Exploring Virgin territory

rendan said:
I still feel that the 24 month contract is better..since u save on the phone.. i mean thats like 2 grand.
Click to expand...

Remember South Africa is one of the biggest consumers of cellphones, in other countries the people don't feel the need to to change their cellphone every 2 years like we do here.
 
Gangrel said:
Remember South Africa is one of the biggest consumers of cellphones, in other countries the people don't feel the need to to change their cellphone every 2 years like we do here.
Click to expand...
Actually many countries you get a new phone annually. My relatives in the UK regularly send me their one year old phones and I dole them out here. They call it phones for africa ;)

24 months is too long to be tied to any provider - and all for a flash piece of plastic. Money better spent elsewhere imo.
 
If anybody thinks that Virgin/Branson is coming to South Africa out of any philanthropic interest ... take a reality check.

The motivation is greed, pure and simple. When Branson says he's "developed a soft spot" for SA, what he really means is that SA is a soft target for his profiteering ways.
Get real, people: he's not here because he cares about us! He's here because the duopolistic mobile environment with deliberately confusing and rapacious pricing allows more than sufficient room for him to also make mega-profits while pitching his price levels marginally under the rest all the while getting maximum PR mileage out of his large-hearted campaign to bring relief to the downtrodden South African consumers ... I'm not fooled.
 
Last edited:
spacemuis said:
Get real, people: he's not here to bring us better value! He's here because the duopolistic mobile environment with deliberately confusing and rapacious pricing allows more than sufficient room for him to <strong>also</strong> make mega-profits while pitching his price levels marginally under the rest all the while getting maximum PR mileage out of his large-hearted campaign to bring relief to the downtrodden South African consumers ... I'm not fooled.
Click to expand...
If his profit margins are lower than everyone else then I win right or would it be better to keep paying Vodacom's higher (in my case they definitely are) prices? :confused:
 
rendan said:
Their product is not as good as id hoped :(
I still feel that the 24 month contract is better..since u save on the phone.. i mean thats like 2 grand.And u pay around 130 a month with free minutes.. And the costs are definately not as complicated as they make it out to be...
A monkey can understand them

I also think that theyre not allowed to offer better services because theyre basically using the cellc network. Its like the ISP's using telkom...They can only do so much....
Click to expand...

Then have fun paying the penalty when a better offer comes along...
 
spacemuis said:
If anybody thinks that Virgin/Branson is coming to South Africa out of any philanthropic interest ... take a reality check.

The motivation is greed, pure and simple. When Branson says he's "developed a soft spot" for SA, what he really means is that SA is a soft target for his profiteering ways.
Get real, people: he's not here because he cares about us! He's here because the duopolistic mobile environment with deliberately confusing and rapacious pricing allows more than sufficient room for him to also make mega-profits while pitching his price levels marginally under the rest all the while getting maximum PR mileage out of his large-hearted campaign to bring relief to the downtrodden South African consumers ... I'm not fooled.
Click to expand...

Do you know that for a fact, or just assumption. Even if it is for greed, the SA consumer is winning and he has got my vote. At least he is doing something about, far more than the rip off institutions we have at present.

Do me a favour and stick with your ABSA, STD, NEdbank or FNB, people with pessimism as you have deserve to be be ripped off.
 
Is the SA consumer really winning? That was my point, viz that with the confusing mobile pricing models it is almost impossible except for trained professionals (which I happen to be) to accurately compare different contract and prepaid price structures for affordability.
This looks messy from our perspective as consumers, but is deliberately created as such by the networks so that we could have the illusion of choice.
This confusion creates the perfect opportunity for new packages (such as those from virgin) to create the superficial appearance of better value - e.g. by lowering the per minute call cost - but doing away with phone subsidies.

And, no, I don't know that Branson is coming here for profit-taking purposes "for a fact". How would you define "fact" in this case? Maybe if he admitted it on the record? Duh. I think you'll agree it's obvious that he's here to make profits. Big profits.

And in an environment where we're being ripped off to the power-of-Nth degree (yes that includes banking, telecomms, bandwidth, cars, flights, et cetera) that leaves <b>lots</b> of room for new operators to undercut the incumbents ever-so-slightly and still make megaprofits while being able to crow about the great public service they provide through their lower prices.

