5c/MB still not realistic says Vodacom

[jes]

5c/MB still not realistic says Vodacom

Vodacom’s Jannie van Zyl weighs in on the mobile broadband costs debate

 

[drukkie]

Which is why I'm not buying my GB's form you

Remember Afrihost's selling below cost?

 

[Macethy]

Which is why I'm not buying my GB's form you

Remember Afrihost's selling below cost?

What he said. Cell C and 8ta have got much better deals.

 

[Macethy]

I think what he meant to say is that "5c/MB is not realistic because we still want to keep paying out our top management and shareholders billions of Rands in bonuses and dividends for the next few years".

 

[Polymathic]

When using "not sustainable" he is referring to profit margins

 

[Vrotappel]

All of this vitriol was also spun in the ADSL space in the past. Look where we are now.

 

[moonknight]

The 'Bullsh*t baffles brains' syndrome pours thick and fast from Vodacon these days.

Jannie will be quick to tell you that the costs are not realistic at a certain amount. (Which I suspect is bogus)

What he won't tell you is what their mark-up is. No transparency! :twisted:

The financial rape perpetrated on South African consumers by companies like Vodacon, due to lack of competition, is sickening.

 

[The_Ogre]

Good thing i left them for CellC then!

 

[damian24]

Typically over 50% of the cost of the network sits on the radio side and you just heard Shameel speak this morning: we put 7 billion Rand into the radio network every year.

Around 30% is recovered from the tax man over the usefull life, and I must assume that, at least partly, that this expansion will support increase volume on the voice network and data such as MMS.

then there are tower upgrades, scheduled replacement of aging assets... methinks that the actual cost (specifically for data) is somewhat less than the R7b quoted (which as stated above, represents 50% of the network cost)

but that just assumption...

D

 

[Sodan]

This:

Posing a counter to the question of the real cost of mobile data in South Africa, Van Zyl asked that if it does cost 3-5 cents per MB and value to the customer is so paramount for the people making those statements, why are they selling it at such a massive markup?

“The reality is it’s not at those points,” Van Zyl said.

Immediately followed by

He went on to explain that it is a difficult thing to bring the price down all the time because they continually invest in the networks. “Typically over 50% of the cost of the network sits on the radio side and you just heard Shameel speak this morning: we put 7 billion Rand into the radio network every year.”

As if CellC is not investing in their network. Jannie, I used to respect you as a smart guy unfortunately limited by (and naturally biased to) the company you are working for.

 

[BBSA]

Do not care, I get my data from 8ta

 

[Beri]

This is a troll article........
no need to debate it again. 8ta or cell c
Strange that they do not know how much it cost but can say it is 10c or more.
Thanks to 8ta for giving me 10 gig for R199......

 

[rph72]

I use 8ta for my data at home and Cell C hotspot + 100MB free data from FNB Connect for my Galaxy S3. Nuff said.

 

[Sm00thSm0k3]

He went on to explain that it is a difficult thing to bring the price down all the time because they continually invest in the networks. “Typically over 50% of the cost of the network sits on the radio side and you just heard Shameel speak this morning: we put 7 billion Rand into the radio network every year.”

...and yet the amount of dropped calls continues to increase...

 

[AlmightyBender]

Even if we choose to believe you Jannie then it still does not justify your R1/MB and R2/MB OOB rates. Not even close. Or why your promotions are more expensive and more restricting than Cell C and 8ta data promotions.

 

[moonknight]

Even if we choose to believe you Jannie then it still does not justify your R1/MB and R2/MB OOB rates. Not even close. Or why your promotions are more expensive and more restricting than Cell C and 8ta data promotions.

Spot on!

 

[RaptorSA]

Go to hell Vodacom.
F***ing scum. Feel like hurling snot at my screen each time I see one of these useless Vodacom tossers make a statement.

 

[BGE]

The cost may well be around 10c/mb. But this surely is not the point. Does Joe Public care what the cost is? Nope.

Fact is the 8ta and CellC(to a lesser extent) data networks are under utilised, not running at capacity, unlike the Vodacom network. So it's all a game of market share, if you want customers to sit up, take notice and subscribe, you have to offer very keenly priced promotions, like 8ta's 10GB/month for R199. The network with the least traffic will probably always offer the best promotions. I guess it's better to have some monies coming in on your investment, than nothing!

Under 10c/mb may not be sustainable, but if market share is what you after then it's justifiable!

 

[BGE]

Even if we choose to believe you Jannie then it still does not justify your R1/MB and R2/MB OOB rates. Not even close. Or why your promotions are more expensive and more restricting than Cell C and 8ta data promotions.

Jannie, how bout explaining the OOB thingy to us... why so high and why won't Vodacom budge on this? This is one of the main reason I avoid Vodacom data packages!

 

[Johand]

What I do not understand is this: Networks don't may per megabyte. They pay for equipment, towers, fiber and electricity. I am assuming that except for the international bandwidth portion those prices remains relatively fixed, on average, with each new iteration of technology.

So why will per megabyte prices not drop drastically with LTE? All things being equal, if LTE is 10 times faster than HSPDA then the price per megabyte must be 10 times lower?

Or does the investment requirement increase by a factor of ten?

My assumption is that if 15c / MB was the break-even cost on HSPDA then 1.5c / MB will be the break-even cost on LTE, as long as they can boost demand by a factor of ten.

So I do not assume the price point will be there immediately, but it will/should get there, and sooner than we think.