Have we got a price war looming?

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Harley79

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I wonder what vodacom are going to do once MTN EDGE is realised. Especially if it is at R0.53/meg.... will we see Vodacom drop prices again? Or just make those contracts customers suffer cause they cannot jump ship? Especially considering V3G's comment re: pricing not based on speed, but rather on meg's downloaded, therefore you cannot say EDGE may be slower than 3G, cause that is not how Vodacom are pricing their product. :eek:

And, are Vodacom & MTN going to compete on a performance level too? All nice and well have a "384k" connection, but only getting 150k most of the time. If one product can really offer "384K" or very close to it international connectivity they will be winners.

Comments?
:p
 
One thing i have noticed about competing products in this country is that they are always priced in such a away that u cannot really compare apples with apples.

This in my opinion is done so that the customer is left feeling confused when trying to compare those products. Feeling confused the consumer is then likely to make a decision on emotion rather than fact.
 
Telkom = 1 player so it can place prices as high as it wants, when new guys come in then they started dropping prices, not much of a drop

I guess Vodacom might just have those thought also,

MORE PLAYERS MORE COMPETATIVE PRICES
 
bb_matt said:
53c a meg x 1000 x 3 = R1590

IOW, total k@k just like vodascum.
Click to expand...
comparison for 3GB :vodacom= R599 + R2*2024 = R4647.00
MTN possibly = 0.53*1024*3 = R1628.16
 
Last i checked South African business does not know the meaning of 'competition' , nevermind such a concept as "price wars". Just looking at most offerings there's one clear theme..they all cost the same, give or take R100. No one is actually undercutting anyone, almost like a little consortium going on.

So my guess is that R0.53 p/MB by MTN will only apply to a R533 p/month [1GB] contract. Out of bundle rates will probably be R1.93 p/MB.
Consider that Vodacom and MTN's cellphone contracts have been almost identical in terms of rates and benefits, why will this be different? Also since i don't actually get 384kbps [and i think no one is] on 3G, it means that MTN can roll out EDGE and ask the same rates because it will be -exactly- the same speed [I believe EDGE theoretical speed is somewhere 242kbps which can easily be faster than the 110-150kpbs we get on 3G now].

I can only hope there's a pricewar, but i don't think MTN or Vodacom will start it [or at least they will not be setting any benchmarks, someone else will and they will just follow the market]. It's like expecting Vodacom and Telkom to start a pricewar.
Maybe i'm wrong (always the pessimist)
 
Vat?

Just an observation.

R0.53 / MB - is this including or excluding VAT.

If this is Excluding VAT, then guess what the real price is???

R0.60 / MB -- :)

Hurray !!! The war is over ;)
 
VERY good point!! Never thought of that one. And from the info I have, it may VERY well be exclusive vat. Darn that sucks, unless they bring it in a R0.60 from the beginning and not a sliding scale like Vodacom, but I doubt that, as per other comments on this thread.
 
diabolus said:
So my guess is that R0.53 p/MB by MTN will only apply to a R533 p/month [1GB] contract. Out of bundle rates will probably be R1.93 p/MB.
Consider that Vodacom and MTN's cellphone contracts have been almost identical in terms of rates and benefits, why will this be different? Also since i don't actually get 384kbps [and i think no one is] on 3G, it means that MTN can roll out EDGE and ask the same rates because it will be -exactly- the same speed [I believe EDGE theoretical speed is somewhere 242kbps which can easily be faster than the 110-150kpbs we get on 3G now].
Click to expand...

Why is everybody comparing a theoretical EDGE speed with an actual 3G speed. If you want to compare to a theortical EDGE speed 242kps then 3G give 384kps currently. EDGE is also limited in what it can provide i.e. with 8 timeslots 473.6kps (thats already one radio gone) but the only reason it is faster than GPRS is the encodeing scheme. EDGE (like a with 56k modem it impossible to break 64k) can only improve the speed offering by improving the 8PSK encoding whilst 3G has been designed with 2Mbps in mind.
 
I wish that Vodacom3g was the guy in charge of pricing ! :D

I spoke to the IT guy at my offices today - or rather, where I rent offices and asked him how 3G was going for him.

heh - he was fairly non-commital, his face said it all and he summed it up as "it works" - better than the iBurst option he did a trial for.

Vodacom3g, I should hook you up with him as he's a very savvy network guy.
The company he works for (or one of them) runs online print services which I won't go into, but suffice to say, the reason for the 3G adoption was for demonstration purposes to existing clients and prospective clients, as far as I can surmise.

He's happy enough with 3G, but most definately not "over the moon", citing a speed issue.
 
Why is everybody comparing a theoretical EDGE speed with an actual 3G speed. If you want to compare to a theortical EDGE speed 242kps then 3G give 384kps currently. EDGE is also limited in what it can provide i.e. with 8 timeslots 473.6kps (thats already one radio gone) but the only reason it is faster than GPRS is the encodeing scheme. EDGE (like a with 56k modem it impossible to break 64k) can only improve the speed offering by improving the 8PSK encoding whilst 3G has been designed with 2Mbps in mind.
Click to expand...

Indeed i'm aware of that. But tell me this, what happens internationally? I was always under the impression that everything ends up on the same [Telkom owned/shared] pipeline. In other words, if that 'pipeline' only gives 200kpbs max under ideal circumstances then you can come in with a 250kpbs [theoretical] service and still get the exact same speed internationally since it's not the technology which is the bottleneck. [Or to ask the question differently, why do we only get a 3rd of the theoretical speed? Is it contention? Is it algorithms or reception? This implies a 2MBps service will actually only be 512kpbs under ideal circumstances.]

Or is it all just an ad campaign and that 384kpbs actually means you will never get more than 200kpbs in the fine-print?

In other words : Is it fair to say that in SA you can divide ANY service's advertised speed by 3 to get the 'real' speed? I.e. DSL192 = 64kbps
 
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Nope...in the case of DSL384, actual speed (local) averages 39KBps = 312kbps. Bursts on multi-threaded local downloads of 50KBps = 400kbps.
 
Nope...in the case of DSL384, actual speed (local) averages 39KBps = 312kbps. Bursts on multi-threaded local downloads of 50KBps = 400kbps.
Click to expand...

Locally yes, i believe i would get close to that [250-300kbps probably] 'locally' on 3G too. What's the international speeds [and for me that's what really matters, even my email is international based].

Regardless, i personally think GPRS should be cheaper anyway [than 3G]. If MTN can actually price EDGE at 0.53c [without contract, incl VAT] then i'm sure Vodacom will drop their GPRS rates (it's almost as if they're keeping it same as 3G [and not lower] only in anticipation of MTNs next move) . 3G will probably not drop though . Either way it'll be great to actually have a reason to set up my dash profile to "Preferred GPRS" and "Preferred 3G" . Right now, no need :P
 
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International speed is always a bit difficult to quantify...cos it really depends on the server.

For sites with good servers in Europe & the US, I get 35KB/s or more. Downloading my mail via POP from Google I consistently get over 35KB/s.....until I'm capped.
 
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