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Its true.And its not an Aprils fools joke.Vodacom HSDPA will be available in April.New Datacards should be available early next week......Reduction on data prices.......well we have to wait and see
 
RompelStompel said:
Hopefully not on the same schedule as prepaid data bundles :D
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Lol Rompelstompel!
I WANT one! The hooking-up-my-6680-to-the-pc-everytime-I-want-internet-routine is no longer on :D
 
wamatt said:
Congrats vodacom. Quite impressive thats we ahead of the UK and Americans wrt cell technology.

Will it be available in all places where 3g is offered automatically?
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Yes, all 3G towers have HSDPA as it was a software upgrade to the system. Whole country is already active. Coverage might be slightly different.

You're quite right that this is leading edge (pardon the pun!) stuff and I fully expect some growing pains.

We can either wait a year or two for the technology to mature somewhere else, or we can adopt early and give the benefits as soon as possible.

Those of you who've met Vodacom's top management will know they're technologists at heart and thus we get the new toys first!

These are cutting edge technologies developed by humans and glitches will occur in the early days but as with all previous technology cycles the glitches will be sorted and the service will stabilise.
 
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feo said:
How much will it COST?
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The SAME! :)

The Vodacom pricing models have always been usage based and not on the access speed, i.e. you pay for the data used irrespective of your connectivity speed.

You buy the data bundle you figure out you need and then connect at either GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA. Faster speeds just means you get the work done quicker.

The argument that higher speeds should be cheaper because you're going to be downloading more data does not hold.

As an analogy, if the national speed limit is lifted, are you going to travel more or just faster?

If you use data purely for the sake of using it (aimless browsing, for example), you might have an addiction problem :) For the rest, higher speeds merely means doing the same job quicker.

There will always be downwards pressure on data rates and I fully expect them to come down in the future.
 
Lot's of datacards in the warehouse, but no production handsets that I know of.

The first HSDPA handset was only launched a few weeks ago, so it'll take a while to come into production.
 
vodacom3g said:
The argument that higher speeds should be cheaper because you're going to be downloading more data does not hold.
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And why not? If we can download at faster speeds then we'll all want to download more and so it'll make sense that data costs come down as speed goes up...am I the only one that sees the logic in this?
 
feo said:
And why not? If we can download at faster speeds then we'll all want to download more and so it'll make sense that data costs come down as speed goes up...am I the only one that sees the logic in this?
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It's more human nature than logic, but I don't dispute it will happen if you're a download addict.
 
good call ic......................cos u never know when we get hit with a prepaid situation and /or something falls over.
 
V3G, If one is already contrated into a VC 3G package, using the older cards without HSDPA, could we simply exchange our older card with the HSDPA card?
2ndly, is there a HSDPA coverage map that can be viewed on the web?
3rdly, as it is now, the current cards allow to swop from 3G to GPRS. Will the same apply for HSDPA, meaning, will it swop down to 3G and GPRS?
 
Hoodwink said:
V3G, If one is already contrated into a VC 3G package, using the older cards without HSDPA, could we simply exchange our older card with the HSDPA card?
2ndly, is there a HSDPA coverage map that can be viewed on the web?
3rdly, as it is now, the current cards allow to swop from 3G to GPRS. Will the same apply for HSDPA, meaning, will it swop down to 3G and GPRS?
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1) I've asked for the upgrade plan and will revert soonest.

2) Use the 3G map, but be aware the cells will be smaller.

3) Even better; HSDPA->3G->EDGE->GPRS
 
vodacom3g said:
1) I've asked for the upgrade plan and will revert soonest.

2) Use the 3G map, but be aware the cells will be smaller.

3) Even better; HSDPA->3G->EDGE->GPRS
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Nice fall back plan.

Pity the Jasjar not going to get HSDPA through firmware upgrade. HTC's Universal successor is only arriving in 2007. Such is the bleeding edge.
 
ic said:
.... are there any semi-deffective HSDPA handsets available for testing purposes - even one with no covers & a tendency to shock the user from time to time...:D [joking of course]
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I don't think so, data cards aplenty.

You'll have to get over your datacard phobia :)
 
I'm new to the thread and I saw the press release that Vodacom would be first to launch in April .. blah blah .. first yet again etc and yet MTN says on its Website ... finanical results .. that it has already gone live and is first in Africa ... blah blah ... Who do we believe and do journalists check the stories.
 
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