Is Vlive now free?

I have been browsing and downloading news articles for the last week and haven't paid a cent. Is it free now? Or maybe a mistake? Hope not

It's great to stay up to date with current events here in the bundus in the Northern Cape.
Anywayz, thanx Vodacom.

My girlfriend also noticed that she is not paying, so it must be free unless they messed up somewhere

Mines always been free

Browsing is free, you only pay for content you specifically buy.

Ok, but I used the "go to URL" function on the phone and tried mybroadband and my webmail and still did not pay a cent?

You should noy be able to access other content via the Vlive APN. I suspect your phone will switch to the internet APN if you access external URL's.

If you can confirm this is happening via the VLive APN it'll be great.

I ran out of my bundle on the 31 Dec so I was able to test whether you are billed when you connect to the vlive APN and navigate to other pages.

To start with some other information - there are two places you can bill in a 3G/GSM network - at the SGSN (Serving Gateway i.e. switch to where radio equipment connects) or at the GGSN (Gateway where GTP tunnel terminates and is the interconnection point to ISP and other corporate/mobile networks.

At the SGSN billing possibilities are limited to usage/time and APN. But at the GGSN you can differentiate between traffic i.e. billed based on the content requests. If you want more information search on CSG (Content Service Gateway)

Previously connections to the vlive APN where free but now it looks like vodacom is now inspecting traffic. I connected to the vlive APN and then navigated away from the vlive poral and my bill reflects number dialled 'C2' (certainly didn't dial this number) and an associated charge. My phone was always connected to the vlive APN. As I have never dialled this number I am going to request a credit for all these charges else Vodacom must provide a SGSN billing ticket reflecting a connection to the C2 APN if they wish to billme for this connection.

Firstly Vodacom tariff states that connections to vlive are free so I don't see how vodacom can charge for this - they must prevent navigation away from vlive portal and force a connect to the internet/internetvpn APN for access to other sites.

If they are going to bill on content I pay approx R20 a month for itemised billing i.e. I expected a detailed breakdown on the sites I visit and the associated charge so that I can validate that the billing is correct.

Finally beware all Skype users - the tariff is R10/meg if I remember correctly for VOIP so they may just start billing skype usage at R10/meg now that they have the ability.

Edinetz, won't you PM me your observations, maybe with more detail as well as your contact details and an e-mail. I'll forward it to the right people for comment.

Where or what exactly is vlive?

One of my phone's (Motorola V550) "softkeys" says "vlive"...
pressing this button takes me through to the vodacom4e wap site, and it most certainly does charge me..

If I look in my browser settings under "web sessions" there's a couple there:
VLive!
VLive!MMS
Vodacom
Vodacom4me

"Vodacom4me" is set as the default, so I changed it to "VLive!", now when I try connect I just get a connection error..???

vodacom3g said:

You should noy be able to access other content via the Vlive APN. I suspect your phone will switch to the internet APN if you access external URL's.

If you can confirm this is happening via the VLive APN it'll be great.

Click to expand...

I am not sure which APN is being used. I have looked around in the phone menus but can not find the relevant one. It's a Sharp GX25 Vodafone branded phone.
I don't have my 6680 with me to do a double check. Will do next week. I'm currently in Pofadder. Connecting to Vlive is a bit shaky here. Half of the time I get "Error: Request timed out", the other half of the time it connects but only after a long while.
Maybe the signal takes a long time to get here?

Anywayz, I firstly click on the Vlive button and then after it loaded (caller tones and tv picks are displayed), entered mybroadband as the URL under "Go to URL" in options. It then downloaded the page and I also went to my webmail page and entered my login details. I did get "404 not found" when trying to log in though.

My prepaid account is the same as it was before I started browsing.

redarrow said:

"Vodacom4me" is set as the default, so I changed it to "VLive!", now when I try connect I just get a connection error..???

Click to expand...

Phone customer care and ask them to activate the vlive APN then you will be able to connect. I tried to do it via the vodacom4me site but it did not work.

This im sending from my phone
Edit: ...and it didn't cost me anything!

Now lets spread the word on how free it is, hopefully we can alert someone to fix it...and then back to paying...sshhh

It seems that if I access Vlive via the 'Vodacom' (internet) APN, the data usage gets charged, but all the content is available. If I access it via the Vlive APN, the data usage is free, but even the news content is charged for. Am I seeing things?

Let me get the full product spec from the product manager. This is how I understand it currently:

If you connect to the VLive portal all browsing on the portal itself is free of charge.

If you navigate away from the portal, to another web site for example, you pay for the data, just like you would have on the internet APN.

If you download any content on VLive, you pay for the content.

There was a situation for some subscribers where they did not get billed for non-Vlive data. Some of you have picked up on this. You basically got the data for free. Ajax still seems to be on the data gravy train

v3gout, I'll check on the reverse situation you're seeing coming in over the internet APN.

vodacom3g said:

There was a situation for some subscribers where they did not get billed for non-Vlive data. Some of you have picked up on this. You basically got the data for free. Ajax still seems to be on the data gravy train

Click to expand...

Although I know about the gravy train, it does not mean I am riding it! If it was Telscum, I would have totally hijacked the train and felt good about it.

For the record, I am back on MTN using my 100 MB PREPAID data bundle

hi all,
recently purchased contract upgrade taking a Samsung S4 Mini

after 48 hours a Vlive charge of R35.08 appeared on my bill(statement). On inspecting the phone closely wiht what apps are installed, i noticed the following Vodafomne apps pre installed :

My Vodacom app
Vlive app
Updates app
Music streaming app
Internet browser has bookmarks already stored and locked, unable to remove any of them or delete or change them.

Firstly this highly concerning as this was never disclosed, i dont expect this, but would have appreciated the disclosure from a sales person, they should be trained.

You cannot delete any of the apps, but you can disable on them, somehow this is to late. the internet browser i have disabled, even the Opera browser and trip advisor uses Vodafone settings!!!

Im so not happy with this non disclosure, and dont even want to touch the phone anymore, ive gone back to my BBerry. the Samsung is going up for sale, hoepfully i get a buyer.

Has anyone experienced the same or similar.

Vodafone as usual will NCIS investigate this, got a report number, hear nothing yet. The usual waiting game is applied.

Any feedback or response would be nice from your folks.

Hi

Pm me the number.

Regards
Vodacomdata