Data services rip-off

Hugely expensive, I had a Vodafone prepaid card to check my email once a day in the UK and Austria.....50 pounds (R600) lasted 4 days (and the emails were headers only - with one or two small attachments). The guy from Vodafone told me the cost was 25 pounds per Meg March 2007....crazy! Unllike the semi-reasonable data rates here (around R2 per Meg if Im not mistaken). No wonder internet on mobile isn't so popular in the UK as here.

Granted, Im talking pre-paid and not roaming here....but still!
 
bekdik said:
If I roam with a Blackberry and my Exchange server is pushing mail to my phone, would I suffer the same exorbitant rates?
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Unless it uses smoke signals to communicate, yes.
 
I used data for work while in belgium, came back to a R 10,100 data bill on my cell. Wonderful suprise - R40/mb - especially since my account technically should have limited at +- R3000 for the months credit limit.

oh, and thats R 40/mb + VAT!
 
Three words that the world will get to love "The (South)African Way"
 
Caveat emptor....
People really need to check these things before they use.

The local network operators charge overseas visitors as little as R25.00 per MB when they roam in South Africa.
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And as much as??
 
easier to walk around 'overseas' and find a wifi source than bothering with this anyway.
 
Utterly ridiculous. I would think it would make good business sense for the Networks (Vodacom & MTN) to warn customers about the charges when they activate international roaming. They might lose some business initially but in the long run the customer is more likely to stay with that network because of their honest/ethical approach.

Maybe I'm living in a dream world.

Anyway, I always let clients know before they incur additional charges. Simply placing the information on a website which has hundreds of page just doesn't cut it. Presonal contact goes a long long way.
 
The local network operators charge overseas visitors as little as R25.00 per MB when they roam in South Africa.
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If I'm not mistaken R25.00 per MB works out to around R25000 per gigabyte of data. Our cell phone companies must be eagerly awaiting 2010! Perhaps they should remove all prepaid SIMs from circulation shortly before the tournament and prepare for a bonanza.
 
flippen hell i knew is was expensive but this is just plain robbery!

it would be cheaper getting a prepaid or whatever they have where you are in europe.
 
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Says Taylor: "The question that must be asked is why the price of data services for customers roaming internationally has soared. Prices have gone up by a factor of four or more in a year, and subscribers can justifiably feel that they are being ripped off. We would like to know who is to blame: are international network operators making obscene margins off our subscribers? The local network operators charge overseas visitors as little as R25.00 per MB when they roam in South Africa.

Concludes Taylor: "South African network operators have managed to drive the costs of their data services down to less than 20 cents per MB, depending on the package the customer is on. Customers should be aware that an affordable service they use routinely at home can cost them several hundred times more when they're abroad."
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I didn't knew that this was the way you do journalism. Trends sure change fast.
 
Wasn't overseas, but should I need to go, then I'll just activate call barring and use wifi hotspots whenever possible.
 
aadil said:
Utterly ridiculous. I would think it would make good business sense for the Networks (Vodacom & MTN) to warn customers about the charges when they activate international roaming. They might lose some business initially but in the long run the customer is more likely to stay with that network because of their honest/ethical approach.

Maybe I'm living in a dream world.

Anyway, I always let clients know before they incur additional charges. Simply placing the information on a website which has hundreds of page just doesn't cut it. Presonal contact goes a long long way.
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haha, asking MTN for some assistance with this is a joke, like talking to the traditional state departments!
we have got some directors on biztrip in France at the moment, so I'm wanting to find out how the cost per Mb will be calculated, while they use their MTN data modems on GPRS roaming...
First tried 'customer service' :sick: on 173, "no u must phone ur service provider at 808", I phone 808, "no you must phone 1555, they will give u detailed info"...
I phone 1555, the dude says all that happens is they take the foreign price per Mb, e.g. 2 Euros/Mb, convert to Rands, thats how u get billed.
So I ask is there any other charges? "No, just cost of foreign price converted to rands"
So I'm saying, OK , so then its not much cheaper to just get a local, e.g. Orange, prepaid sim, and use that for data connection, i.e. whether u pay 10 Euros there, or pay 10 Euros worth of Rands here on your bill, it should be similar, give or take some conversion diffs.
MTN-helper says "noooo! much cheaper to get local sim" :confused:
Me gave up trying to understand the price diff. Sure it makes sense to me to get a local sim and pay the euro price, like a local prepaid user, but if all MTN does is charge you the converted euro price in rands how can there be such a big diff. Unless there are some wicked roaming charges added, which mr MTN says no.
So I still don't know **** ...
Anybody here know? It would make sense if u pay e.g. 5 euro/Mb as prepaid user, and 15 euro/Mb as roaming user, so why not just say so.
So yaa, customer service, thats the big thing.

