7.2 Mbps HSDPA with bandwidth rollover

mcleodd said:
How on earth are ordinary consumers supposed to understand this? There is far too much complexity in pricing in this industry!
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Have to agree there.

vodacom3g said:
You might not believe it, but we're actually trying to make it easier for people. My post above is just to explain it to the old hands here who are used to the standard rates.

So instead of having to know the difference between IB and OOB and what it can do to your back-pocket, the new product is much easier to explain to customers.

- You buy a bundle at a certain rate.
- Once you've used up that bundle, you just carry on using data and you won't be penalised.

I.e. (for the 'old hands ;)):

- You don't get charged a high OOB rate.
- You don't have to carefully watch your usage to ensure you don't go OOB.
- You don't have to go through a convoluted process to buy a new bundle.
- You don't have to understand that there is a difference between contract with or without a modem, etc.

So, all in all, it's much easier to understand. And you're protected from OOB bill-shock.

This is the first step (actually the 3rd) to start simplifying the rate structures.
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I think that users are being penalised by having to pay more for the "advantage" of BB-A.

It's seems a bit dodge and really doesn't make sense, why one has to pay more.
And still with the 24 month contract - this is where all of our local players are making me :mad: - but that's another discussion.

From my perspective as a prepaid user, this product is not appealing.
The "totally free" modem then throws me off and has me wondering why I need to be tied into a lengthy contract and be paying more for data.
Naturally as I'm in the prepaid market, so the modem doesn't interest me.
So what really is up with the higher tariff? :confused:

I can't seem to make sense of why the data costs more.
It seems like higher pricing now gets you 7.2, which is seems like it's yet again the same situation there was initially with the levy on access to 3.6.
So does the increase serve the same purpose as the levy there was for 3.6 or does it now subsidise or recover the previous levy on 3.6 which is now gone?
The numbers add up eventually and could easily cover those lost R49 (or whatever the amount was)

From a prepaid stance - I'll stick with MTN in the interim.

Simply put:

VC's BB-A 500 MB = R 279 or R 0.56 p/MB
MTN Prepaid 500 MB = R 189 or R0.38 p/MB

Granted that VC has the same offering on BB-S as the above mentioned MTN pricing.

Stumbling block for me is: Why should I pay more for what really is "less".
7.2 whoopy - those speeds can't be guaranteed.
3.6 is fine by me - reasonable pricing by SA standards (seeing that we have nothing to compare it with)

This proposition can't be seen as innovative by me.
If this is any indication of what the future holds - I'm gonna need some more Vaseline.

Where's our damn price war?
 
Shake&Bake said:
Have to agree there.



I think that users are being penalised by having to pay more for the "advantage" of BB-A.

It's seems a bit dodge and really doesn't make sense, why one has to pay more.
And still with the 24 month contract - this is where all of our local players are making me :mad: - but that's another discussion.

From my perspective as a prepaid user, this product is not appealing.
The "totally free" modem then throws me off and has me wondering why I need to be tied into a lengthy contract and be paying more for data.
Naturally as I'm in the prepaid market, so the modem doesn't interest me.
So what really is up with the higher tariff? :confused:

I can't seem to make sense of why the data costs more.
It seems like higher pricing now gets you 7.2, which is seems like it's yet again the same situation there was initially with the levy on access to 3.6.
So does the increase serve the same purpose as the levy there was for 3.6 or does it now subsidise or recover the previous levy on 3.6 which is now gone?
The numbers add up eventually and could easily cover those lost R49 (or whatever the amount was)

From a prepaid stance - I'll stick with MTN in the interim.

Simply put:

VC's BB-A 500 MB = R 279 or R 0.56 p/MB
MTN Prepaid 500 MB = R 189 or R0.38 p/MB

Granted that VC has the same offering on BB-S as the above mentioned MTN pricing.

Stumbling block for me is: Why should I pay more for what really is "less".
7.2 whoopy - those speeds can't be guaranteed.
3.6 is fine by me - reasonable pricing by SA standards (seeing that we have nothing to compare it with)

This proposition can't be seen as innovative by me.
If this is any indication of what the future holds - I'm gonna need some more Vaseline.

Where's our damn price war?
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I'll keep on repeating this till we all get it. ;)

If you never go OOB, please stay on BB-S. It's got a lower IB price after all.

However, if you tend to go OOB for whatever reason, by as little as 4%, BB-A makes a lot of sense as you'll save money.

Again, BB-A was designed for all the people who complained about the high OOB rates. If you're not one of them, stay away.
 
vodacom3g said:
rpm, would you agree that BB-A is actually a simpler product than BB-S? Simpler pricing and easier to explain and use.

The problem (I believe) is rather that BB-S is still here as well. Legally, we can't drop it.

