Data bundle validity periods are essential to managing limited network resources

[Mariner]

There is an easy compromise. Airtime, which is voice, SMS and OOB usage shouldn't expire, whilst data, which represents much more traffic on the network, should.

Um, that is how it works already?

 

[Randux]

These ones must stfu they don't know what they're doing.

 

[konfab]

Um, that is how it works already?

Not quite true. MTN has airtime expiry on smaller purchases.

View attachment 1851787

MTN South Africa

Explore MTN South Africa offers, plans, devices, and digital services.

www.mtn.co.za

To me this is the lower hanging fruit for the regulator to address. I think it would be far better to trade in slightly higher OOB and voice rates for airtime to last 3 years.

 

[ponder]

Cell C has explained that expiry periods for minutes, data, and SMS allocations are essential to managing the limited network resources that mobile services require to operate.

It's a BS argument.

If I buy 10GB of data and 3GB expires all that happens is I buy another 10GB and continue using that. My use of the network hasn't increases or decreased. It's just a way to fleece the consumer and it has to stop.

Image your unused prepaid electricity expired every 30 days!? Hopefully Eskom doesn't read this...

 

[Jan]

Image your unused prepaid electricity expired every 30 days!? Hopefully Eskom doesn't read this...

This analogy doesn't work that well.

Eskom implemented a different model of control by charging you more the more electricity you buy in a month. So they disincentivise you from buying more than you need in a month through price rather than through expiry.

Imagine if data became more expensive the more you used?

Another thing: There is a phenomenal amount of fraud happening in prepaid electricity tokens. Had tokens expired, that problem might not have been as big as it is today.

 

[konfab]

It's a BS argument.

If I buy 10GB of data and 3GB expires all that happens is I buy another 10GB and continue using that. My use of the network hasn't increases or decreased. It's just a way to fleece the consumer and it has to stop.

Image your unused prepaid electricity expired every 30 days!? Hopefully Eskom doesn't read this...

They can't because the meters can't do it, but it would make electricity a bit cheaper because your tokens could be tailored to fit the demand.

 

[Bad Ballie]

What do the big boys like MTN and Vodacum say?

They do not have limited network resources.

Stop interviewing kindergartners

They will say the exact same thing because it pays them to.

 

[SHL]

How great would it be if the networks could refund me or give me back airtime for unused data. That feels like the fairest way to do it. The customer only pays for what they actually use.

 

[RoganDawes]

In fact the whole poor argument reminds me of the poor person not being able to buy the 5kg pack of rice so they must pay 5x more for the 250g packs of rice. The fact that poor people can't afford a huge upfront cost for large non-expiring bundles does not negate the fact that they are still not better off with small expiring ones.

This is the essence of Sir Terry Pratchett's (RIP) Theory of Socio-Economic Unfairness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

Summary:

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

Looking at e.g. Vodacom's 1 week bundles, vs their 30 day bundles, the rate per MB/month is exactly the same, although you would expect it to be cheaper:

1 week:

150MB - R18 - 0.12c

30 days:

600MB - R74 - 0.12c

However, their smaller monthly packages get a LOT more expensive:

75MB - R13 - 0.17c

And even shorter duration packages (daily and hourly) are straight up daylight robbery, for something that has an almost immediate expiry date:

35MB - R5.5 - 0.157c