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Sign up with GoogleAre the new Vodafone data cards locked to Vodacom?
- Thread starter Terencek
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Official acknowledgement: new Voda cards ARE all locked
I have finally received an official reply from Vodacom to the query which started this thread. The short sharp answer is that yes all the new cards are locked, and no they cannot (will not?) be unlocked. For those interested in the detail I am pasting my unlocking request and their official answer below -- followed by the new follow-through I am now sending them.
I can only echo what one forum member said earlier in this thread: "B****rds!"
terencek
-----------------
ORIGINAL QUERY TO VODACOM:
Dear Customer Care team,
I originally bought a Vodacom 3G card for cash, to use mainly on the Vodacom prepaid (Family Top-up) system, but also with other networks both at home and abroad when carrying out my work as a very mobile journalist. A couple of months ago I took advantage of your advertised data card 'swap-out' to exchange it for a new HSDPA card.
But this new card appears to be 'locked' to the Vodacom network, unlike its predecessor -- a fact which has been confirmed by several other unhappy users on the Vodacom section of the definitive 'mybroadband.co.za' online discussion forum.
Nowhere was this locking specified in the swap-out offer, nor on the receipt I received when swapping, and it does in any case run contrary to the ICASA ruling, while also being ethically questionable in today's more choice-friendly marketplace.
Specifically as I am NOT a contract customer, I would respectfully request that your technicians explain how a cash purchaser like myself can please have this card unlocked in order to fulfil the purpose for which it (i.e. its predecessor) was originally bought outright: to use mainly with the Voda network, but also to have the facility to use others -- most specifically when the Voda network goes down in my rural area, which it has on average once a month recently.
[I am also, incidentally, one of those 'awkward' customers for whom your new two-tier data-charging system simply doesn't make sense. 99% of my online time, in my rural area I can only connect at GPRS speed. I only have the advantage of 3G or HSDPA when visiting an urban area. Yet I pay the new higher 'HSDPA' rate for ALL my data transfers in order to have the possibility of using HSDPA perhaps 1% of the time -- which simply isn't right. Why can we not be charged for the actual type of usage your network detects, rather than according to the device we are using?]
Thank you for an otherwise fine service,
<terencek>
near Rustenburg, NWP
------------------------
VODACOM'S RESPONSE:
Subject: RE: Technical request for new HSDPA data card to be unlocked from Voda network
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:52:34 +0200
From: "Vodacom Customer Care" <Vodacom.CustomerCare@vodacom.co.za>
To: <terencek@****>
Dear <terencek>
Thank you for your e-mail.
We have confirmed with Vodacare (who unlock network locked phones) that the HSDPA data card is locked to the Vodacom network and can not be opened.
If you would like to request 3G/HSDPA coverage in your area please supply us with your physical address and if possible the name of the Vodacom Tower from which you are picking up network in your area so that we can forward your query to the relevant department for attention.
Should you have any further queries, please contact us via e-mail at customercare@vodacom.co.za. Warm Regards
Riyadh Currie
Email Contact Centre
-----------------------------
MY RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE:
Dear Riyadh Currie and colleagues,
Thank you for your prompt reply.
Unfortunately it does not however resolve the basic issues, namely:
1) That a cash-purchase customer has received a device locked to the Voda network, when the device was bought specifically for the full cash purchase price in order to have the freedom to use it at the customer's discretion and NOT be locked into a network;
2) Locking devices is contrary to the ICASA ruling; and
3) Customers are not warned in any of the promotional material that the device is locked, only discovering this after purchase either when they wish to use it on another network or, more seriously, at the end of their Voda contract when the device effectively becomes useless unless they remain with Voda.
Please be aware from here on that this correspondence may be copied to the leading forum dealing with Vodacom data issues (www.mybroadband.co.za), that it may be copied to ICASA in any follow-through, and that as this correspondent is a working technology journalist it may also be used in print. Accordingly, you may like to copy your Public Relations department into the matter.
