Got my facts straight ?

[gtommo]

Hi all
First post on these forums.
I am on dial up and want to move to Vodacom 3G, I want to try it out first using prepaid instead of diving straight into a 24 month contract. I have checked Vodacoms site and read the FAQs here, but just want to check that I understand correctly :

1.) Unused data will be forfeited within 30 days - so if I buy a data bundle on the 20th, its good till the 20th of the next month, not just until the end of the month I bought it in ?

2. ) With prepaid, is the smallest bundle the MY MEG 500 ? If I'm sure that I'm not going to use more than 500mb in a month can I get a smaller bundle than the MY MEG 500 ?

3. ) How do you pay for the bundles with prepaid ? debit order/credit card or ?

4.) Silly question maybe but if I use my Vodacom 3G connection mainly for voip calls, does Vodacom frown upon such activities or penalise you in any way ?

Thanks
G

 

[SYNERGY]

I know with MTN the smallest bundle is R10 for 10MB
The money is debited from your existing airtime balance. Dial 141 on MTN
Nope they don't penalise as far as I know.

 

[ic]

I am on dial up and want to move to Vodacom 3G, I want to try it out first using prepaid instead of diving straight into a 24 month contract.

You can rent an HSDPA modem from several cellular service providers.

My advice to you, is not to take out a 24 month contract, consider buying an HSDPA modem on budget, or buy a used HSDPA modem, whatever HSDPA modem you buy, make sure it is ready for 3.6Mbits/s - that translates into the Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem, and the newer Express Card HSDPA modems that are ready for 7.2Mbits/s, don't get too hung up on 7.2Mbits/s as it is a bit far off in SA, we are still on 1.8Mbits/s thanks to Telkodemonopolies' incompetence.

1.) Unused data will be forfeited within 30 days - so if I buy a data bundle on the 20th, its good till the 20th of the next month, not just until the end of the month I bought it in ?

The 30 days only applies to pre-paid Data Bundles, note that all contract data bundles expire at the end of a given month, IMO PPDBs are more flexible.

2. ) With prepaid, is the smallest bundle the MY MEG 500 ? If I'm sure that I'm not going to use more than 500mb in a month can I get a smaller bundle than the MY MEG 500 ?

Currently the smallest PPDB available from Vodacom is still 500MB.

3. ) How do you pay for the bundles with prepaid ? debit order/credit card or ?

Do a pre-paid internet banking transfer to a pre-paid SIM card used for PPDBs.

4.) Silly question maybe but if I use my Vodacom 3G connection mainly for voip calls, does Vodacom frown upon such activities or penalise you in any way ?

No, Vodacom does not penalise you in any way.

PS: Welcome to MyBroadband .

 

[Iam3G]

I know with MTN the smallest bundle is R10 for 10MB
The money is debited from your existing airtime balance. Dial 141 on MTN
Nope they don't penalise as far as I know.

He's opting for Vodacom, not MTN...

 

[morkhans]

IC has laid it all out for you, here is my 2c.

Make sure you check coverage for your area. Renting the equipment to test is a good idea if you are hesitant to commit to a contract or equipment. If you keep an eye out in the classifieds and bidorbuy, you can pick up a E220 for anything between R1000-R1500 (with R1500 being about the average price and R1000 a bargain). If you do the maths a subsidised device costs about R1440 over 24 months (contract), so I would not want to pay more than R1500.

I am also using PPDB on Vodacom and it works really well. You buy airtime from any vendor and then use the airtime to buy data bundles (Some people miss that step). I have been using vodacom4me.co.za do that and it's easy to do.

Yes there are occasional hiccups in the system (like everywhere else), but we have v3g's ear so things tend to get fixed rather quickly.

I would also like to see Vodacom make some smaller bundles available.

 

[gtommo]

Great, thanks all.

 

[Conspirator]

VOIP is gonna chow your 500meg fast and wireless connections are not ideal for voip. Should work though if you have a solid signal.

 

[Sony_3G]

YEa, to buy a bundle you can either (make sure you have enough airtime on the sim)
Buy a bundle form www.vodacom4me.co.za
Buy bundles via sms (sms "MyMeg 500", "MyGig 1" or "MyGig 2" to 100)
Dial *111# and follow instructions