Have your say, vote for Data Bundle Rollover

[Csnoopy]

A retraction means we will have to wait some time before rollover is actually implemented

Can someone put a timetable to this Rollover issue. "Give us hope Joana". The only people that are loosing are us users.

 

[Napalm]

U can buy ADSL data-bundle vouchers and Mweb has been selling Prepaid Rollover adsl bundles for the last year already. Why can't Vodacom, MTN or all 3G/HSDPA also sell data-bundles that roll-over. Meaning u buy a 1gig and u can use it over 3-4 months if you are a small user??

I think its only fair. I mean u pay for the data. BUt now they limit you to use it up very quickly. For the peopel who love to download 1gig isn't enuff by far. But for the small-end user. Who only browse a little during the week, and send a email or two. it could be tuff doing 300mb

 

[Prometheus]

I don't think that's true, that's V3G's point, they pay x amount for a peering link with SAIX of a certain capacity and they're charged that regardless of utilisation. They're not charged per GB.

They get charged x amount for a link of a certain capacity from Telkom for use on their own network. Kind of like paying x amount for a car but that does not include the petrol you put into it. So they also have to pay for the actual data which if international or on SAIX is charged per GB depending on how much the isp uses. Don't know how IS works.

Where do you get this from?

Maybe you didn't understand it so I'll try and rephrase it with an example. Usage in a certain area is 0.8Mb/s on average and 1.2Mb/s during peak periods so a 1Mb/s link at x amount will be sufficient. Now a few months later usage goes to 1.2Mb/s on average and 1.6Mb/s during peak so at least 1.5Mb/s is needed at y amount. Bundle purchases and roll-over have not entered the picture here yet.

Without roll-over most people rush to use it up on the last day which must increase network load and mostly at the end of the month. With roll-over there won't be this rush and people can use it more naturally spreading out the load. Most people will probably still buy their bundles in regular intervals like monthly but without the worry of what happens if you have to stretch it out a little. There won't be a rush to upgrade links which will lower costs somewhat in the long run.

Again, how do you get to this?

I believe the answer was physics was it not?

In the latest VODAWORLD magazine - page 8

Letters to "Editor's Inbox" have a letter from Shivan Singh in Durban
He questions the non roll over of Data bundles.

Editors response:

"Vodacom now allows its customers to carry over any of remaining bytes to the next month"

That appears to be correct but more a glitch on the system. Old used up data bundles seem to roll-over. Can anyone confirm if their bundle was actually cut off or if it simply continued until used up.

U can buy ADSL data-bundle vouchers and Mweb has been selling Prepaid Rollover adsl bundles for the last year already. Why can't Vodacom, MTN or all 3G/HSDPA also sell data-bundles that roll-over. Meaning u buy a 1gig and u can use it over 3-4 months if you are a small user??

I think its only fair. I mean u pay for the data. BUt now they limit you to use it up very quickly. For the peopel who love to download 1gig isn't enuff by far. But for the small-end user. Who only browse a little during the week, and send a email or two. it could be tuff doing 300mb

I have suggested this in the past and still think it might be a good solution. A sliding scale where you pay less per MB the more you use. This way nothing gets stolen and if you use more Vodacom still makes more but you also save.

 

[ic]

Going to try unsticking this thread for a while - maybe it will get noticed more that way...

 

[AirWolf]

Going to try unsticking this thread for a while - maybe it will get noticed more that way...

That's one possibility or it could drop like a rock

Best to try unsticking for a while

 

[ic]

That's one possibility or it could drop like a rock

Best to try unsticking for a while

If it does disappear onto page 2, I will consider reapplying the digital glue - I have this theory that people ignore sticky threads...

 

[AirWolf]

I think so too because they look long and boring

 

[Csnoopy]

U can buy ADSL data-bundle vouchers and Mweb has been selling Prepaid Rollover adsl bundles for the last year already. Why can't Vodacom, MTN or all 3G/HSDPA also sell data-bundles that roll-over. Meaning u buy a 1gig and u can use it over 3-4 months if you are a small user??

