Data usage stats: Smartphones vs dongles

1.1 mil dongles and 4.1 mil smartphones, yet the dongle/smartphone ratio using the network is 60/40??

So what exactly does the ratio mean? "Average ratio of devices using data on the network at any given point in time"?

Otherwise I would find it hard to believe that less than a million smartphones use data on the network...
 
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@RPM, it would be advisable to check numbers, especially when they come from cellular providers. Clearly Jannie didn't check Pieter's numbers, or he would have corrected them:
  1. A "ten-fold" increase in data means exactly that, 10x which is 1000% and not 100%. (The term "two-fold" is used correctly later with two factors).
  2. The ratio of dongle/smartphone data usage on the Vodacom network is 65/35 (rounded) and not 60/40.
  3. Assuming the 80/20 ratio for the previous year was calculated correctly, it means there were around 3.1 million smartphones on Vodacom' network as well as the 1 million dongles. (This number seems to correspond roughly with a Moneweb article from September 2010.) How does this relate to the 1.138 million "Data connectivity customers" Vodacom had at the end of March 2010 (Vodacom's annual report) :erm: A smartphone without data connectivity is (just) a phone.
 
Muks said:
1.1 mil dongles and 4.1 mil smartphones, yet the dongle/smartphone ratio using the network is 60/40??

So what exactly does the ratio mean? "Average ratio of devices using data on the network at any given point in time"?

Otherwise I would find it hard to believe that less than a million smartphones use data on the network...
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I agree. Figures very confusing and misleading.
1.1 m dongles x 550MB = 605,000,000MB (605 m MB)
4.1 m smart/p x 80MB = 328,000,000MB (328 m MB)
We'll see how this whole thing pans out further into the future.
I do think however that smartphone is the future for the internet.
 
Shayd said:
The vodafone 858

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
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Yup, one of my favorites as well. It's a really nice and good looking full-touch Android phone. Have 2 in the family.

Also the Samsung Gaaxy Y-Pro. Smaller touch screen but with keyboard. Feels snappier to me than the 858. Not sure about the exact price.
 
The reason for this strong smartphone data usage is twofold: there are far more smartphones on the Vodacom network and smartphone users are consuming significantly more data.
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IMHO there is a simple explanation for this, when it comes to dongles consumers can easily choose a competing HSPA network that consistently has lower pricing compared to Vodacom, but consumers (for whatever reasons) are far more reluctant to port their cellphone numbers to a competing network and will use small amounts of data from their smartphones which accumulates to a large combined data usage total across Vodacom's smartphone customer base.

@jannie, does this exclude VLive data usage?
 
LeonP said:
@RPM, it would be advisable to check numbers, especially when they come from cellular providers. Clearly Jannie didn't check Pieter's numbers, or he would have corrected them:
  1. A "ten-fold" increase in data means exactly that, 10x which is 1000% and not 100%. (The term "two-fold" is used correctly later with two factors).
  2. The ratio of dongle/smartphone data usage on the Vodacom network is 65/35 (rounded) and not 60/40.
  3. Assuming the 80/20 ratio for the previous year was calculated correctly, it means there were around 3.1 million smartphones on Vodacom' network as well as the 1 million dongles. (This number seems to correspond roughly with a Moneweb article from September 2010.) How does this relate to the 1.138 million "Data connectivity customers" Vodacom had at the end of March 2010 (Vodacom's annual report) :erm: A smartphone without data connectivity is (just) a phone.
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Thanks for the feedback LeonP.

These are official stats from Vodacom - asked them for comment after Pieter's presentation so these should be accurate figures.

Regarding the number of data subscribers versus data dongles: The one figure is based on the number of unique data bundle users (which include smartphone users) while the other number is the number of users which access the network using data dongles.

Ten fold increase in data usage with smartphones is to the best of my knowledge correct (hence 1000%).
 
Geez, did you guys all get out the wrong side this morning? Or has it become such a habit to attack anything posted by myBB or quoted by the networks that you don't bother to read the articles properly? :rolleyes:

The article clearly states different numbers; the devices, the data per device and the total data per device type. And all the numbers quoted are in line.

@LeonP: You're right, the ratio is actually 64.8446:35.1554 and not the wildly inaccurate 60:40 Pieter used while chatting informally over a few drinks with a couple of people.

I understand you talk like that, but most sane people would round to a logical number for the sake of simplicity.

Pieter was also wrong on the 80:20 starment, BTW. It was, in fact, 80.1282:19.8718.

I'll sort him out and explain myBB members always quote factual numbers (and only factual numbers, they never speculate or make assumptions) down to the 5th decimal and would never make statements not supported by fully audited numbers.
 
Lol Jannie. So true.