Naturally I appreciate your offer to investigate whether 3G/HSDPA could be introduced to my reception area, though given that it is a rural area I doubt you would find it viable. However just in case, I work out of Northwest Province, between Rustenburg and Brits, served by one of two Vodacom towers depending on which signal is strongest for my devices to lock onto at random from my office: Nooitgedacht or Buffelspoort Dam.
On the main issue of locked devices being provided to customers without any prior indication (any number of unhappy new owners have now started logging the issue on the relevant forum/s), you must be aware that this is unacceptable under the current arrangements, apart from being unethical -- particularly in the case of a cash customer such as myself for whom the sale has thus been made under misleading pretences.
I would therefore again request that you refer to whoever bears ultimate responsibility for this issue, in order that my card be unlocked (perhaps through the use of modifying firmware?), or be replaced with an equivalent card which is unlocked. Should you fail to do this, I regret I reserve the right to make this a public media debate on the ethics of the situation.
With regards,
<terencek>
I have finally received an official reply from Vodacom to the query which started this thread. The short sharp answer is that yes all the new cards are locked, and no they cannot (will not?) be unlocked. For those interested in the detail I am pasting my unlocking request and their official answer below -- followed by the new follow-through I am now sending them.
I can only echo what one forum member said earlier in this thread: "B****rds!"
terencek
-----------------
ORIGINAL QUERY TO VODACOM:
Dear Customer Care team,
I originally bought a Vodacom 3G card for cash, to use mainly on the Vodacom prepaid (Family Top-up) system, but also with other networks both at home and abroad when carrying out my work as a very mobile journalist. A couple of months ago I took advantage of your advertised data card 'swap-out' to exchange it for a new HSDPA card.
But this new card appears to be 'locked' to the Vodacom network, unlike its predecessor -- a fact which has been confirmed by several other unhappy users on the Vodacom section of the definitive 'mybroadband.co.za' online discussion forum.
Nowhere was this locking specified in the swap-out offer, nor on the receipt I received when swapping, and it does in any case run contrary to the ICASA ruling, while also being ethically questionable in today's more choice-friendly marketplace.
Specifically as I am NOT a contract customer, I would respectfully request that your technicians explain how a cash purchaser like myself can please have this card unlocked in order to fulfil the purpose for which it (i.e. its predecessor) was originally bought outright: to use mainly with the Voda network, but also to have the facility to use others -- most specifically when the Voda network goes down in my rural area, which it has on average once a month recently.
[I am also, incidentally, one of those 'awkward' customers for whom your new two-tier data-charging system simply doesn't make sense. 99% of my online time, in my rural area I can only connect at GPRS speed. I only have the advantage of 3G or HSDPA when visiting an urban area. Yet I pay the new higher 'HSDPA' rate for ALL my data transfers in order to have the possibility of using HSDPA perhaps 1% of the time -- which simply isn't right. Why can we not be charged for the actual type of usage your network detects, rather than according to the device we are using?]
Thank you for an otherwise fine service,
<terencek>
near Rustenburg, NWP
------------------------
VODACOM'S RESPONSE:
Subject: RE: Technical request for new HSDPA data card to be unlocked from Voda network
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:52:34 +0200
From: "Vodacom Customer Care" <Vodacom.CustomerCare@vodacom.co.za>
To: <terencek@****>
Dear <terencek>
Thank you for your e-mail.
We have confirmed with Vodacare (who unlock network locked phones) that the HSDPA data card is locked to the Vodacom network and can not be opened.
If you would like to request 3G/HSDPA coverage in your area please supply us with your physical address and if possible the name of the Vodacom Tower from which you are picking up network in your area so that we can forward your query to the relevant department for attention.
Should you have any further queries, please contact us via e-mail at customercare@vodacom.co.za. Warm Regards
Riyadh Currie
Email Contact Centre
-----------------------------
MY RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE:
Dear Riyadh Currie and colleagues,
Thank you for your prompt reply.