Mark my word: the fixed line SNO will not be significantly cheaper than Telkom in any meaningful areas. They will rely on the Telkom p*d off factor to garner customers, not fair pricing.

Just opening a market to more players does not automatically guarantee fair pricing to consumers. Look at banking in this country: we have four major banks, yet we see no competition in terms of costs. Why? Because they are all, by tacit (or illicit) agreement quite happy with the status quo, thank you very much.

--spacemuis
 
He was on 702 this morning, he says they aim to make their profit target with high volumes and low margins, not the Crap South African way, namely low volumes, high margins.

I for one welcome our new overlord...
 
spacemuis said:
Is the SA consumer really winning? That was my point, viz that with the confusing mobile pricing models it is almost impossible except for trained professionals (which I happen to be) to accurately compare different contract and prepaid price structures for affordability.
Click to expand...

Who is trained to compare pricing structures? Come on.
 
.geek said:
Who is trained to compare pricing structures? Come on.
Click to expand...

I ran the s/w department of a cellphone rental company for many years and gained in-depth knowledge of billing models, did lots of modelling to optimise our total billing package, and worked closely with the tech departments of the networks in doing all this ...
This qualified enough for you, Mr Smartypants?:cool:
 
spacemuis said:
Is the SA consumer really winning? That was my point, viz that with the confusing mobile pricing models it is almost impossible except for trained professionals (which I happen to be) to accurately compare different contract and prepaid price structures for affordability.
Click to expand...
Crikey! :eek: You have a high opinion of yourself!
Since when does one need "professional training" to compare pricing structures?
The math learned in primary school is more than adequate enough for such a task :rolleyes:

And yes of course Mr Branson is coming here to make money, and everyone knows that Virgin is a business not a charity organization... no need for any "trained proffesionals" to tell us that :rolleyes:

Still there's no way that you can argue that 50c a MB is no better than R2.00 a MB :eek:
(talking of no "bundle" pre-paid data here)... sure 50c a MB is still outrageous compared to what other countries may be paying for data... but I'm not going to say no to a 75% reduction.
 
I think the new Blinggola ad shows the true colour of branson's white face in africa -.

Sis!
 
kilo39 said:
I think the new Blinggola ad shows the true colour of branson's white face in africa -.

Sis!
Click to expand...
Well that was incredibly poignant.
 
I think the fellow who weighs 39 kilos is trying to say that Branson's ad's portray a white rich elitist mindset
 
redarrow said:
Crikey! :eek: You have a high opinion of yourself!
Since when does one need "professional training" to compare pricing structures?
The math learned in primary school is more than adequate enough for such a task :rolleyes:

And yes of course Mr Branson is coming here to make money, and everyone knows that Virgin is a business not a charity organization... no need for any "trained proffesionals" to tell us that :rolleyes:

Still there's no way that you can argue that 50c a MB is no better than R2.00 a MB :eek:
(talking of no "bundle" pre-paid data here)... sure 50c a MB is still outrageous compared to what other countries may be paying for data... but I'm not going to say no to a 75% reduction.
Click to expand...

Lol - around 10 posts on this forum and he is already in need of a new logon.

Hmmm, so I need 3-5 years of tertiary education to know that R2 is lower than 50c. Or that my current cost of R2.85 per minute for cell calls is actually CHEAPER that VMs R2.35.

WOW - colour me embarassed, thank goodness spacemuis rescued me from my complete delusional world.
 
Maybe he was educated in the degree of consumer rip-off or perhaps a qualification in Telkom Maths
 
JTech said:
Maybe he was educated in the degree of consumer rip-off or perhaps a qualification in Telkom Maths
Click to expand...

Telecoms training most likely involves
1) shock therapy
2) removal of conscience
3) insertion into brain of primary response "No, we cannot help you". and "INSERT. MONEY. NOW."
 
Congrats. Now I am sure most grade 10's can compare pricing structures.
 
I think the fellow who calls himself Boss should understand BlingGola perfectly. :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X