New MTN EDGE Pricing

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johandutoit2000

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1. The existing data bundles are going to be dropped. Ie Datalive 2 and 15
2. If the subscriber is on an old price plan i.e. procall xtend etc. (Please see SP notification) the data rate will be R25 per meg. ( a good time for upgrades)
3. The old rule of charging per 20KB will no longer be in effect and data will now be charged per 1 Byte. A 1 Byte charge will effected for any session opened even if not used for the day.
4. GPRS Bundles are now (Loaded onto an existing current price plan)
a. PDAT10 10 Meg R10.00 and out of bundle R2.00 / Meg
b. PDAT100 100 Meg R100.00 and out of bundle R1.50 / Meg
c. PDAT1G 1Gig R500.00 and out of bundle R1.25 / Meg
5. 2 new package have been created
a. Extended Data Standard (EDS)

Connection Fee R99.00
Monthly Subs R500.00
Included per month data 1 GB
Connection Incentive R0.00
Out of Bundle Rate R1.25







b. Extended Data Free (EDF)

Connection Fee R99.00
Monthly Subs R649.00
Included per month data 1 GB
Connection Incentive R2500.00
Out of Bundle Rate R1.25
 
If this is true, and we will have to wait and see for MTN's official announcement on rates, then Vodacom seems to be expensive.

Do we have the possibility of the start of a price war for mobile based data rates?
 
Looks good, but I am unhappy about this "If the subscriber is on an old price plan the data rate will be R25 per meg." I guess we need to wait for more clarity, but could mean someone not near the end of their existing 24 month contract will have to renew to get the cheaper rates, and in some cases that may mean forgoing a new phone for a longer period. In fact this sounds rather like INTERTIAL MARKETING which has just been outlawed.

Yes the connection incentive is a "free phone (microwave, dvd player, etc what have you) kind of thing".
 
me wonders if the pricing for data is irrespective of carrier service used (GPRS or 3G), like vodacom is. well i suppose we will have to wait until MTN launch 3G - I will be p1ssed if they charge more for 3G data...
 
I don't know if anyone else here is familliar with www.hellopeter.com - it is a commercial site that allows subscribing companies to directly receive compliments and (more often) complaints from customers.

MTN subscribes to this service, and so I have just posted the following comment for them:
---
Hello Paul,

I have posted a comment before about the high costs of MTN data services compared to your competitor(s).

I believe that if you were to pay a visit to http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=106 as well as http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=103 and take cognisance of some of the comments there, it will almost certainly be in MTN's interests in the long run.
---
I couldn't bring myself to say outright "you need to have a presence on www.mybroadband.co.za" on a commercial (and in some ways competing) website, hence the mild obfuscation :)

Let's see what happens...
 
Feedback...

I just got off the blower with Paul from MTN...I gave him a quick run-down of the power of the myadsl site (cf the ICASA adsl hearings), and mentioned how much props Vodacom have been getting because of vodacom3g's presence. He will take this to the network and who knows, we might see an mtnedge handle on the forum sometime soon!
 
I can see that I would need software to monitor exactly what throughput I am getting and how much data was sent and received per month. I would obviously want to stay within my purchased bundle or at least know how much I could expect to pay over and above it. Could anyone perhaps help me with good software for this? I just need a name.
 
hmmm. MTN have changed something on their network effective today. On EDGE this morning and I am bursting up to 236kb/s, the theoretical maximum, almost continously. Maybe they are trying to push down as much data as they can while i am still paying R25/meg :-) I have never seen EDGE fly like this!
 
ic said:
My initial reaction was that it looks like the structuring of these prices makes it more difficult to compare with Vodacom's pricing (which is really easy to understand),
Click to expand...

I think this has been pretty much the strategy for the 3 cellular providers; to structure the product in such a way that it is difficult to compare like with like.

This is a strategy that sees it best to rather confuse the consumer and win on emotional appeal.
 
I have now in my (metaphorical) hot sweaty hands a 14 page PDF of all the skinny related to the new data tariffs...

Just trying to figure out the best way to disseminate it (no, I'm not going to type it all in)
 
Can anyone offer me hosting space for it?

If so, PM me your details and I'll email you the PDF.

And just to stay on MTN's good side, I'll check with them to make sure they don't mind me distributing it. *Hopefully* they will appreciate constructive criticism...
 
Bleargh...

(quote)
I have requested approval on publishing this document, but have received
a response that 'only what is relevant to the client' may be posted.

This is a bit unclear as my knowledge on this matter is very low so I
would not know what is relevant and what not. Possibly we should keep
this to ourselves for now, I assume there will be no harm in exposing
the basics.

I have also in the interim engaged the Network's GM with your suggestion
to have an MTN fundi participate on the website forum. This was
positively welcome and I assume someone will be present shortly.
(end quote)

The last paragraph is a positive development...

Since I am almost "on lunch" let me precis what it says:

- The rates and bundles as quoted in earlier posts are correct.
(Bundles of 10, 100 and 1024 MB are available as bolt-ons to existing contracts).
- Data rate for prepaid customers is R2/MB on GPRS and EDGE
- "Legacy" contracts have a rate of R25/MB. These contracts include certain Business Time options as well as the Xtend and Xpress contracts.
- The *really* bad news is that it looks like the bundles cannot be loaded on an sms-only contract.

The last two mean it looks like there is no selecting a cheap contract and bolting on a data bundle a la Vodacom.

I think that's the most important bits. If/when MTN get a presence here, let's see what some gentle pressure does.
 
johandutoit2000 said:
I can see that I would need software to monitor exactly what throughput I am getting and how much data was sent and received per month. I would obviously want to stay within my purchased bundle or at least know how much I could expect to pay over and above it. Could anyone perhaps help me with good software for this? I just need a name.
Click to expand...
I suggest you use BWMeter as it has _WAY_ more functionality than DUmeter. You can generate reports, have bandwidth breakdowns per day/week/month/year/etc. It also has alarms for when certain usage levels are reached and can even stop your connection for you at a certain point should you not want to go over to the out of bundle tarifs.

The features just go on and on... very nice ap.
 
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