Bigger Prepaid Data Bundles?

[Mike_De_Lange]

Will these ever appear. I'm happy with the performance of HSDPA for online gaming just the prices per MB get ridiculas. Shouldn't the price per MB decrease and attempt to compete with adsl?

MY GIG Five 5 GB R 989.00 R 0.19
MY GIG Ten 10 GB R1,989.00 R 0.19

Considering there is not data bundle rollover and you cannot load more than 1 data bundle a month this is OUT ****ING outrageous...Are MTN and Voda trying to increase there customer base or trying to scare off new potential customers? For there asking prices you can get uncapped, unshaped, fly to the moon and back adsl. I'm sorry but R194.56 per GB is ridiculas. ADSL prepaid is about R75 a GB. So yes for 1GB or 2GB HSDPA is the way, but anything over that just doesn't make sense!

I think our 2 main mobile operators need to shape up. They are supposed to be offering competition and a challenge to Telskum but they forcing us to run to them with open arms!

 

[ginggs]

Vodacom's pre-paid system does allow you to load more than 1 data bundle per month.

 

[Mike_De_Lange]

Ahhh ok thats a nice change from MTN. But regardless buying 4 x 2GB databundles doesn't make it cheaper. The price per MB remains the same the higher the databundle goes...which doesn't make business sense...Not sure why no one else seems to have a problem with this. I prefer this as apposed to Telkom ADSL since there are no contracts or any other legal binding nonsense. I get HSDPA when I want and when I need it...I can stop and go whenever I please.

Thats why it kills me that they cant offer sweeter packages!!

PS: I'm doing my best not to order ADSL, thats why I'm fighting so hard

 

[ginggs]

Ahhh ok thats a nice change from MTN.

Yes, I don't know exactly how much I need from month to month, but if I run out I can just buy another bundle. Also, the pre-paid bundles run for 30 days from the date of purchase. As far as I know, contract bundles are still tied to calendar months, so if you buy a bundle on the 20th you only have 10 days to use it.

But regardless buying 4 x 2GB databundles doesn't make it cheaper. The price per MB remains the same the higher the databundle goes...which doesn't make business sense...Not sure why no one else seems to have a problem with this.

I'm just happy that we get pre-paid data bundles at all. You can now get flat-rate HSDPA in Europe which work out cheaper than here, but that service is available on contract only. Of course you need to read the fine print, what they call flat-rate is actually limited by a fair usage policy so you only get 3GB.

With pre-paid you get flexibility, but that comes at a (small) price.

 

[vodacom3g]

As far as I know, contract bundles are still tied to calendar months, so if you buy a bundle on the 20th you only have 10 days to use it.

Not any more!

 

[Mike_De_Lange]

Ahhh vodacom3g. Do you have an explanation for bigger price for the bigger data bundle? I would think voda would jump @ the opportunity because if customers dont use the entire bundle then Vodacom score...

 

[CellBel]

This is a very nice option from Vodacom regarding the purchase of more than one bundle on the same sim card.

 

[vodacom3g]

Ahhh vodacom3g. Do you have an explanation for bigger price for the bigger data bundle? I would think voda would jump @ the opportunity because if customers dont use the entire bundle then Vodacom score...

I think the popularity of the bigger bundles caught us a bit by surprise, even on pre-paid, people are buying them. So we're relooking at the whole structure.

 

[Mike_De_Lange]

Thats great news indeed!!!!! Hopefully they conform to the norm and offer 10GB packages and lower prices than the 19c per MB How about 10c per MB or less to encourage more people/businesses to go with HSDPA? Makes good business sense

 

[ic]

Thats great news indeed!!!!! Hopefully they conform to the norm and offer 10GB packages and lower prices than the 19c per MB How about 10c per MB or less to encourage more people/businesses to go with HSDPA? Makes good business sense

Vodacom reduced its pricing and introduced PPDBs and removed the price differential between vanilla-3G & HSDPA speeds, all on 2007-04-01, the result was a lot more people using Vodacom's network all at once.

Also, if you've been following news articles, you will know that there is a problem with Telkodemonopolies upgrading backhaul links for both Vodacom & MTN, Telkodemonopolies is also the reason why we don't have 3.6Mbits/s HSDPA yet from Vodacom & MTN - there is a huge backlog of backhaul link bandwidth upgrades that Telkodemonopolies has to start and finish before 3.6Mbits/s becomes available to the public.

Further reducing pricing at this point in time, would only result in more people clogging up the network, and then everyone will complain about QoS issues.

 

[Mike_De_Lange]

I guess you got a valid point there IC. Just saddens me that I will now have to sell my soul to Telkodemonopolies