Data rollover compliance notices may be illegal says ISPA

It's pretty obvious that a 3-year data rollover makes no sense.
Neither the consumer nor the service provider would be the winner if this is enforced.
 
What bollox though on the planning argument.

Why would everyone suddenly decide to use all their bandwidth on the same day?

Usage patterns won't change. It would just provide flexibility to the consumer.

I have a question though. If unused data cannot be rolled over, why is the data not refunded? It's akin to theft.
 
When mobile services were first introduced there was no airtime rollover. Now any prepaid subscriber can roll over airtime for several months. Not sure if airtime expires anymore.
The same will happen with data. It will take one courageous operator to introduce rollover trend and everyone will jump on board. All these planning excuses will cease to exist.
 
Qwikslver said:
Why would everyone suddenly decide to use all their bandwidth on the same day?
Usage patterns won't change.
Click to expand...

Of course usage patterns will change. I would not try and rape my account on the last day of the month but rather in the last month of my 3 year period.

Qwikslver said:
I have a question though. If unused data cannot be rolled over, why is the data not refunded? It's akin to theft.
Click to expand...

Not theft at all. You are paying for expected usage. This is how the ISP business model works. The same principle explained in the article will apply. The thing to remember is that you buy gigs whereas the ISPs do not buy gigs from their upstream providers, they buy capacity/bandwidth for that month in mbps based on that expected demand and some magic formula that will ensure that peak times are not severely overcrowded. If no one uses their data for 3 years, the ISP will still need to foot the bill for the capacity they acquired each month. With prepaid data they factor in this possibility and hence prepaid rollover data is more $$$ from eg. Axxess/WA and the likes.

Eg. Say 245 people buys 100GB of 'usage' for a certain month. So they eg. rent a OC 3 (155Mbps) pipe that allows ~47.89 TB of throughput if run at full throttle for the whole month. That is about double than the expected usage during the whole month to allow for more simultaneous connections. Whether or not those 245 people use that data or not, the cost of the OC3 line will remain for the ISP.
 
NCC failed because they did not consult ICASA.
ISPA misinformation makes it seem as if roll over is bad.
IMHO, it's good for consumer, bad for ISPA members.

Let's hope that the NCC gets what's best for consumers.
All they need to do is notify ICASA, then ensure that the law is applied.
 
I don't expect that the current "per gig" billing is what a gig actually costs. ISPs will use a mathematical model to determine what proportion of the data bought is actually likely to be used and base their network provisioning on that... it's akin to statistical multiplexing, very common in telecoms networks for the data plane itself. Assuming that kind of model is used, changing to rollover just means adapting the model to determine how long a bought bundle will typically take to be used up. Yes, it would take a few months for the model to settle as enough data was accumulated for the model to work with, but it would settle.

If a statistical approach is not the case, then prepaid data bundles are being used to subsidise other account types. In that case, allowing roll-over would cause ISP pains as they would have to push up the prices of those other accounts to something that is more realistic based on their actual capacity costs.

If ISPs just can't technically handle rollover, why not require they to sell bundles in smaller increments. As it is today it's often possible to set up "auto top-up" rules.... if the bundles were smaller they'd have finer grained control and the amount lost by the customer would be smaller. *flashbacks of first year maths and integration approximations*
 
vzta22 said:
When mobile services were first introduced there was no airtime rollover. Now any prepaid subscriber can roll over airtime for several months. Not sure if airtime expires anymore.
The same will happen with data. It will take one courageous operator to introduce rollover trend and everyone will jump on board. All these planning excuses will cease to exist.
Click to expand...

Agreed. But then the consumer needs to support the ISP who takes the lead.
 
Hellburn said:
I don't expect that the current "per gig" billing is what a gig actually costs.
Click to expand...
Correct. The real cost of a gig is higher than what consumers typically pay. The ISPs do take the average amount of unused data into account and use this to provide consumers with additional discount.
 
ambo said:
Correct. The real cost of a gig is higher than what consumers typically pay. The ISPs do take the average amount of unused data into account and use this to provide consumers with additional discount.
Click to expand...

So, what does a gig actually cost? Is it the more you use the less it costs?
Why is ADSL costs split into 3 but mobile only one. Telkom Phone Line? + ADSL Line + Data. It feels as if the mobile operators charge us for access to the network each time we buy a bundle even through topup. Access to Network (Edge, 3G, etc.) + Data.

I am asking because I am curious. (Good thing I am not a Cat)

Is the true cost of a gig for us (User) not them (i.e. Vodacom) the price of their Broadband advance, since the out of bundle rates are exactly the same is in bundle?
 
ld13 said:
Of course usage patterns will change. I would not try and rape my account on the last day of the month but rather in the last month of my 3 year period.



Not theft at all. You are paying for expected usage. This is how the ISP business model works. The same principle explained in the article will apply. The thing to remember is that you buy gigs whereas the ISPs do not buy gigs from their upstream providers, they buy capacity/bandwidth for that month in mbps based on that expected demand and some magic formula that will ensure that peak times are not severely overcrowded. If no one uses their data for 3 years, the ISP will still need to foot the bill for the capacity they acquired each month. With prepaid data they factor in this possibility and hence prepaid rollover data is more $$$ from eg. Axxess/WA and the likes.

Eg. Say 245 people buys 100GB of 'usage' for a certain month. So they eg. rent a OC 3 (155Mbps) pipe that allows ~47.89 TB of throughput if run at full throttle for the whole month. That is about double than the expected usage during the whole month to allow for more simultaneous connections. Whether or not those 245 people use that data or not, the cost of the OC3 line will remain for the ISP.
Click to expand...

Yes, but data is continually getting cheaper. The ISP wins by me buying expensive data now, but only using it later when data is cheaper.
 
Qwikslver said:
Yes, but data is continually getting cheaper. The ISP wins by me buying expensive data now, but only using it later when data is cheaper.
Click to expand...

I hate to burst your bubble, but is not all sunshine and roses for the consumer yet. A 4mb home user account (which basically means it is shaped with heavy contention) will typically set a service provider back about R280. And they resell for almost double that.

Everything you think you know in the SA internet landscape is wrong. The obstacles for providing good value services to the consumer are all artificially created to get as much money out of the consumer as possible. Mostly due to the fact that the gov and it's funds (PIC and GEPF) business interests are protected and have a mandate to make as much money as possible.

At this point Ghana, Kenia, Libia even Zimbabwe have a faster average internet speed than SA. And I can assure you for any service to work there it has to be quite affordable compared to what we get in SA.
 
I converted my virgin mobile "contract"/postpaid to prepaid because I had accumulated close to R3k airtime. It converted August last year. I'm STILL using the phone and haven't once bought airtime for it.
 
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