Cheaper vs Value added telecoms

[kb]

Ok since Neotel is treading the path of the previous cell / telecoms providers in this country and ramming the "Value added" differentiator down our throats too, what does the consumer, myadsl consumer at any rate really want?

My perception is that price or at least real value for your rand is the top priority, I know it is mine. It certainly came across at the top end during the ICASA hearings IIRCC. These guys seem to be deaf.

I would be interested to see what kinds of packages the other forumites would like in an ideal world. Maybe we could put together a short list of commonly bundled services that would suit a broad spectrum of users. Then of course it would be great to have a broad spectrum of individual services from which you could customize your own package all from a single vendor. Of course wouldn't it be great if we had multiple vendors offering all of this and competing on price, then when one pissed me off I could simply move on (Hey I can dream)

Anyway my requirements are simple, all I want is what I have now with more bandwidth at a reasonable price

TelkomInternet Account
Landline
DSL512
Minimum 10GB bundled

Price R200

Am I being unreasonable?

Having said this it would be nice to consolidate my mobile contracts under the same umbrella so that all of my communications requirements could be consolidated into a single bill.

These are just my very simple requirements and they won't suit others.

I know we have been through this before, with what we saw as our ideal broadband package. However since the service providers insist on ramming these value added packages down our throats, why don't we come up with our own packages that are at least useful in terms of the bundles?

Mods, if this is in the wrong place - please move it.

 

[Leitmotif]

You forgot unshaped...

 

[kb]

You forgot unshaped...

I didn't forget it, it's just that for my type of usage, not a top priority.

The point of my post is that our calls for reasonable pricing seem to go completely unheeded. Instead what we get is a bunch of overpriced bundles sold under the banner of "Value added services" to justify their high price. All to often these bundles are of little use to us - too many added services that are of little use to us.

I'm just asking what kind of bundles we would see as useful. I am also broadening the scope of this to look at bundles that would currently require services from several different vendors and asking if this would be useful to others too. Obviously keep this to telecoms related products only otherwise it'll get out of hand.

As I said I really would like for myself a one stop Internet account, Internet access, Landline, Mobile provider - that is now a useful bundle to me. Obviously we all want the prices to get real as well.

 

[DragonLogos]

I don't like the sound of Value added, NeoTel should be looking at how to find new business, which is business that Telkom has lost, even with un-metered local calls the profits are big

There again, they will have to work it out on their own

This poor Dragon doesn't earn a Million a month

 

[Edwe]

Is this a trick question? "Value added" is a nonsense term used when trying to convince customers that a service is not too expensive. Honestly, all these additional (useless) features in the value added packages cost practically nothing to provide and they sound good on paper, but what we need is cheaper prices, but why would Telkom cut prices when they have no real competition?

 

[kb]

Is this a trick question? "Value added" is a nonsense term used when trying to convince customers that a service is not too expensive. Honestly, all these additional (useless) features in the value added packages cost practically nothing to provide and they sound good on paper, but what we need is cheaper prices, but why would Telkom cut prices when they have no real competition?

Not a trick question as I completely agree with what you are saying. I was seeing if we could come up with something that would qualify as TRULY value added package - i.e. a bundle of telecoms products and services at a reasonable price where each elment was of real value / use to us.

 

[BobJones]

Its simple really... all the features used to market the product to you must be present in the base package sold.
Take the analogy of the car market. Renault markets their cars as being safe... so you get all the safety features standard in the base model.
Telkom and the Cell companies are like BMW/Toyota/VW, unless you pay the huge premium for the uber top of the range model, you get none of the things you find in their ads.
Where is the value in that?