You are here: Home / Cloud & Web / Cellular Data Solutions / MoDaCo NoData review – Disable data connections abroad, avoid roaming costs !

MoDaCo NoData review – Disable data connections abroad, avoid roaming costs !

April 13, 2010 By 5 Comments
| | Share the knowledge |

I want to dedicate this article to an application for Windows Phone that has provided an excellent solution for avoiding roaming costs abroad as the result of “unwanted” cellular data connections that are automatically started by an application.

I’m talking about MoDaCo Nodata, which is developed back in 2006 by one of my international friends Paul O’Brien, Founder and Editor in Chief of MoDaCo. In the original release post on the MoDaCo forums Paul O’Brien wrote:

“Here’s a quick, handy little application i’ve rustled up as i’m off abroad for a few days soon, and don’t want to run up a huge GPRS bill. It lists your GPRS connections, and allows you to disable them so that they won’t be used. Disable your connections before you leave, re-enable them when you return – piece of cake with MoDaCo NoData.”

MoDaCo NoData – A Quick Overview

In this section I will provide a quick overview of how MoDaCo NoData works in practice. It is very easy and simple to use on your Windows Phone, but it really can make a difference for the bill from your mobile operator.

At first you download the cab-installer of MoDaCo NoData from the MoDaCo website, copy it to your Windows Phone and install it on your device with help of for example Resco File Explorer 2010 (double clicking on the cab-installer).

Start menu and main application window

In the left screenshot above you can see the MoDaCo NoData application icon, with the familiar green g, in the start menu of the HTC HD2. When you open MoDaCo NoData you will get an overview of your cellular data connections (in the central part of the screen) and a short description of the MoDaCo NoData application (in the top of the screen), as shown in the right screenshot above. Furthermore you can see that the Toggle and Exit commands are mapped to the softkeys.

Back in January 2008 support for Windows Mobile Standard was added to MoDaCo NoData, as I reported on the Mobilyz forums (former Pocketinfo) back then. Or as you can read in the edits of the original release posts on the MoDaCo forums:

“[Edit 15/01/08: Now added Smartphone support (finally)!]
[Edit 29/03/08: Minor update]“

Both the screenshots above show similar screenshots of the MoDaCo NoData start menu entry and the main application window, however now taken on a Windows Mobile Standard device, the HTC Snap.

Toggle data connection and exit

In order to disable a data connection you simply select the connection, in this example the Vodafone live! connection, and press the left softkey (= toggle) to switch off the Vodafone live! data connection.

You may have noticed the pop-up message in the left screenshot above: “Connection disabled – You will need to manually disconnect if a GPRS connection is currently active“. Unfortunately MoDaCo NoData doesn’t directly kill you active cellular data connection, but requires a manual disconnection via the ComManager on your Windows Phone after you exit MoDaCo NoData by pressing the right softkey. Finally you need to confirm that you want to exit MoDaCo NoData.

In the screenshots above you can see the MoDaCo NoData user experience on a Windows Mobile Standard device. The main difference is that you don’t see pop-up messages, but the information is shown in a new screen (without the overview of data connections).

Concluding thoughts and final question(s)

“Disable your connections before you leave, re-enable them when you return – piece of cake with MoDaCo NoData.”

MoDaCo NoData has been -and still is- one of those exceptionally helpful applications that makes it very simple to disable cellular data connections on your Windows Phone, no matter if you use a touch- or a non-touch device. I would like to make the statement that MoDaCo NoData is part of a personal hall of fame of Windows Mobile applications !

With MoDaCo NoData you don’t need to worry about an automatic data re-connection to a mobile network, caused for example by a Twitter client or RSS reader that perform automatic refreshes in the background.

Some of you might know that I live very close to both the German and Belgian border, and I drive on a regular basis through these countries (by car as well as during sports activities on my road bike). MoDaCo NoData is helping me for about 4 years to minimize roaming costs across the border, and a true must have application that I always install on every Windows Phone.

I really do hope that Paul O’Brien will continue the future development of such a helpful application and bring MoDaCo NoData to Windows Phone 7 or  other data-intensive mobile platforms like Google Android. I would like to wrap-up this article with a question:

  • Would you donate  in order to support Paul O’Brien to continue the development of the MoDaCo NoData application and might even bring it to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace or other mobile platforms ?
Filed Under: Cellular Data Solutions, Windows Phone Tagged With: , , , , ,
  • http://www.wmArcade.com/ Saijo George ( 1800PocketPC.com )

    It was one of the 1st app I used to install after a reinstall. But with virtually unlimited data I get on my network I don’t use it all that much. I doubt if it will come to WP7 Marketplace but when WP7 is ( for lack of a better word ) jailbroken I guess something like this will will be available.

    BTW nice site.

    • http://www.mobilityminded.com Remo Knops

      Hi Saijo George,

      A great many thanks for your comment ! I live close to the border of Belgium and Germany and travel through these countries on a regular basis, so MoDaCo NoData is still an application I use several times a week. Even despite the fact that I do have an unlimited dataplan ! :)

      Why couldn’t Paul O’Brien go to the Marketplace procedure to get it directly in the Windows Marketplace for Mobile ?

      // Remo Knops

  • RonH

    NoData is nice when you want to block the access completely.
    But when a connection is made, it isn’t automatically disconnected.
    So when you cross the border, you must disconnect the live connection manually.

    I’m using NoDataInRoaming since 1 year or so, and that disables and disconnects the GPRS setting when you leave your default network (thus start roaming)
    Works perfectly

    You can find NoDataInRoaming at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=503131
    (freeware)

    • http://www.mobilityminded.com Remo Knops

      Hi RonH,

      Thank you for the great contribution !

      “But when a connection is made, it isn’t automatically disconnected. So when you cross the border, you must disconnect the live connection manually.”

      Yes you are right that is one of the additional manual steps that needs to be taken, however you certainly know that the access to your cellular data connection is blocked completely. :)

      “I’m using NoDataInRoaming since 1 year or so, and that disables and disconnects the GPRS setting when you leave your default network (thus start roaming)”

      The automatic mechanism you describe here, would be a great point of improvement for (hopefully upcoming) versions of MoDaCo NoData !

      // Remo Knops

  • Pablo

    Hi,

    I have a problem with MoDaCo NoData. I remove NoData when a connection was disabled. I re-install NoData and now I can’t see any connection in the main view of this application.
    Anyone know what happen to mi samsung i8000?