Is vodacom ever going to consider cheaper bundles

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zanzibarwinds

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Hi all

Sorry, placed this in the wrong pla e, could a moderator move it to the : Vodacom Broadband & Mobile Internet | HSPA+, HSDPA, 3G, EDGE, GPRS and Wi-Fi
forum please

First off I do realise that this is probably a topic that has probably been flogged to death.

I am currently trying to run a 1 man web development business which earns me the bare minimum currently. I am happy with Vodacom and have been with them for many years but the one thing that has got to me is the price of data.

A few years ago I considered moving so that I could simply get to an area that offered me more options in terms of data providers. I live on a farm 20km outside of Nelspruit where Vodacom is the only one offering 3G signal, all other 3G providers seem to only offer 3G in built up areas.

The cost of data is costing me about R1000 to R2000 a month. Most of the data goes toward PC and Mac updates (I also run VMWare installs of various flavours of Windows for testing purposes), FTP uploads and downloads (Database backups from London etc) and some towards gaming.

Is there no good news on the horizon regarding bundle prices? If not I am going to have to seriously consider a move into town or larger center to simply try and save R1500.

If only 8ta could push its coverage further outside of major centers to include major roads etc but I suspect they would have to then either (a) Install their own towers which is probably finanacially prohibative or (b) use Vodacom towers and I doubt that would happen cause it would amount to giving away customers to a competitor.

John
 
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Hey hey

I had the same probleme with vc, I am a gamer and a online admin for Wage so i need to be online alot and vc was just not doing it


so what happend was I saw that we have MTN so i when out and i bought a 8ta sim and loaded the 2GB for R266.00 this bundle can roam on MTN and so far its working great for me

maybe just drive bit out and see if u can get MTN signal see how far till u get signal and maybe try to test a attenna

anything that helps
 
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Even with the new satellite operations recently announced, they are simply priced too high for the average user. Might work for businesses, but not for the little guy!
 
I am pretty certain MTN and 8ta don't serve HSDPA as far out of town as I am but I could try.

Can I use the same E220 dongle I have for Vodacom (I also have the wireless Vodacom router) with 8ta or MTN SIMs ?

Regards and thanks for the advice
 
zanzibarwinds said:
Can I use the same E220 dongle I have for Vodacom (I also have the wireless Vodacom router) with 8ta or MTN SIMs ?
Click to expand...
Yes, the E220 will work on 8ta and MTN 3G as well. It would only give you EDGE on Cell-C though.
 
yes we definitely need cheaper data! But of course the telco's are going to milk there prices for as long as possible.

you haven't mentioned why you use 3G. is it not possible to use other means of connection? Adsl is 10x cheaper than 3G!!
 
Edduck said:
yes we definitely need cheaper data! But of course the telco's are going to milk there prices for as long as possible.

you haven't mentioned why you use 3G. is it not possible to use other means of connection? Adsl is 10x cheaper than 3G!!
Click to expand...

I guess it is because he is staying on a farm 20km from Nelspruit...
I might be wrong.

Yes, the E220 will work on 8ta and MTN 3G as well. It would only give you EDGE on Cell-C though.
Click to expand...
I thought in some places MTN also uses the 900Mhz frequency range for 3G? So it might also show up as EDGE.
Not sure what frequency range 8ta uses.

Found this on an older thread:
Both Vodacom and MTN have 900Mhz in use, only rural areas, where the real benefit of 900mhz is found ( in urban environments it creates too much noise = bad SNR)
From: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/346309-UMTS-Frequency-Bands-used-on-8ta-s-network
Click to expand...
 
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LeonG said:
I thought in some places MTN also uses the 900Mhz frequency range for 3G? So it might also show up as EDGE.
Not sure what frequency range 8ta uses.

Found this on an older thread:
Click to expand...

MTN has been rolling out 900Mhz UMTS in outlying and rural areas. EDGE is a completely different technology. 900Mhz UMTS will show up as UMTS, WCDMA or HSPA+
 
dtba said:
Hey hey

I had the same probleme with vc, I am a gamer and a online admin for Wage so i need to be online alot and vc was just not doing it


so what happend was I saw that we have MTN so i when out and i bought a 8ta sim and loaded the 2GB for R266.00 this bundle can roam on MTN and so far its working great for me

maybe just drive bit out and see if u can get MTN signal see how far till u get signal and maybe try to test a attenna

anything that helps
Click to expand...
How is that working out for you? I've noticed a drastic improvement recently in latency and seeing approx. stable 50ms Ping on gaming servers using both VC and MTN. More than adequate for gaming. Never thought Wireless networking would ever reach this quality. I'm very curious to know what upgrades MTN and VC have been making over the last year.
 
MTN has been rolling out 900Mhz UMTS in outlying and rural areas. EDGE is a completely different technology. 900Mhz UMTS will show up as UMTS, WCDMA or HSPA+
Click to expand...

Sorry, I meant the E220 won't pick up the 3G signal if MTN is using 900Mhz UMTS in his area.
 
LeonG said:
Sorry, I meant the E220 won't pick up the 3G signal if MTN is using 900Mhz UMTS in his area.
Click to expand...


Aah indeed. A reminder to always check your supported bands when buying a modem ;-) Not that it matters with new purchases these days as modern modems all support that band.
 
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