7.2 Mbps HSDPA with bandwidth rollover

I'm assuming that ping will remain at about 150ms, regardless of higher speeds? Or will ping also improve in time? Will the higher speeds make on-line gaming more competitive over 3g?
 
so how do I convert an existing 500 Meg contract to an advanced one? Can it be done? I don't need the 7.2 device (yet) and how much more will I pay over the old rate?
 
ginggs said:
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?
Click to expand...

Prices are the same for pre-paid, topup and contract.

Mail me the addy (again).
 
Good grief, this is a stunningly poor product. Somehow Vodacom have taken legitimate consumer complaints and manages to draw an absolutely insane conclusion about what they want.

Problem:

Our contract systems are **** and can't automatically cut you off when you exceed your bundle, then we savage you on exorbitant OOB rates.

Solution:

Take the existing R389 for 2GB package. Halve the data available. Now you can use that extra 1GB you would have had free at a cheaper OOB rate. Yay?

The only thing this product does is make it obvious that the previous product was designed to screw people into tripping over the OOB line, and the amount extra they have to charge for this product gives a hint as to how much they expect to lose from being unable to catch people out the old way.
 
As you guys know, I refuse to pay R49 a month simply to use up my bundle faster with 7.2..Sure, would love it but not paying extra for it.

Im still trying to figure out how this is beneficial to me ..nothing from Vodacom is free, absolutely nothing.

So Im on a 2G expired contract "contract". Im anally attentive to my usage and do not exceed 2G unless Im prepared to buy another 1 G. Then I go mad to use it up within 30 days AS WELL AS my next 2 G bundle, or I lose my excess ad hoc 1G balance !

So 3Vg, explain how this is going to benefit me here please..besides the "free" 7.2 speed thing..
 
vodacom3g said:
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.
Click to expand...

thank you so much for this.Its been a long time coming:D
 
Big Kriss said:
As you guys know, I refuse to pay R49 a month simply to use up my bundle faster with 7.2..Sure, would love it but not paying extra for it.

Im still trying to figure out how this is beneficial to me ..nothing from Vodacom is free, absolutely nothing.

So Im on a 2G expired contract "contract". Im anally attentive to my usage and do not exceed 2G unless Im prepared to buy another 1 G. Then I go mad to use it up within 30 days AS WELL AS my next 2 G bundle, or I lose my excess ad hoc 1G balance !

So 3Vg, explain how this is going to benefit me here please..besides the "free" 7.2 speed thing..
Click to expand...

If you're anally attentive to managing your data bundle then this is not for you. Fact.

But for the many, many non-anally attentive people out there, who would prefer to spend their time doing stuff other than watching their usage this product was developed.

Using your own case:

You have a 2G bundle. You watch your usage and as soon as you use up your 2GB bundle (or at least once you realise you've used up your bundle), you buy a new 1GB bundle. Now you panic that you don't use it up. So you first panicked that you're going OOB and now you panic that you don't use your new bundle up. A lot of cardiac stress there. ;)

By buying a BB-A 2GB bundle, you can now use it up and just carry on paying the 2GB rate without having to buy a new bundle and having to panic that you must use it. So it does not matter if you use 10M or 10G after your bundle is finished, you pay the 2G price.

So you commit to a rate by buying a bundle at the beginning of the month and now you don't worry to do bundle management for the rest of the month. You don't have to watch your usage like a hawk, neither do you have to watch any subsequent bundles.

But if you're obsessive-compulsive about monitoring usage, for sure stay on the Standard package. You'll be better off.
 
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Ok, so whats the price for say a 2GB Bundle on Prepaid? the same?
 
ic said:
I'm not sure I fully understand the differences between VCBBS and VCBBA [VCBBA has 7.2 and a free{?} modem], but it seems my guesswork wasn't too far off the mark where OOBRs == IBRs.
Click to expand...

BBS still carries the original IB and OOB rates, for example:

BBS-150: 79c IB, 200c OOB
BBS-3072: 19c IB, 100c OOB

but on BBA:

BBA-150: 99c flat rate
BBA-3072: 26c flat rate

If you go OOB by more than 15MB (10%) on BBS-150, you're saving money rather using BBA.
If you go OOB by more than 201MB (6.8%) on BBS-3072, you're saving money rather using BBA.
 
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So does it mean that my current monthly bundle on Broadband Standard will from tomorrow have automatic rollover or is it only on new bundles ?
 
ic said:
Ok now I understand, a pity that OOBRs != IBRs on VCBBS.

I understand aspects of VCBBA to be stopgap measures until actual realtime data usage monitoring is available for contract customers, unfortunately I will have to wait for RDUM, but VCBBA will be of benefit to many contract customers.
Click to expand...

You were one of the forumites who stated a VAS-based flat-rate system will be valid. ;)

It's not really a 'stop-gap' solution. Rather it's aimed at all those people who don't want to sit watching their usage all day but also don't want to go OOB.

I.e. most of us.
 
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