I think its only fair. I mean u pay for the data. BUt now they limit you to use it up very quickly. For the peopel who love to download 1gig isn't enuff by far. But for the small-end user. Who only browse a little during the week, and send a email or two. it could be tuff doing 300mb

I have for a whole month only browsed a little spent time on the forum did the email thing and that was for several hours per day. I barely used up 350MB. I tried to use up the last 700Megs on the last 3 days of the month but still I lost about 150Megs.

 

[AirWolf]

So a 1GB bundle with rollover would last you 3months easy

 

[Csnoopy]

So a 1GB bundle with rollover would last you 3months easy

That is very possible because I have auto updates disabled. I would say most likely 2 Months that would include doing the regular updates manually. Vodacom sites are a bit of a bandwidth eater.

 

[AirWolf]

I normally use 250MB a month, but if I bought a bigger bundle (with rollover) I think my monthly usage would increase

 

[ic]

@IC: Are we any closer to data bundle rollover or is this just more of the same? Sorry to repeat this again but with ADSL the prepaid bundles either expire or roll over so why not with HSDPA? I know that you have personally tried extremely hard to get somewhere with this issue and we are all very grateful for your efforts, even if sometimes it may not seem so. Do you think that IS could or might supply such a product or is this impossible in the current climate? I personally would prefer to see fewer contracts in the future.

Praise should go to sky.akash for making data bundle rollover an important issue in this forum, I have really only leant my support to the cause as I believe it is worthy and I would really like to see DBR implemented.

There is a very real possibility that Vodacom will lose the good PR created by its April 2007 price reductions, if MTN is first to implement DBR for use with MTN HSDPA.

There probably isn't anything we can do - other than vote here and continue to be vocal - to actually force Vodacom or MTN to implement DBR, ultimately it is about Vodacom & MTN competing for data market share, IOW data customers, I would guess that MTN has some catching up to do in terms of HSDPA customer numbers, and MTN implementing DBR would encourage Vodacom data customers to migrate over to MTN's HSDPA network.

My feeling is that the larger data bundle sizes, would be more attractive to data customers if those data bundles rolled over, and there are many other benefits of rollover for customers, but the way ic it, is that there are several advantages for both Vodacom and MTN if they implemented DBR - customer loyalty is one: a customer that has bought a 90 day data bundle is unlikely to use the rival HSDPA network until that bundle is either used up or expired; then there are the congestion alleviation advantages, which could also save Vodacom and MTN real money by reducing the need to have more bandwidth added to existing backhaul links - instead of upgrading the capacity of backhaul links every 3 months it could be every 6 to 12 months with DBR...

But to answer your question about the IS 3G-R99 for ZAR99.00 per month deal and rollover of that 250MB, I would leave it to the market to decide, i.e. let competition between service providers do its thing - if the market decides that the IS thing is crap then it will die a natural death.

What happens to 2nd hand data? data that has not rolled over. Maybe they also purchase the 2nd hand data & resell at a good price and all you know. Is this how goggaconnect is doing it? OBR=IBR. www.goggaconnect.co.za I know vodacom3g tried to explain how they are doing it and what happens to the not used data, but I am still wondering??

Data is perhaps like potential energy - it has the potential to be seen and observed, but you would otherwise not know that it exists. I'm sure that network operators believe that the money of their customers is like potential energy and without transferring that money from the customer to the network operator, no data flows.

 

[AirWolf]

I just picked up on rollover from the reports speculating about Vodacom's new pricing before it was implemented. When it didn't materialise, I decided to hold Vodacom to this because to me it seems only fair that you get what you paid for. A lot of people getting short changed with their bundle or over charged with oob rates must be left with a bad taste in their mouth, so to speak.

 

[Csnoopy]

I just picked up on rollover from the reports speculating about Vodacom's new pricing before it was implemented. When it didn't materialise, I decided to hold Vodacom to this because to me it seems only fair that you get what you paid for. A lot of people getting short changed with their bundle or over charged with oob rates must be left with a bad taste in their mouth, so to speak.

