Milking early adopters again!

Should be in their audited financials at some point.

R1300M / (480 base stations + backend networks, servers, etc.)
 
alchamy said:
Vodacoms marketing is typical of South African companies, we will give you video calls at the same rate as normal calls. Everyone says WOW what a deal. The reality.....

You need to pay R600 for 1gig of data before you can make the calls. Then they charge for a call which should actually come off your data. IE they make the average idiot of a consumer think that they are getting one hell of a deal when they are getting ripped off twice on the same "great" deal
Click to expand...
Get your facts straight !!!
You do not need to subscribe to the 3G1 tariff to be abe to use 3G or make video calls. If you have a 3G enabled phone, and have access to GPRS you can make video calls for the price of a regular call or surf at 3G speeds (albeit at out of bundle rates which are high!!).
The R600 doesn't come into it.
What you are paying for is mobility, and the other wireless providers just aren't able to provide that yet, their handover between cells sucks the big one !!! Vodacom can at least keep you connected (so long as you are travelling within the speed limit) a lot more effectively than these other prividers are currently able to do.
I do not think 3G is aimed at replacing wireline broadband access, in the short term, but perhaps when HSDPA is implemented (read the press releases) and we are offered speeds in excess of 2 or 3 Mbps then it might be a viable alternative to fixed line - depending on the price of course.
However, when one complains that the fast service is so much more expensive than the slow service, why do I not hear the same people complaining that a Lambo is so much more expensive than their Citi Golf? The comparison is valid, the price differential is however is more inflated in the car analogy (20 * the price for 2.5 * the speed)
 
rabbiddog said:
CCsurfer

do you think they can tell me why I keep being disonected? :mad:
and why it can at times be so slow??
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Are you moving around? Sometimes you wil move into areas where there is no 3G coverage (it is VERY geography sensitive) and then the connection will switch to GPRS which is much slower.
Similarly, you could be moving into areas where there is no 3G or GPRS coverage, or it is dodgy at best, in which case you could lose your connection.
The other thing, which Vodacom will need to take into consideration when planning their network coverage, is a phenomenon called 'Cell Breathing' whereby as more users connect to the network in a given area, and consume available bandwidth in the area, the effective size of the cell will shrink, causing some users to drop out which will then allow the cell to expand in size again. The area covered by a cell is not a static thing, it can change all the time depending on conditions and circumstances.
 
rabbiddog - I just had a call about 5 minutes ago from Vodacom about the connection dropping on 3G. The answer - Coverage will improve over time.

I also have a signal strength of 3 bars - and 3G drops constantly. Do you have as many drops if you use GPRS?
 
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