Data rollover and the CPA

+1 , Go Mr Hall, i fully support this and can see many users smiling.

Let me just say that 3 Year is a sufficient period so don't tell me that it is rather long :p
 
You know I have always wondered why I have to lose what I have already purchased because I did not use it all (voice or data) in the allocated time--who created this rule, and why? It is not like 'perishable items'--food stuff, etc. Besides it is already paid for--networks and service providers (voice and data) already have my money, but I have not consumed the product (in the allocated time). I suggest we make it "never expire" data rather than this hog-wash of roll-over 'crap'.
 
Does not make sense at all. How on earth can i buy a voucher and keep it for 3 years without using it. Was there any need to add that stupid last sentence of s63(1) on that act after all, unless protecting someone's interests? Come on, we're not that stupid...
 
If i buy a full meal at a restaurant and the waiter says i have to finish it in five minutes and if i fail to do that they will take back the remaining food and give them to another customer.
 
Its about time. Now i'll never worry about my data bundle expiring on the end of the next calender month
 
This will end network congestion on the last day of the month. It is always a hassle to find something to download as you do not want to loose those valuable 500Mb that expires in 4 hours time. They should have done this ages ago. Hope the CPA wins.
 
Be careful with this one; it's very easy to say "it's my data, I've bought it and I'll use it when I want to".
The other side of the coin is that in setting their prices, the ISP's depend on the fact that not everyone will use up their data allocation. So if they are forced to allow the data to roll over, their prices will go up. It's as simple as that.
Personally, I would like to see the data rolled over, maybe for a week or so - but then in the new month one must use the 'old' data first, and NOT first use up your new month's data before accessing the old allocation - if you get my drift.
 
hmmm
how do you feel about the following:
ISP A offers two largely identical ADSL bundles. Product X is priced at R70/GB and your purchase is valid for 3 years. Product Y is priced at R20/GB and data expires after 30 days. It is explicitly stated upfront that Product Y is less expensive because of the 30 day expiry and you as a consumer are explicitly required to acknowledge this. Product Y is available for purchase in increments from R5 to R1 000 (i.e. there is no need to purchase more than you figure you might need + there is no cost to purchasing more so you may as well buy in small increments and top up as you go).

As a consumer would you prefer to have this choice or only Product X @ R70/GB?
 
Smiley_lauf said:
You know I have always wondered why I have to lose what I have already purchased because I did not use it all (voice or data) in the allocated time--who created this rule, and why? It is not like 'perishable items'--food stuff, etc. Besides it is already paid for--networks and service providers (voice and data) already have my money, but I have not consumed the product (in the allocated time). I suggest we make it "never expire" data rather than this hog-wash of roll-over 'crap'.
Click to expand...

Selloml said:
If i buy a full meal at a restaurant and the waiter says i have to finish it in five minutes and if i fail to do that they will take back the remaining food and give them to another customer.
Click to expand...
It actually is perishable... And it's very naive to want data to never expire... It's just not feasible.

ISP's pay for bandwidth not data... In water delivery terms they pay for the pipe not the amount of water through the pipe...

So not only do they factor the "wasted data" into their price, they pay for everything monthly (electricity,salaries,the pipe,rent) just like everyone else.

Implementing 3 years roll over will have no benefit to the consumer... The price of data will just go up and service levels drop, so unless you only use a few gigs over a 3 year period of time you'll actually be worse off!

The restaurant analogy is silly, if you bought a meal at a restaurant and half finished it and asked them to keep it in the fridge there so you could finish it next month what would they say? Or because you only finished half your meal next time you come you want them to make you a fresh other half!

So I hope the CPA loses
 
Airtime stolen

So how about this.
Contract expired 3 months ago but I still pay the same subscription. So I tell MTN to move me to prepaid until I decide to renew and guess what, all my airtime will be lost.
I would rather call it stolen because I know where it is and I paid for it. So in my book they steal my money.

I know that I cannot expect them to keep it forever or as long as 3 years, but give a person a break and let me use what I paid for within a reasonable period, say 3 months.
 
dominic said:
hmmm
how do you feel about the following:
ISP A offers two largely identical ADSL bundles. Product X is priced at R70/GB and your purchase is valid for 3 years. Product Y is priced at R20/GB and data expires after 30 days. It is explicitly stated upfront that Product Y is less expensive because of the 30 day expiry and you as a consumer are explicitly required to acknowledge this. Product Y is available for purchase in increments from R5 to R1 000 (i.e. there is no need to purchase more than you figure you might need + there is no cost to purchasing more so you may as well buy in small increments and top up as you go).

