7.2 Mbps HSDPA with bandwidth rollover

Just to be clear on Vodacom’s new Broadband Advanced product:

It comes at a higher price than the standard service (now called Broadband Standard), with the following advantages:

  • Bandwidth rollover
  • In-bundle rates = out-of-bundle rates
  • 7.2 Mbps HSDPA

I personally think this is a valuable addition to Vodacom’s current broadband offerings, and is eager to see what they will do in the pricing department in future (Vodacom said that users can expect cheaper services from them in future – this is merely one product aimed at guys consistently paying high out-of-bundle rates)
 
As rpm said, Broadband Advanced brings a few new capabilities, most of them requested by this forum for a long time. ;)

- Most important one in my opinion is the flat-rating of the per Meg pricing for the various bundles. This means that once you've committed to a bundle for the month, you can now run at that rate for the rest of the month. So no more R2 or R1.20 or whatever per MB once you deplete your bundle.

If you do the sums you'll see you only need to go OOB by as little as 6 or 8% on the normal rates (now called Broadband Standard) to hit the number for the equivalent BB Advanced product. And with the near-real-time billing systems on contract, it's pretty easy to go 8% OOB before you realise it. Now you buy a bundle and you can carry on working without having to watch for that end-of-bundle moment like a hawk, worried that you'll get a R4000 bill shock at the end of the month.

rpm, it's also important to note that it's not just aimed at contract subscribers. Currently pre-paid users must go through a convoluted process to ensure their is just enough money in their account to be able to buy a bundle and not go OOB. This is not needed anymore, i.e. you can put a larger amount in your account, buy a bundle and you'll now run at your IB pricing, even if you go OOB. This resolves all the bundle management problems you've had before.

So this one was pretty much designed by you guys.

- You get 7.2 on BB-A. On ALL 3G towers, not just 100. (Ditto for 3.6 on BB-S, all 3G towers, not just 400)

- All products, BB-S and BB-A get data rollover, up to 60 days. I'll probably explain the 'up to' bit a bit more later.

- Contract subs on BB-A also get a better deal, i.e. device is included in data rate. No extra monthly charge for the device like on BB-S.

So in summary:

A month or so ago we had a set of data rates, no roll-over and no 7.2. You had to pay extra for 3.6.

Now we have:

- Broadband Standard with the normal rates, 3.6 included and roll-over.

- Broadband Advanced with flat rate data, 7.2 and roll-over.
 
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u know it's amazing, these guys manage to offer us speeds that they have never been able to "offer" before, but yet the seacom line hasnt even kicked off yet, so the question you should be asking is....where has all this speed and prices been hiding before?
 
Nice scoop, Rudolph.

I am amazed that all of Vodacom's 3G sites are 7.2-ready. They must have been doing some really hard work in getting decent backhaul to their high sites.

Pity about the higher prices, though. This isn't the broadband price war we've been hoping for just yet but certainly a step in the right direction.

Duncan
 
mcleodd said:
Nice scoop, Rudolph.

I am amazed that all of Vodacom's 3G sites are 7.2-ready. They must have been doing some really hard work in getting decent backhaul to their high sites.

Pity about the higher prices, though. This isn't the broadband price war we've been hoping for just yet but certainly a step in the right direction.

Duncan
Click to expand...

Upgrades are happening all the time on back-haul, but not fast enough...:mad:

I think it's VERY important not to see this as a price increase. It would be wrong to try and compare it directly with the normal rates (BB-S).

If you never go out of bundle, you should not consider this new suite and rather stay on BB-S. If you have a rigourous bundle management regime in place, you don't need BB-S.

However, one of the biggest complaints we received over the years is about the very high OOB rates. Especially on this forum!

And it is for all of these subscribers that BB-A will save a lot of money.

So if you take a bundle and you go OOB by a certain %, say 15 or 20%, you'll now find that BB-A is actually cheaper than BB-S. And effective price REDUCTION.

We did a number of user polls, including here and the general consesus was that subs would be happy to pay some type of VAS to get a flatrate.

This is exactly what this is, a different rate but giving you OOB=IB. (And 7.2 and roll-over and a truly free device, etc. ;))
 
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Can pre-paid users buy Broadband Advanced data bundles?
 
so how do I convert an existing 500 Meg contract to an advanced one? and how much more will I pay?
 
vodacom3g said:
Yup.
Click to expand...
That's great, the article only mentioned the 24 month contract including modem.
What will the prices of the pre-paid/bolt-on bundles be?

I must get my father on this, only problem there's still no Vodacom 3G in his area, only MTN and Telkom, is there such a thing as a coverage request?
 
Welcome to the Mobile Phone Ping Pong Tournament

MTN - Vodacom - MTN - Vodacom - MTN - Vodacom ..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

When is there going to be a real change for the consumer
 
vodacom3g said:
- You get 7.2 on BB-A. On ALL 3G towers, not just 100. (Ditto for 3.6 on BB-S, all 3G towers, not just 400)

- All products, BB-S and BB-A get data rollover, up to 60 days. I'll probably explain the 'up to' bit a bit more later.
Click to expand...

I'm still battling from the 1st of April to get the 3.6 (Yes my phone is 3.6 capable)

Is the data rollover effective from a specific date and what about data bundles that we already purchased ?

Way to go VC !
 
vodacom3g said:
Upgrades are happening all the time on back-haul, but not fast enough
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jannie. Does this mean we can expect variable throughput, depending on which base stations have been upgraded with decent backhaul? Can I expect poorer performance in some 3G areas compared to others?

It would be useful to know if my local Vodacom base station is able to consistently deliver high speeds.
 
mcleodd said:
Thanks, Jannie. Does this mean we can expect variable throughput, depending on which base stations have been upgraded with decent backhaul? Can I expect poorer performance in some 3G areas compared to others?

It would be useful to know if my local Vodacom base station is able to consistently deliver high speeds.
Click to expand...

Most likely, that's the unfortunate thing when you have thousands and thousands of lines on back order and the main reason we delayed turning 7.2 on for so long. And even, to a degree, why we had the VAS service on 3.6.

Best is to test by running the speed test on http://speed.vodacom.co.za (not everyone together now!).

One thing we've found is that it's pretty difficult to measure above about 3Mb/s using the commonly available speed tests. They tend to run out of steam measuring the higher speeds.

Best way I've found is to use a meter like DUMeter and then download as much stuff as possible concurrently.
 
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