If you're on Vodacom and you use the Vodafone network (which becomes the preferred network if you're on their Passport option), it "only" costs R17.50/MB, unless I am mistaken. That's a lot better than R70/MB on the Orange network for example.
The problem is it becomes difficult to keep track of what you have already used, because 3G means you can download 1MB in just a few seconds, and their is no real-time tracking of your costs because Vodacom only gets the costs from Vodafone (or any network provider) weeks later.
Does anybody know, when you connect to a foreign network data network, do they route you back to South Africa first, and then back again to the foreign network? I can understand for foreign calls them charging a roaming fee because it seems to me that each call needs to be routed through South Africa first, regardless of its final destination.
But for data, they just need to connect you to their local Internet infrastructure and it's no different to being a local user surely? So why all the additional exhorbitant costs?
The problem is it becomes difficult to keep track of what you have already used, because 3G means you can download 1MB in just a few seconds, and their is no real-time tracking of your costs because Vodacom only gets the costs from Vodafone (or any network provider) weeks later.
Does anybody know, when you connect to a foreign network data network, do they route you back to South Africa first, and then back again to the foreign network? I can understand for foreign calls them charging a roaming fee because it seems to me that each call needs to be routed through South Africa first, regardless of its final destination.
But for data, they just need to connect you to their local Internet infrastructure and it's no different to being a local user surely? So why all the additional exhorbitant costs?