Last 6 months in which I was charged unnecessarily the amount every month, you are not cooperating with me.
    Besides being an old customer of Vodafone, I am a member of Consumer court under the act Consumer Protection 1986.

    I think you would be concerned and take the immediate actions for it.

    Reference number: 1384006470, 1386858906, 1386856480, 138971988, 1393783506, 1392703088, 1392733790, 138971988.

    Moreover when I talked to the senior executive at 111, name Sandeep, he told me that my problem will be solved. And for that matter I said I will wait to pay the bill of November so that I can get the refund.

    Current Status; they say I won’t get any reversals.

    Please I would like to say the concerned authority that they should take some serious steps.

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