Unfortunately it does not however resolve the basic issues, namely:
1) That a cash-purchase customer has received a device locked to the Voda network, when the device was bought specifically for the full cash purchase price in order to have the freedom to use it at the customer's discretion and NOT be locked into a network;
2) Locking devices is contrary to the ICASA ruling; and
3) Customers are not warned in any of the promotional material that the device is locked, only discovering this after purchase either when they wish to use it on another network or, more seriously, at the end of their Voda contract when the device effectively becomes useless unless they remain with Voda.
Please be aware from here on that this correspondence may be copied to the leading forum dealing with Vodacom data issues (www.mybroadband.co.za), that it may be copied to ICASA in any follow-through, and that as this correspondent is a working technology journalist it may also be used in print. Accordingly, you may like to copy your Public Relations department into the matter.
Naturally I appreciate your offer to investigate whether 3G/HSDPA could be introduced to my reception area, though given that it is a rural area I doubt you would find it viable. However just in case, I work out of Northwest Province, between Rustenburg and Brits, served by one of two Vodacom towers depending on which signal is strongest for my devices to lock onto at random from my office: Nooitgedacht or Buffelspoort Dam.
On the main issue of locked devices being provided to customers without any prior indication (any number of unhappy new owners have now started logging the issue on the relevant forum/s), you must be aware that this is unacceptable under the current arrangements, apart from being unethical -- particularly in the case of a cash customer such as myself for whom the sale has thus been made under misleading pretences.
I would therefore again request that you refer to whoever bears ultimate responsibility for this issue, in order that my card be unlocked (perhaps through the use of modifying firmware?), or be replaced with an equivalent card which is unlocked. Should you fail to do this, I regret I reserve the right to make this a public media debate on the ethics of the situation.
With regards,
<terencek>
The way I read TerecnceK's complaint:
He was not properly informed about the card being network locked prior to finalising the transaction.
This thread would not have existed if VC took care of informing people about the cards being network locked.
Me for one got a card for my company on a 2-year contract without knowing it is network locked. If I knew it, I would have considered other options. The 2-year contract period is fine, but we need to be free to choose afterwards, and also wish we could select a carrier of choice for out-of-contract data.
He was not properly informed about the card being network locked prior to finalising the transaction.
This thread would not have existed if VC took care of informing people about the cards being network locked.
Me for one got a card for my company on a 2-year contract without knowing it is network locked. If I knew it, I would have considered other options. The 2-year contract period is fine, but we need to be free to choose afterwards, and also wish we could select a carrier of choice for out-of-contract data.
Nevermind not informing, if i bought a device CASH then there is just NO WAY a company can place a network lock on it [whether it was a swop out or a repair is irrelevant]. Isn't that bordering on illegal?
I assume you can at least swop your card back to the original unlocked card? [something i most certainly would do]. Besides you [terencek] don't get HSDPA anyway, wouldn't it make sense to get old 3G card again and get cheaper rates?
I assume you can at least swop your card back to the original unlocked card? [something i most certainly would do]. Besides you [terencek] don't get HSDPA anyway, wouldn't it make sense to get old 3G card again and get cheaper rates?
I think it time one of those pieces on the state of SA telecoms was written on this issue.
The consumer is being duped here.
I wander if Vodacom are starting to adopt telkom tactics. Free swop out that locks you into their network. How much more underhanded can it get.
The consumer is being duped here.
I wander if Vodacom are starting to adopt telkom tactics. Free swop out that locks you into their network. How much more underhanded can it get.
ic said:
Agree, apologies for taking so long but a very key person in this policy had a serious accident over the weekend and without his contribution I'd prefer to hold back. Going in for surgery tommorrow again, but should be available by the weekend.
Did not really want to post this as it sounds like a lame excuse, but sometimes these things happens.
There are quite a few reasons for the sudden locking but I believe the major one is a supply and demand issue, i.e. Vodafone is somehow able to get good supply of the cards but then they end up on non-Vodafone networks.
Unfortunate turn of events, yes.vodacom3g said:
However, I did find the above statement in itself interesting....
Question I have is WHY does it end up on other networks? IS VF not the bees' knees? Are there better networks out there....?? so much so that this is in fact a major reason why they are locking the cards....??