And the other problem is that we're trying to compare BB-S and BB-A.
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Simpler pricing is still costing more. :eek:
This offering is really bordering on the insanity of Neotel's NeoFlex.
 
vodacom3g said:
Far from spinning a profit from going flat-rate, we expect a substantial revenue loss due the huge drop in OOB rates on BB-A.
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Oh I have no doubt you do, I doubt I've had as many angry experiences with any company as with VC and OOB charges ;) As harsh as my first post was about this new product, I would heartily recommend it to every business customer who's using Vodacom broadband. I guess I'm just disappointed that after 3 years of random OOB charges and problems it's come down to this as the solution. R110 extra for insurance.

vodacom3g said:
So, if we wanted to "make a tidy profit" from the billing latencies, we should just have kept the old system in place and not flat-rate it, don't you agree?
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I'm pretty sure this was a hard sell internally, and from a practical perspective I appreciate the change. It'll just take time to swallow the shock of seeing a product that screams "Taking you for OOB charges is worth at least R110 a month normally, you do understand we have to make that back somehow" from the old line of "Oh we wish we could stop these pesky OOB charges, it's just a technical limitation".
 
vodacom3g said:
Well then your day's arrived. :)

This is exactly what BB-A is; you "spend my data at x cents/mb. period"

No IB, no OOB, just a flat rate.
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As long as I'm prepared to spend my money in 60 days or lose it.
 
vodacom3g said:
I think it's VERY important not to see this as a price increase. (BB-S).
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You must be blind not to see this as a 50 % increase in rates, up from 19c/mb to 29c/mb. Telkom 3G is a good alternative giving you 3Gig at R449 per month with out of bundle rates of 30c/MB as apposed to Vodacom's R799 per month.

Come on Vodacom, make the out of bundle rates the same as in bundle rates and give 7.2 for free for everybody. I think it is time that we only pay R389 for 2 gigs and then 19c/Mb but at 7.2Mbps.
 
Sselmrah said:
As long as I'm prepared to spend my money in 60 days or lose it.
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Remember, the beauty of a flat-rate system is that you don't have to try and use a bundle right up to the last day.

The old system was to try and guess your projected usage and buy a bundle that size. Then if you did not use it, you loose it.

But now you only need to buy one bundle per month, when that runs out, you don't need to buy a new bundle that might expire. You just keep on running at the rate of your last bundle.
 
AirWolf said:
You'll have to go way over to actually make it count.
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Not really, typically around 10%.

Let's take an example:

On BB-S you'd buy a 1Gb bundle for R289. If you go OOB, you pay R1.20/MB.

If you go OOB by 150MB you would have paid (289 + 150 x 1.20 =) R469.

If you were on BB-A, it would have cost you R446 on the flat rate.

And obviously the more you go OOB, the more you score over BB-S.

So, if you're going to exceed your bundle by more than this %, BB-A is actually cheaper.

But if you NEVER go OOB, stay on BB-S.
 
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Saw the new rates on Vodacom4me. Now it make even more sense to stay on pay as you go and buy on bigger bundle than normal - you get 60 days. Sim farming will continue to have sim cards with only enough for the bundle on it in the modem at any time. 3.6HSPDA towers very seldom reach that speed anyway, so 7.2 on Vodacom will anyway be only a dream at a very high cost.
 
FireTelkom said:
Saw the new rates on Vodacom4me. Now it make even more sense to stay on pay as you go and buy on bigger bundle than normal - you get 60 days. Sim farming will continue to have sim cards with only enough for the bundle on it in the modem at any time. 3.6HSPDA towers very seldom reach that speed anyway, so 7.2 on Vodacom will anyway be only a dream at a very high cost.
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Yup, if you do all of the above you must for sure stay on BB-S. Will cost you less.
 
What is happening Vodacom, a few minutes ago the new bundle rates on your website, no its gone and back to the old, WTF is going on?
 
This sucks.

I'm not impressed and afraid of my future with vodacom.

All these changes, and nothing appealing to me - it's priced more now and as this is now a new product, how long is it going to take for a price change ?

This new Product must first cool down for a few months before any other changes are made - If the Prices were to go down, they would of gone down with all these changes that currently took place.

I agree with other posters here

This would of been a much better change:
just charge everyone 20c / MB, klaar - You don't even buy "bundles" it just uses your airtime as you go, so basically a cheap OOB charge permanently. Give people freedom and stop trying to make everything so damn complicated.

The Multiple-Products are getting confusing, and I'm into PC's - Good luck getting Normal people to sign contracts that sound so confusing it's scary!
 
Keeper said:
This sucks.

I'm not impressed and afraid of my future with vodacom.
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It does in theory, but in the real world where we're just human this is good. I think even though V3G is throwing out percentages of how much over bundle it takes before this is worth it, it's easier to understand in terms of time.

8 minutes.

On 3.6 that's how long it takes before this product saves your ass in OOB charges over a regular 2GB package. Now if you know exactly what you're computer is doing at all times that's fine. But if you've ever had things automatically download in the background, maybe some new software installed and you've forgotten to switch auto-update off, and you're away from your computer and not totally aware of your data usage then this is an answer. I still dislike this product in principle, but in practice I'm sold ;)

Of course if you're on prepaid this is utterly stupid. Just stick in the amount you need for the bundle every month :rolleyes:
 
km2 said:
It does in theory, but in the real world where we're just human this is good. I think even though V3G is throwing out percentages of how much over bundle it takes before this is worth it, it's easier to understand in terms of time.

8 minutes.
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Never looked at it this way, but it does make more sense.

km2 said:
Of course if you're on prepaid this is utterly stupid. Just stick in the amount you need for the bundle every month :rolleyes:
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Maybe not stupid but definitely unnecessary.
 
Yep, and that's why - i'm on prepaid....thing is, there are plenty of prepaid Users....plenty.

Could of attracted much more people if they made it simple for the average person to understand.

20c a MB. Bundles don't exist.
 
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