By the way, why is it when u phone any of the MTN customer service lines, u gotta "enter the cell number that your enquiry relates to" and as soon as the dude answers the phone, they ask u "what is the cellphone number?"... wtf?
 
jislaaik! I put in enquiry to Orange.fr, the network in France.
If my understanding is correct they charge about 15euros per Mb!
The dude at Harties MTN says they bill roaming data at R2/Mb plus the foreign coutry's charge... wicked!
And we think our internet is expensive! Or is it just the roamers that they r@pe like this?
 
CeeBee said:
jislaaik! I put in enquiry to Orange.fr, the network in France.
If my understanding is correct they charge about 15euros per Mb!
The dude at Harties MTN says they bill roaming data at R2/Mb plus the foreign coutry's charge... wicked!
And we think our internet is expensive! Or is it just the roamers that they r@pe like this?
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Roaming is a bad idea - period, unless your company is footing the bill!

I stopped using roaming once I had to pay. I now buy a SIM in the country I am visiting (usually peanuts & sometimes with a free phone chucked in :)) and use that.

Of course if you have a locked PDA/phone then this won't work for you but then maybe it's worth popping into one of those shady shops that exist all over the world and get your phone unlocked, also for peanuts. (For PDA's visit XDA Developers on-line).

And here is the payback: I quote for Spain but the prices are not dissimilar these days.

Buy a Movistar SIM (tarjeta prepago) and load operator settings for Movistar and you will pay:

€3 for 10Mb. Once you reach 10Mb, you pay another €3. This goes on until you reach a total usage charge of €15. At this point, no further charge is made and you can use the network for the rest of the day, gratis free etc.

Note this resets at midnight. In simple terms, you can access HSDPA internet, all you can eat for €15 a day (2,3 Gigabytes?) or just pay €3 a day to read mail, surf the Net, per 10Mb.

Every time I go up I take full advantage of the high-speeds to download huge amounts of data on one day, then I pay €3 most other days without having to risk internet cafes.

PREPAGO: 3€ (3,48 IVA incl.) /10MB por 1día conexión. Exceso 3€/10MB hasta 15€ (17,4 IVA incl.) a partir de los cuales tarifa plana total durante ese día.
 
U dont need to be overseas to be ripped off!!!

Vodacom had a problem with their 3g billing for dec and jan, more so jan billing. I have been slapped with a R11000 bill just for use in south africa let alone going internationally, and all vodacom is willing to do is reduce it by 50%! as the consumer what do u do? shut up and accept thats what!
The best part is that many people havent seen their 3g bill for jan because they will only be posted out next week or so. SO when they do see it, they gonna be in for a major shock!
 
Just something i'd like clarified, is this article about ROAMING charges rip-off, or the european-local charges i.e. if i went onto a Orange/T-Mobile data plan vs. using MTN/Vodacom's roaming on those same networks?

What's more, service providers such as Nashua Mobile are not able to get billing data from the operators in real-time, which means that it cannot warn customers before they run up exorbitant data bills on overseas networks.
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Even though i think Nashua is pretty useless anyway, but please put the "Real" bottleneck there. It's MTN/Vodacom themselves who can't provide real-time data. People are running up insane bills RIGHT HERE , nevermind overseas. I get a "bill-shock" every 3 months if i don't watch my account like a hawk.

MTN does not provide ANY warnings/alerts/info or easy way to determine what's going on on your account. It's difficult enough to do it via their website in South Africa, imagine trying to do it overseas!!! .

At least last time i went overseas i bought an Orange sim on the airport...i was up and running in 10 minutes flat [this included a phone call to Orange helpdesk to activate sim and the really friendly person on the other end actually having the time to ask me what's South Africa like AND tell me exactly when and where my sim will work and not work.....imagine that here.]
 
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