Interesting... <rubs chin>
vodacom3g said:
The thing is that if you sign a 24 month contract or buy the card cash then who cares who's network it ends up on after that???
Furthermore, when travelling aboroad, one can no longer use another network and roaming bandwidth costs are too expensive for most so in effect the person will now have to make do without any internet access abroad.
Whilst I understand Vodacom has taken a policy to protect their interests, did they even think about how damaging this would be to their business and reputation and how they would lose more revenue over this than losing a paid for data card to another network?????
I assume I can still roam with a network locked card? Can I for example go to Spain and use their Vodafone network?
But what happens if I decide to buy a Vodafone SIM over there? Will it work? It should be cheaper since you wouldn't have to pay roaming costs.
I would like to know if Vodacom is going to any trouble telling their customers that their cards are network locked. They should put a huge sticker on the box to that effect or print that in big letters on their invoices. It should be on their ads and promotional material. The customer must understand what it means. Let your customer know you are intentionally selling them delibarately crippled equipment.
But what happens if I decide to buy a Vodafone SIM over there? Will it work? It should be cheaper since you wouldn't have to pay roaming costs.
I would like to know if Vodacom is going to any trouble telling their customers that their cards are network locked. They should put a huge sticker on the box to that effect or print that in big letters on their invoices. It should be on their ads and promotional material. The customer must understand what it means. Let your customer know you are intentionally selling them delibarately crippled equipment.
Limited overseas use of new locked cards
Quick responses to some of the issues raised:
1) Overseas roaming: I understand the new locked cards can only be used abroad with accredited Voda partners. In the UK for example this would restrict an SA visitor to Vodafone.
2) Using the new cards overseas with a new local SIM: also only possible if the provider is a Vodafone partner. Thus on my most recent UK trip I would not have been able to take advantage of the best prepaid data I could find, from Orange, because the new Voda card will not accept Orange. (Fortunately I still had my old card)
3) Swopping back: yes, I understand customers have until sometime in September to swap back their HSDPA cards if they are not happy, or prefer to pay the slightly lower non-HSDPA data tariff. But even though I cannot get HSDPA where I live and work, the new card represented a nice 'extra' for my city trips -- hence the swap (at great inconvenience: it took dealers months to get stock, and repeated fruitless visits!). Why should I have to go through reversing the swap when the locking was not announced -- and I in effect got duped?
4) The situation in the UK: my understanding is that UK cards are not locked, only ours (though phone-locking was certainly common in the US, and is still prevalent in our neighbour Botswana). I used both an older Voda-branded GPRS card, and a Voda 3G card recently in the UK, and there was no problem switching between rival networks. None of my UK contacts has had switching difficulties either.
Still waiting for a response from Vodacom on my last insistence on unlocking of my cash-bought card. Meanwhile working on bringing this underhand practice to the attention of some mainstream media, as suggested by a couple of members.
terencek
Quick responses to some of the issues raised:
1) Overseas roaming: I understand the new locked cards can only be used abroad with accredited Voda partners. In the UK for example this would restrict an SA visitor to Vodafone.
2) Using the new cards overseas with a new local SIM: also only possible if the provider is a Vodafone partner. Thus on my most recent UK trip I would not have been able to take advantage of the best prepaid data I could find, from Orange, because the new Voda card will not accept Orange. (Fortunately I still had my old card)
3) Swopping back: yes, I understand customers have until sometime in September to swap back their HSDPA cards if they are not happy, or prefer to pay the slightly lower non-HSDPA data tariff. But even though I cannot get HSDPA where I live and work, the new card represented a nice 'extra' for my city trips -- hence the swap (at great inconvenience: it took dealers months to get stock, and repeated fruitless visits!). Why should I have to go through reversing the swap when the locking was not announced -- and I in effect got duped?
4) The situation in the UK: my understanding is that UK cards are not locked, only ours (though phone-locking was certainly common in the US, and is still prevalent in our neighbour Botswana). I used both an older Voda-branded GPRS card, and a Voda 3G card recently in the UK, and there was no problem switching between rival networks. None of my UK contacts has had switching difficulties either.
