Icasa forcing 6-month data bundles could cause higher prices

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Why a proposed 6-month data expiry rule could be a bad idea

South Africa's biggest mobile network operator Vodacom has warned that the proposed amendment of bundle expiry rules could make data more expensive.

Icasa recently published its Draft End-user and Subscriber Service Charter Amendment Regulations, stating that all data, voice, and SMS bundles only expire after six months.
 
I do think that the six month window is far too long a time, but the 1 hour and 1 day expirations are beyond ridiculous.

If Vodacom wants to make noise about it, why don't they provide the data to support it? How many 1 hour subscriptions have they sold, at what time of the month/ week /day, and how many of those did the purchaser actually get what they paid for? Give us the percentage utilised, and whether or not there was another purchase soon after expiry.
 
Yeah yeah we heard it multiple times, airtime windows, number porting, interconnect rates, rollover. LOL at Vodacom R12/GB for 1 hour. I pay R2/GB Cell C and can extend it multiple times after the 1st month. Get out of the bloody dark ages.
 
porchrat said:
Why?

You're paying for the ability to transfer X amount of data over their network. The costs for them providing that network don't change dramatically.
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Their costs are for a time-bound capacity, as pointed out by Rogan Dawes. Their upstream providers measure it in seconds. I agree with his logic, there is a time factor in provisioning a certain amount of bandwidth. On both ends (both provider and consumer). there are limitations. A longer time period favours the consumer, a shorter time period favours the provider. But making it 6 months does not favour anyone, both parties lose. It is therefore wiser to seek a time period that is mutually beneficial for both parties. 1 hour is ridiculous, so is one day. The best would probably be somewhere between 2-4 and 6-8 weeks.
 
RonSwanson said:
Their costs are for a time-bound capacity, as pointed out by Rogan Dawes. Their upstream providers measure it in seconds. I agree with his logic, there is a time factor in provisioning a certain amount of bandwidth. On both ends (both provider and consumer). there are limitations. A longer time period favours the consumer, a shorter time period favours the provider. But making it 6 months does not favour anyone, both parties lose. It is therefore wiser to seek a time period that is mutually beneficial for both parties. 1 hour is ridiculous, so is one day. The best would probably be somewhere between 2-4 and 6-8 weeks.
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3 Months?
 
Pure BS. I was privvy to some docs way back. When you buy a bundle any unused data becomes a liability on the balance sheet. As soon as that bundle expires, it becomes revenue. Neat accounting trick aka greed
 
RonSwanson said:
Their costs are for a time-bound capacity, as pointed out by Rogan Dawes. Their upstream providers measure it in seconds. I agree with his logic, there is a time factor in provisioning a certain amount of bandwidth. On both ends (both provider and consumer). there are limitations. A longer time period favours the consumer, a shorter time period favours the provider. But making it 6 months does not favour anyone, both parties lose. It is therefore wiser to seek a time period that is mutually beneficial for both parties. 1 hour is ridiculous, so is one day. The best would probably be somewhere between 2-4 and 6-8 weeks.
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I disagree that that makes a difference. They build their network to handle the capacity of their user base per unit time. Whether the data I wish to expend on that network is expended now or next month makes no difference, they're still paying for that capacity per second this month just as they are next month. That cost doesn't materially change. If I start upping my data usage they will simply up their network capacity to match. If I up my data usage I will obviously have to up my purchase frequency for data. They sell more data to me, so they make more money to cover the cost of the increased capacity.

That the bundles expire at all is nonsense.
 
RonSwanson said:
I do think that the six month window is far too long a time, but the 1 hour and 1 day expirations are beyond ridiculous.

If Vodacom wants to make noise about it, why don't they provide the data to support it? How many 1 hour subscriptions have they sold, at what time of the month/ week /day, and how many of those did the purchaser actually get what they paid for? Give us the percentage utilised, and whether or not there was another purchase soon after expiry.
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But that would involve telling the truth about how they fleese the poorest people.
 