The thing that really upsets me continually is when I hear or see the OOB or LOD, no rollover. These are the 2 things that people are not informed about at all when aquiring the product. Inevitably you are hit by either one of the two or within the first 2 months at least. And if you say I want to get out of this contract they just say sorry you are in it for 24 months or you pay a hefty penalty. If you deny to pay the OOB they just tell you to speak to there lawyers. So what out is there for the users. This mis information is what causes the bad taste in our mouths. Nobody runs up an account of R2000, R6000, R10,000 just because it sounds great or willingly dumps 300 or 700Megs of data. I just don't like this bad taste in my mouth.

 

[AirWolf]

@Csnoopy, it is true that users that are not very clued up on how the system works are likely to run up massive oob bills. This really does not show VC in a good light

 

[Csnoopy]

@Csnoopy, it is true that users that are not very clued up on how the system works are likely to run up massive oob bills. This really does not show VC in a good light

Thanks for the confirmation. Some premedonnas on this Forum would say that you are a stupid idiot if you go OOB. I wonder what they would say to the guys/galls that go under, they are cool dudes coz they are givng back to VC.
@sky.akash This is absolutely true. As you said that users that are not clued up and these are not users ignorant to computers systems have fallen into the OOB trap. Nowhere is there a document when you install your modem or sim that warns you of OOB or LOD. Not the Voda shop or the SP even tries to warn you. I have even seen it somewhere I think it was on the Vodacom site or even a TV add not sure, where it states now you can stay connected because you dont pay for time but for the amount of data you download.
It is great to want to vote for Rollover but what about a system for OOB. Where the loss is greater at OOB @ thousands of Rands than LOD at R150 for half of a 1Gig bundle loss. I would challenge anybody that has a 3g contract that knew from day one that he/she was going to loose data and going to pay a premium if they go OOB. Accept for the VODACOM employees, v3g and programmers maybe. I would say the people that got nailed were ex dialup users and the ones that didn,t were ADSL users.

We should ask v3g to get us the stats on users going OOB & people loosing data. It would really be interesting to know.

 

[AirWolf]

It is great to want to vote for Rollover but what about a system for OOB.

The point of rollver is that it allows you to buy a much larger bundle than you normally use, so that you can use your bundle more freely without having any anxiety attacks about going oob. But IMO, even with rollover a PPDB would be the safest bet.

Where the is greater at OOB @ thousands of Rands than LOD at R150 for half of a 1Gig bundle loss. I would challenge anybody that has a 3g contract that knew from day one that he/she was going to loose data and going to pay a premium if they go OOB. Accept for the VODACOM employees, v3g and programmers maybe. I would say the people that got nailed were ex dialup users and the ones that didn,t were ADSL users.

Quite right there, the dangers of oob are not well publicised by Vodacom.

We should ask v3g to get us the stats on users going OOB & people loosing data. It would really be interesting to know.

On the contract bundles my guess would be that at least 99.9% of people are overshooting or under using their bundles, because with the 3 hour delay on stats, it is practically impossible to use up your bundle to the last MB.

 

[Prometheus]

If it does disappear onto page 2, I will consider reapplying the digital glue - I have this theory that people ignore sticky threads...

Geesh, you think?
Quote: "People never read the stickies"

On the contract bundles my guess would be that at least 99.9% of people are overshooting or under using their bundles, because with the 3 hour delay on stats, it is practically impossible to use up your bundle to the last MB.

Practically impossible? I would say it IS impossible to use up all your bundle AND not go into oob.

 

[Csnoopy]

Geesh, you think?
Quote: "People never read the stickies"

Practically impossible? I would say it IS impossible to use up all your bundle AND not go into oob.

I suppose it depends on when the fuzzy logic system kicks in to measure your OOB.

 

[AirWolf]

The votes seem to be ticking up a tiny bit faster now that this thread is not stickied