Flat-rated smartphone data packages are difficult says Vodacom

evilstebunny said:
Vodacom's just being their greedy normal selves.

Jannie you've mentioned middle ground, where has VC ever given us middle ground? You balk at a figure of 300gb, so what? Bandwidth isn't a scarce item that need dishing out by the spoonful anymore, we have a deluge of bandwith coming into the country. Penetration? Thanks to Telkom being such a momumental frackup the mobile operators are showing data growth figures of I think I read 20% pa, and still you cannot make a plan? The smaller operators are making a joke of you.

Nah, Vodacom's just being what we've come to expect of them.
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Please explain how the cables coming into South Africa drives down the cost to deliver 300GB over my radio network, won't you?
 
jannievanzyl said:
Please explain how the cables coming into South Africa drives down the cost to deliver 300GB over my radio network, won't you?
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The underpants gnomes method:

1) International fibre
2) ???
3) my phone

:D
 
+1 for 2gb bundle for 149. You don't even have to supply a modem.
 
jannievanzyl said:
Great minds think alike.
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So can I add this tomorrow morning when I buy my bi-monthly data package?

You do realise that the high data bundle costs is actually losing you customers - I would've prefered to simply bolt on data on to my phone contract but seeing as I could get a lot more for less from 8ta I signed a contract with them and bought a 3G router for the house. I don't get why the R149 rate wasn't available to existing contract & top-up customers already - it's not like we're not already locked in to a contract.
 
rorz0r said:
+1 for 2gb bundle for 149. You don't even have to supply a modem.
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Come to think of it, I think people get more annoyed at the fact that adding a data bundle to their phone costs way more than a data contract that comes with a free modem than the general high price of data in the country. At least try and be "fair" about it. That goes for the OOB shark catching out guys on contract as well. I would doubt that you make that much money from the guys getting stuck with 10k+ bills compared to the "regular" users but maybe I'm wrong. At the end of the day it just makes you look like the bad guys.
 
Allin said:
provided you CAP it and not tell me your system is incapable of killing the OOB shark.
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Well there's the problem with Vodacom the only cap is on prepaid and Topup where the customer caps by having a R0.00 balance after purchasing a data bundle.

At R2/MB Vodacom has no incentive to fix the contract billing to work in realtime and be hard capped in realtime.

If ICASA wasn't so useless I would say that ICASA needs to clamp down on OOB charges, or at least have a regulated maximum of say R25 in OOB charges and no more, Vodacom cannot argue with this as we have always been told that Vodacom wants its data customers to purchase data bundles for that mysterious "mobile network capacity planning" malarky.
 
Uncapped mobile bundles are not the answer, but Bundles with either a decent cost (R149 for 2GB) or Bundles with a decent FUP but then throttled to GPRS after that....

I would prefer the latter option tbh, since my phone isn't used for browsing and such very often but it does download multiple email accounts and twitter and and and...
 
I'd be quite happy with a flat rate data service that allows me browsing, video/radio streaming... don't need p2p on cellular... that's what my DSL is for! But I have to agree, shortage of bandwidth is becoming a thing of a past - what's 300gb anyway!
 
My question is why do you need do much data? I manage fine with a 1GB bundle.
Uses: email, browsing, random streaming videos. With the iPhone it's difficult to download music and videos. I do my app updates and downloads at work.
So what do you need and extra gig of data for?
Apart from reducing bundle pricing, 1GB is sufficient.
 
Speedster said:
I get that for R199/month from 8ta.
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The difference is 8ta covers about 10 postage stamp (google it to find out what it is!) sized areas. Leo's coverage is a bit wider... BTW, can you add it to your 8ta voice contract?
 
Haldex said:
My question is why do you need do much data? I manage fine with a 1GB bundle.
Uses: email, browsing, random streaming videos. With the iPhone it's difficult to download music and videos. I do my app updates and downloads at work.
So what do you need and extra gig of data for?
Apart from reducing bundle pricing, 1GB is sufficient.
Click to expand...

Load twitch tv app on your phone and stream a few videos i hardly get past my 1 week with the 500mb i get free from vodacom
 
Jannie is generally quick to point out that VC was built to a Rx-billion company. It is truly disfkngusting that a company way bigger than my local municipality has such a pathetic billing system that it can't stop a contract customer (milk cow) from going out-of bundle. My local municipality's electricity rate is going up by a significant % at the end of June. I'm going to load a few k's worth of electricity at the current rate. Strangely enough, these incompetent corrupt clowns manage to "roll over" electricity indefinitely, but the multi-billion rand company can't.

I realise VC is not in the business to take care of milk cows but to make $$$ for shareholders, but FFS stop this moral arguments.
 
jannievanzyl said:
Please explain how the cables coming into South Africa drives down the cost to deliver 300GB over my radio network, won't you?
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Once you reconcile for us the ridiculous profits VC's posting against their constant moaning and lethargic attitude towards lowering prices.
 
I'm not surprised vodacom says its hard to develop this product. But I don't get it. Why don't they develop uncapped for mobile devices, keep the speed at 256kbps, limit YouTube to 1GB per month, and block P2P services?

Lets look on the bright side, at least Vodacom did not develop that fail-of-a-flat-rated service that MTN made a few months ago.

I really think Vodacom should lower their data pricing to maybe R25 per GB
 
ngadao08 said:
I really think Vodacom should lower their data pricing to maybe R25 per GB
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Unlikely vodacom takes too much joy in watching us moan about being ripped off and then watching us pay their prices anyway. I would definitely move to 8ta if they covered my area. In fact, if they covered any real area.
 
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