RonSwanson said:
Their costs are for a time-bound capacity, as pointed out by Rogan Dawes. Their upstream providers measure it in seconds. I agree with his logic, there is a time factor in provisioning a certain amount of bandwidth. On both ends (both provider and consumer). there are limitations. A longer time period favours the consumer, a shorter time period favours the provider. But making it 6 months does not favour anyone, both parties lose. It is therefore wiser to seek a time period that is mutually beneficial for both parties. 1 hour is ridiculous, so is one day. The best would probably be somewhere between 2-4 and 6-8 weeks.
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They can offset those cost by dramatically reducing the billing overheads they are introducing with all these time limited bundles.
 
porchrat said:
I disagree that that makes a difference. They build their network to handle the capacity of their user base per unit time. Whether the data I wish to expend on that network is expended now or next month makes no difference, they're still paying for that capacity per second this month just as they are next month. That cost doesn't materially change. If I start upping my data usage they will simply up their network capacity to match. If I up my data usage I will obviously have to up my purchase frequency for data. They sell more data to me, so they make more money to cover the cost of the increased capacity.

That the bundles expire at all is nonsense.
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Whether the data I wish to expend on that network is expended now or next month makes no difference
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It does. If you do not use it now ( this month) there are two knock-on effects: 1) the data (network capacity) that the provider planned for to be used, wasn't, so it is wasted (empty plane seat after take-off). Moreover, the provider now has to plan capacity for its use in the next month (so he reserves a seat which no-one can buy).

I am guessing that you have never done any network capacity planning before?
 
RonSwanson said:
It does. If you do not use it now ( this month) there are two knock-on effects: 1) the data (network capacity) that the provider planned for to be used, wasn't, so it is wasted (empty plane seat after take-off). Moreover, the provider now has to plan capacity for its use in the next month (so he reserves a seat which no-one can buy).

I am guessing that you have never done any network capacity planning before?
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No I've never done any network capacity planning. You have however explained it very simply for me thanks.

I agree with you then. There must be an expiry.

Why don't the operators sell network access as capacity over time for a particular period instead and make it less confusing like an ISP does?
 
Since when is being expensive a problem for Vodacom. They users won't give up on them.
 
RonSwanson said:
It does. If you do not use it now ( this month) there are two knock-on effects: 1) the data (network capacity) that the provider planned for to be used, wasn't, so it is wasted (empty plane seat after take-off). Moreover, the provider now has to plan capacity for its use in the next month (so he reserves a seat which no-one can buy).

I am guessing that you have never done any network capacity planning before?
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Which is what they should do. They have basically been making a profit on something that has already been paid for. Kind of like selling someone a bread but your take 8 slices back and sell it again. Lekker lekker Busines to be in. Users will still have habits and it will stabilise and they will just plan accordingly. Maybe data will be slightly more expensive, but users will also save a lot more as they won't be bullied any more in worrying about something they already paid for being taken away again.
 
RonSwanson said:
I do think that the six month window is far too long a time, but the 1 hour and 1 day expirations are beyond ridiculous.

If Vodacom wants to make noise about it, why don't they provide the data to support it? How many 1 hour subscriptions have they sold, at what time of the month/ week /day, and how many of those did the purchaser actually get what they paid for? Give us the percentage utilised, and whether or not there was another purchase soon after expiry.
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It's not long enough. Should be at least 12 months.
 
porchrat said:
No I've never done any network capacity planning. You have however explained it very simply for me thanks.

I agree with you then. There must be an expiry.

Why don't the operators sell network access as capacity over time for a particular period instead and make it less confusing like an ISP does?
Click to expand...
They do, they sell it for 1 hour, or 1 day, which is a particular period (and crazy) and raises the ire of ICASA, who (clearly) have also never done any network capacity planning in their lives before, and no matter what, will never be able to understand it. So they decide to throw the baby out with the bathwater and just sommer make it 6 months "to show them". Meanwhile Philemon cannot afford the fees for a 6 month 6MB package upfront, leave alone use it.
 
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