Still waiting for a response from Vodacom on my last insistence on unlocking of my cash-bought card. Meanwhile working on bringing this underhand practice to the attention of some mainstream media, as suggested by a couple of members.
terencek
Last edited:
Certainly since their inception, the two main British networks, Vodacom and the BT company O2 have never locked their phones. The other networks Orange and T-Mobile will unlock for a fee. Virgin Mobile UK will unlock for nothing -- or now I think they may not be locked at all.Terencek said:
Assuming the data cards are also unlocked, why then is a UK Vodafone branded data card arriving in this country LOCKED ?
Does the generic Huawei software work with the new locked Voda cards?
Can anyone state with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY whether the generic Huawei software can be used with Vodafone's new Huawei E620 HSDPA data cards, rather than the supplied Vodafone Dashboard?
This is an obvious route to go now that Vodacom has admitted its new cards are locked to its network, for anyone wanting the freedom to either use rival SIM-cards or to use the new datacards abroad with non-Voda partners.
Forumites elsewhere have said the 67 MB Huawei generic software both does and doesn't work! (One member said he was asked for an eight-digit PIN). Unfortunately I can't afford to download 67 MB at data rates if there is no certainty! Anyone out there with a definitive answer? Thanks guys!
Can anyone state with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY whether the generic Huawei software can be used with Vodafone's new Huawei E620 HSDPA data cards, rather than the supplied Vodafone Dashboard?
This is an obvious route to go now that Vodacom has admitted its new cards are locked to its network, for anyone wanting the freedom to either use rival SIM-cards or to use the new datacards abroad with non-Voda partners.
Forumites elsewhere have said the 67 MB Huawei generic software both does and doesn't work! (One member said he was asked for an eight-digit PIN). Unfortunately I can't afford to download 67 MB at data rates if there is no certainty! Anyone out there with a definitive answer? Thanks guys!
Last time I looked the (free) software was at:
http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/list.do?type=-1&id=305
and the software to choose is currently third from the top, listed as T
CD2HOST01B113D01SP04C00(Normal with voice call) (67507 KB) 30-Jun-2006.
In theory this would also allow the Voda cards to be used for voice calls...... Now there's an interesting thought.
Unfortunately I'm in the NWP, but thanks for the offer anyway! Curious to hear how you go!
http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/list.do?type=-1&id=305
and the software to choose is currently third from the top, listed as T
CD2HOST01B113D01SP04C00(Normal with voice call) (67507 KB) 30-Jun-2006.
In theory this would also allow the Voda cards to be used for voice calls...... Now there's an interesting thought.
Unfortunately I'm in the NWP, but thanks for the offer anyway! Curious to hear how you go!
Last edited:
adsl3g
Expert Member
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Piesang said:I'll have a look at it and let you know.
OK, I am currently running on the Huawei software with an MTN sim. The Datacard is the e620 but the MTN branded one and its working fine.
Just uninstall the default 'dashboard' before you install the huawei software.
I dont know if it will work on the Vodafone branded e620 - maybe someone else can check for us. (The VM sim still does not work even with this software so don't bother Piesang - unlesss you find some setting that makes it work
)Oh yes and voice works fine too.
You cannot surf and talk at the same time though.
adsl3g said:OK, I am currently running on the Huawei software with an MTN sim. The Datacard is the e620 but the MTN branded one and its working fine.
Just uninstall the default 'dashboard' before you install the huawei software.
I dont know if it will work on the Vodafone branded e620 - maybe someone else can check for us. (The VM sim still does not work even with this software so don't bother Piesang - unlesss you find some setting that makes it work
Oh yes and voice works fine too.
You cannot surf and talk at the same time though.
Wich one did you download?
adsl3g
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Piesang said:
The normal one · CD2HOST01B113D01SP04C00(Normal with voice call)
The others are network branded.
Oh and it does'nt mention anything about HSDPA, only 3g,GPRS & Edge but it should be HSDPA - I don't have HSDPA where I am so can't test it
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