Data billing? Not like this, Cell C

reactor_sa said:
What does this mean?
If I send a WhatsApp message of 5kb, will they then take 25kb usage of my available data bundle?? Or is it per session (ie when you restart your phone or something), what does it mean exactly, how does this work?
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Read all about it here:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...kb-not-5kb!-(since-24th-April-)-is-this-legal

It is per session. I don't think it has been established how often the sessions are billed if the connection is not dropped, but we've seen that when the data connection disconnects it is counted as a session.

So if you only receive one 160 byte WhatsApp message during an hour, and then your connection drops, you will billed for 25 kilobytes.

Problem is some people are experiencing more than 100 disconnections per day.

Edit: Seems to be particularly bad on BlackBerry:
Random717 said:
My Blackberry connects once every 15 minutes and downloads 101 bytes (if there are no email or whatsapp messages). Cell C subtracts 25KB each time
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It's sad though. They started strong but made too many enemies to quickly, MTN alone did major damage when they dropped pricing forcing cell c even lower. I think it must be really hard for a business to maintain some of the pricing being thrown around now.
 
Come on people, I thought you were more clever than this? This is a storm in a tea cup.
You do not loose 25kb for every small Whatsapp or email header check. It is only if the session ends and you only used part of the 25kb.
So the most you can loose is 24kb. If you have a bundle which costs you 15c/MB, then the cost of 24KB is 0.35 cent (R0.0035) .
If your rate is R1/MB, then 24KB costs 2.34c (R0.0234)

Poor article, not showing what the real impact on users is, just trying to stir.
 
Nephew_ said:
Come on people, I thought you were more clever than this? This is a storm in a tea cup.
You do not loose 25kb for every small Whatsapp or email header check. It is only if the session ends and you only used part of the 25kb.
So the most you can loose is 24kb. If you have a bundle which costs you 15c/MB, then the cost of 24KB is 0.35 cent (R0.0035) .
If your rate is R1/MB, then 24KB costs 2.34c (R0.0234)
Click to expand...

Multiply by a million subscribers and thousands upon thousands of data sessions and you will see the problem as a whole
 
Can they unilaterally change terms & conditions in existing contracts? Is this what they are doing?
 
Randux said:
Your move MTN. Match/better Cell C's data bundle pricing and we shall come.
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+1 especially as their call rates are acceptable now.

In essence, they have already bettered Cell C's data bundle pricing through Afrihost for contract customers. Now they just need to add prepaid customers.
 
My contract expires in Feb 2015, wish that time could come sooner because:

- When i drive, i experience multiple dropped calls within the same highway (doesnt matter to which phone i am calling)
- Sometimes I cannot even call anyone at all
- People always complain that my phone is on voicemail even though it has a strong connection
- Signal is low in most buildings, while my vodacom phone always as a reliable connection even when on one bar of signal
- Data speeds are always slow, even on 3G

I think i moved from Voda too soon, "out of the pan, into the fire" i guess

I will be back to voda and their vodascam ways, at least their network works.
 
fs87 said:
My contract expires in Feb 2015, wish that time could come sooner because:

- When i drive, i experience multiple dropped calls within the same highway (doesnt matter to which phone i am calling)
- Sometimes I cannot even call anyone at all
- People always complain that my phone is on voicemail even though it has a strong connection
- Signal is low in most buildings, while my vodacom phone always as a reliable connection even when on one bar of signal
- Data speeds are always slow, even on 3G

I think i moved from Voda too soon, "out of the pan, into the fire" i guess

I will be back to voda and their vodascam ways, at least their network works.
Click to expand...

You get what you pay for comes to mind.
 
Nephew_ said:
Come on people, I thought you were more clever than this? This is a storm in a tea cup.
You do not loose 25kb for every small Whatsapp or email header check. It is only if the session ends and you only used part of the 25kb.
So the most you can loose is 24kb. If you have a bundle which costs you 15c/MB, then the cost of 24KB is 0.35 cent (R0.0035) .
If your rate is R1/MB, then 24KB costs 2.34c (R0.0234)

Poor article, not showing what the real impact on users is, just trying to stir.
Click to expand...

The real impact might be small, but still a big enough issue for refusing to port my 2 numbers (which is already on prepaid) to Cell-C. Guess someone else will get my money now.
 
Can I cancel my 2 month old contract because of these changes which do affect billing?
 
So this was all covered up and kept quiet by Cell C until someone on MBB exposed it all.
The big question is how many are skeletons do they have in their closet? What other unidentified tricks are they using to up their revenue?

They are really getting desperate to stop their slump... and doing it in the wrong way i'm affraid. :(
 
fs87 said:
My contract expires in Feb 2015, wish that time could come sooner because:

- When i drive, i experience multiple dropped calls within the same highway (doesnt matter to which phone i am calling)
- Sometimes I cannot even call anyone at all
- People always complain that my phone is on voicemail even though it has a strong connection
- Signal is low in most buildings, while my vodacom phone always as a reliable connection even when on one bar of signal
- Data speeds are always slow, even on 3G

I think i moved from Voda too soon, "out of the pan, into the fire" i guess

I will be back to voda and their vodascam ways, at least their network works.
Click to expand...
This is exactly my experience as well! I think it's been deteriorating the last year too.
 
Storm in a teacup.

The way I see it, even if they billed at 1000KB per session, they would still be cheaper than Vodacom or MTN.

I buy 3GB for R299 that lasts a year. 10c/mb. No other network offers a similar value bundle that lasts a year.

Note that a session only ends when you disconnect. Even if I disconnected after every 1MB usage and they charged 1MB per session, I would be charged at most 20c/mb for data that lasts 12 months. This is the worst case scenario with 1000KB increments. At 25KB increments the impact is almost nothing.
 
SaiyanZ said:
Note that a session only ends when you disconnect. Even if I disconnected after every 1MB usage and they charged 1MB per session
Click to expand...

Note that some people might experience 100+ session disconnects on a normal day due to their location etc. 100 Disconnects on your rate would mean 100mb down the drain each day... 30 normal days later and your bundle is gone.

Edit:100 disconnects a day at 25kb translates to roughly 2500kb a day. That is still mindless munching of data.
 
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ld13 said:
Note that some people might experience 100+ session disconnects on a normal day due to their location etc. 100 Disconnects on your rate would mean 100mb down the drain each day... 30 normal days later and your bundle is gone.
Click to expand...

In the unlikely event of that happening, I will move to the next cheapest offering. People should go for the best value they can get. If they have 100 disconnects per day then they shouldn't be on CellC in the first place.
 
SaiyanZ said:
If they have 100 disconnects per day then they shouldn't be on CellC in the first place.
Click to expand...

Disconnects can happen on any network if you move in and round certain areas that are on the edge of coverage.
 
So CellC have found a way to profit from their inferior network?
 
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