Vodacom reneges on HSDPA launch promise, again

I reckon we should all just forget about using the internet for anything but mailing and browsing. It would do wonders for our stress levels. Lets find other ways to make ourselves happy. I am just tired of constant bad news.

A Few Q's

I'd like to know three things if someone could oblige:

A) Having taken out a number of 3G contracts, we were promised that we wouldnt need to upgrade our hardware for a long time to come. Now that the launch of HSDPA is "imminent", do I get a free upgrade or how much is it going to cost me?

B) Is it true that it is just a matter of a software upgrade and light configuration to enable current 3G towers to make use of HSDPA? Which would be nice because the most people currently receiving 3G could theoretically soon be able to use HSDPA.

C) Any idea how we're going to know that we're in a HSDPA "zone", currently some towers info say "3G Enabled", are we going to see the same thing for HSDPA?

This might be a bit premature but it would be nice to know.

Would the release of the 2Mbps service kind of force them to lower their data rates? I mean 2Mbps is going to eat the current, let's say, caps very quickly, and might prove to be impractically and too expensive at that speed.

hmmm

Okay, I'm definitely not a self-confessed "know-it-all", but let's think about this.

Vodacom currently charges x-amount of money to a lot of 3G customers, with a 1Gig cap for. What is it these days? Around R500 and a speed of 384kbps, for a 24month contract?

Vodacom themselves (if I'm not mistaken) said it'll be impractical to offer a 1Gig cap for 3.5g users, since they'll used it up in no time with 2mbps bandwidth.

So they're in a bit of a mess. Vodacom said they'll have to make the price and cap reasonable for the download speeds. Okaaaay?? but what does this mean? That effectively HSPDA will be cheaper than normal 3G?? I.e. they have to push the cap up to something more realistic like 5gig (or 10gig) and charge better for it, because let's face it....no one with half-a-brain would pay thousands (if they just continue using their current price scheme) for 5gig connection. Then you could just as well use Telkom.

Imagine the look on existing 3g customer's faces when their HSPDA couterparts get a much better deal.

Nah, I don't think this delay is all down to technology (hardware/software). I think a lot (if not most of it) has to do with giving their bean-counters and marketing "guru's" time to figure out how best to approach HSPDA, thus satisfying new customers, and not ticking off existing 3G customers.

Either way, this should be REALLY interesting when it finally does unfold.

I could be wrong, I mean heck, what do I know - hehe. Just my 2cents worth.

The current delays are not caused by bean-counters thinking about how to charge, rather it's a technical/supply issue. We're still waiting for some of the components promised for delivery late last year such as the data cards.

AS ic said, the Vodacom model is independent of the access speed, you pay per byte and will connect with the best possible available at that location from HSDPA->3G->EDGE->GPRS.

If pricing had to come down, it will apply to all bearers.