2012 on MyBB no different to 2011. Still the same grouches as usual who 'know' better.
 
What a lot of nonsense! The real reason, not mentioned by Peter Uys, is that Vodacom's dongle data bundle and out of bundle prices are not competitive and remain the most expensive across the board, despite having the largest slice of the cellphone market in SA.

A large percentage of those who were previously using Vodacom dongles to surf the net, migrated to other networks (i.e. Cell C and later 8ta), because of their attractive & affordable promotional deals. Especially the pre-paid ones without having to sign into a contract.

With Cell C terminating it's generous free megabyte offer on recharge at the end of last week, and the imminent termination of 8ta 2G+1G deal, maybe people may flow back to Vodacom. That's only if Cell C and 8ta, or even MTN don't come out with a better deal soon.

Also, not mentioned is that the abuse of the Blackberry network by a few, as stated by Uys contributed to at least 80% of their bandwidth on smart phones until now. The average mb/per user on smart phones is therefore not indicative of real usage for the average user.
 
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jannievanzyl said:
Geez, did you guys all get out the wrong side this morning? Or has it become such a habit to attack anything posted by myBB or quoted by the networks that you don't bother to read the articles properly? :rolleyes:

The article clearly states different numbers; the devices, the data per device and the total data per device type. And all the numbers quoted are in line.

@LeonP: You're right, the ratio is actually 64.8446:35.1554 and not the wildly inaccurate 60:40 Pieter used while chatting informally over a few drinks with a couple of people.

I understand you talk like that, but most sane people would round to a logical number for the sake of simplicity.

Pieter was also wrong on the 80:20 starment, BTW. It was, in fact, 80.1282:19.8718.

I'll sort him out and explain myBB members always quote factual numbers (and only factual numbers, they never speculate or make assumptions) down to the 5th decimal and would never make statements not supported by fully audited numbers.
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Fact still remains: 80MB per smartphone user per month against 550MB per dongle user per month.
Most of the 80MB comes from OOB cost? (use airtime to surf) If data wasn't so damn expensive, I would use my 3G dongle (and my smartphone ^_^) a lot more.
 
kingdong said:
What a lot of nonsense! The real reason, not mentioned by Peter Uys, is that Vodacom's dongle data bundle and out of bundle prices are not competitive and remain the most expensive across the board, despite having the largest slice of the cellphone market in SA.

A large percentage of those who were previously using Vodacom dongles to surf the net, migrated to other networks (i.e. Cell C and later 8ta), because of their attractive & affordable promotional deals. Especially the pre-paid ones without having to sign into a contract.

With Cell C terminating it's generous free megabyte offer on recharge at the end of last week, and the imminent termination of 8ta 2G+1G deal, maybe people may flow back to Vodacom. That's only if Cell C and 8ta, or even MTN don't come out with a better deal soon.

Also, not mentioned is that the abuse of the Blackberry network by a few, as stated by Uys contributed to at least 80% of their bandwidth on smart phones until now. The average mb/per user on smart phones is therefore not indicative of real usage for the average user.
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Agreed!!!
 
kingdong said:
A large percentage of those who were previously using Vodacom dongles to surf the net, migrated to other networks (i.e. Cell C and later 8ta), because of their attractive & affordable promotional deals. Especially the pre-paid ones without having to sign into a contract.
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I'd be interested to see your stats on your statement.

What large percentage of users moved from Vodacom to Cell C and later 8ta?

To have calculated this percentage you must have the subscribers numbers for Vodacom, Cell C and 8ta (and I guess MTN).

Can you post your numbers please?
 
jannievanzyl said:
I'd be interested to see your stats on your statement.

What large percentage of users moved from Vodacom to Cell C and later 8ta?

To have calculated this percentage you must have the subscribers numbers for Vodacom, Cell C and 8ta (and I guess MTN).

Can you post your numbers please?
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Just about every one of my family and friends went over to 8ta. I am still locked into a VC contract. If we look at the posts on this forum alone, one can easily come to some conclusions.
My one friend in Wellington, NZ gets 60GB for R200 a month. Their population is much smaller and dense than ours.
 
JohannesPaulsen said:
Just about every one of my family and friends went over to 8ta. I am still locked into a VC contract. If we look at the posts on this forum alone, one can easily come to some conclusions.
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There is a big risk in assuming that you know using your experience or information which you gathered. I think we all do it, and if you later check your assumptions you start to realize that many of them were wrong.

This is the reason that we get the official numbers from operators. Regarding 8ta – from my experience in the past it is likely that Vodacom signed up more subscribers on a single data bundle size than what 8ta signed up across their total data offerings over the same period. We will however have to wait for the full year results from Vodacom and 8ta to et an accurate view (we asked 8ta for their numbers, but they were not willing to provide this).
 
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