As a consumer would you prefer to have this choice or only Product X @ R70/GB?
Click to expand...

Dom, are you saying I should create a product with longer roll-over and then put some premium on it? In principle, I can agree with something like that.

On the OP; I'm glad to see that people are beginning to understand that Section 63 refers to the lifespan of the voucher and not the actual product when the voucher is redeemed.

On the topic of using data in a certain time frame; you must remember that data (in bytes) is a transient 'product' and is actually quite alien to networks. You cannot buy and store it like you could a meal or a tank of petrol (the two examples we often see on this topic).

To ensure capacity planning, you must put some time limit on the validity and the networks typically opt for 30 days (or up to 60 days on VC).

The easiest way to resolve this whole issue is to sell 'data' the way we buy it, in Mb/s. But, as I've often explained (as did others, Ambo, et. al.), it would blow the price/performance ratio out the water.
 
I guess Eskom can do the same with electricity. You buy a voucher (slip you get when you purchase electricity), punch it in your meter (ie redeem it) and then use it. Eskom can now say that you must use it all in one month because they only generate electricity according to what they sell.

This whole country will turn into chaos. Do not take away what has been paid for.
 
I think it is only fair they have this data roll over for 3 years thing.

The one month, I only use 1GB of my 5GB Cap, the 4GB DID NOT carry over to the next month, the next month, I use 5.5GB of my 5GB cap, then the next month I only got 4.5GB cap. It easy for them to subtract when we use more than was allocated to us, yet when we dont use the net, they find it hard to carry it over.
 
I agree with the ISP's on this one. They are also businesses and need to make money. Consumers need to use their brains and not overbuy. if the CPA wins then we as consumers will be worse off with data prices being much higher than it is now with no rollover. i am on iburst and they allow rollover to a certain limit which is reasonable imo. not rolling over data is something that should stay in place
 
Maybe 3 years is too long...and I am not saying that it is. But imagine buying a 20 or 30Gig data bundle that costs you over R1000 and you end up not using it after 30 days. All that data is then wasted. There really should be a more reasonable amount of time provided.

As for the restaurant analogy, the difference between the two arguments is this, it would be unacceptable for the restaurant to tell me that I have 5 minutes in which to finish my meal. This is true so much so that restaurant staff usually stay late for anyone still eating after closing time. If a client chooses not to finish his meal, the restaurant allows him to take it home and eat it later. Asking the restaurant to save it is ridiculous because it is not a service that restaurants offer. The point is, the food is yours it's your choice where you it and how long you take to eat it.
 
Fiza said:
I agree with the ISP's on this one. They are also businesses and need to make money. Consumers need to use their brains and not overbuy. if the CPA wins then we as consumers will be worse off with data prices being much higher than it is now with no rollover. i am on iburst and they allow rollover to a certain limit which is reasonable imo. not rolling over data is something that should stay in place
Click to expand...

+1 000 000 000
 
jannievanzyl said:
To ensure capacity planning, you must put some time limit on the validity and the networks typically opt for 30 days (or up to 60 days on VC).
Click to expand...

It seems we still a long way from victory here...will letting your data expire "exactly" sixty days from date of purchase also "severely" affect operators' planning? Lets say i buy bundle today (15th December) and it expires on 14th February. Will that still break operators banks?
 
dominic said:
hmmm
how do you feel about the following:
ISP A offers two largely identical ADSL bundles. Product X is priced at R70/GB and your purchase is valid for 3 years. Product Y is priced at R20/GB and data expires after 30 days. It is explicitly stated upfront that Product Y is less expensive because of the 30 day expiry and you as a consumer are explicitly required to acknowledge this. Product Y is available for purchase in increments from R5 to R1 000 (i.e. there is no need to purchase more than you figure you might need + there is no cost to purchasing more so you may as well buy in small increments and top up as you go).

As a consumer would you prefer to have this choice or only Product X @ R70/GB?
Click to expand...


This is by far the best compromise
 
jannievanzyl said:
Dom, are you saying I should create a product with longer roll-over and then put some premium on it? In principle, I can agree with something like that.
Click to expand...

something to consider...this is the actual position regarding one of the ISPs being focussed on by the NCC.
 
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