MTN InternetOnTV versus Vodacom WebBox

[CAPS LOCK]

Further to my first post.

It's uncanny how MTN and Vodacom announce these devices at the same time. These on TV things were not heard of until this week, yet they have been announced simultaneously. It would seem that MTN and Vodacom were lying in bed on Valentines Day whispering sweet nothings to each other, and after a romantic romp colluded to conspire against the poor. They are, in my opinion, complicit in a thieving crime against the vulnerable poor, they need to have their corporate-hands cut off. I'm so sick and tired of them. Where's Malema's big mouth when you need it

 

[Antonf]

Further to my first post.

It's uncanny how MTN and Vodacom announce these devices at the same time. These on TV things were not heard of until this week, yet they have been announced simultaneously. It would seem that MTN and Vodacom were lying in bed on Valentines Day whispering sweet nothings to each other, and after a romantic romp colluded to conspire against the poor. They are, in my opinion, complicit in a thieving crime against the vulnerable poor, they need to have their corporate-hands cut off. I'm so sick and tired of them. Where's Malema's big mouth when you need it

Are you hinting/suggesting that MTN and Vodacom are colluding! :wtf:

I think that the guys responsible for their financial modelling were trained by the same people, they use the same assumptions, they use the same calculators and they think exactly the same.

Surely it's logical they will come up with the same costs/rates/prices! The magic of doing complicated calculations by computer is the repeatability you get in the results.
To even suggest that MTN and Vodacom are colluding is close to slander! Watch it, they will sue you!

 

[jmak]

It's uncanny how MTN and Vodacom announce these devices at the same time. These on TV things were not heard of until this week, yet they have been announced simultaneously.

Was wondering about the exact same thing

 

[Mbuzi]

Just a personal opinion, but I see these products not as general public products, but something for the lower end, and the data packages are a "bonus" starter pack to see what you can do with it. 75MB for a 3G device might be particularly low, although 100MB for a EDGE device can give the user quite a couple of hours of browsing. At a minimum the user should be able to download for over an hour without interruption and browsing is typically opening a webpage and reading it.

This is further extended by using Opera's remote compression functionality. All-in-all I believe this is a wonderful entry level product on which the poorer communities can built. If they stick to browsing they will have hours (4-16) of fun to start with, and from there each individual can get a bundle suited to his/her/family's needs. I believe the units will not be locked to a network either giving user the option to get data where they want.

I use my smartphone for general browsing and research whenever I am not in front of a computer and typically use 80-120MB data a month. This is without even going the Opera route.

Everybody seems so negative, seeming to miss the positive points of the device. I have yet to see a alternative solution which comes close to R750 for startup.

Pieter Uys...is that you? in case it's you, please note that the 75MB you bundling with the device will not even be enough to google your name let alone send an internet sms on your website.

 

[Jedijo]

Surely the biggest FAIL! in a while.
If you can afford R12000 a year get:
1. Entry level ADSL (Or a CellC smartstick)
2. Get a playstation 3 and do internet on your TV to hearts content.
First years cost R5000. wow you just saved R7000 in the first year

 

[McGuywer]

Are you hinting/suggesting that MTN and Vodacom are colluding! :wtf:

I think that the guys responsible for their financial modelling were trained by the same people, they use the same assumptions, they use the same calculators and they think exactly the same.

Surely it's logical they will come up with the same costs/rates/prices! The magic of doing complicated calculations by computer is the repeatability you get in the results.
To even suggest that MTN and Vodacom are colluding is close to slander! Watch it, they will sue you!

MTN/Vodacom actually reads the posts?! :wtf:
Then why don't they listen to our out cries?! Why don't they do something about the low data associated with MTN/Vodacom?

 

[Penquin]

Where's Malema's big mouth when you need it

You kidding? He's already there. He probably picked up one of the tenders to manufacture the device.

 

[Penquin]

So with the MTN device running at full speed, you'll use up your 75MB in just over a minute and a half.

 

[GreyBush]

“bringing affordable internet access to South Africa’s unconnected masses.” ... who own High Def TV's. Seriously how are you meant to read these websites if its on a 51cm TV? even 720P would be hard to read some websites.
If you can zoom in then I retract my statement.

 

[rorz0r]

For easy comparison I have constructed a handy table:

Criteria	WebBox	InternetOnTV
Piece of crap	Yes	Yes
Exhorbitant data prices	Yes	Yes
Looks boxy	Yes	Yes
Useful	No	No

 

[Valis]

MTN and Vodacom are colluding to keep prices exorbitantly high and rip off the public. There, now sue me!

 

[Abmis]

I've seen one of the articles comparing the Webbox to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Come to think of it, what made the Spectrum sell by the millions was the fact that it had thousands of games available. Some of it's competitors marketed their products as educational or business tools and never reached those kinds of sales. So my question is, who will be first to reveal exciting games for their product?

 

[Gamos]

Post removed

 

[Mach III]

Get an old computer from someone (free) buy a cell c stick R999..

Opposed to:

Buy a TV!!(alot of the poorer families do not have a tv). That is around R1000... Data costs, once the 75/100 megs is up, the boxes are going to lie around the house. Can you see a hardworking poor person buying a 2gb Data bundle @ R389? F Me

Rather go to an internet cafe and pay R5 for 30 mins.. (SABC promises for TV to become more entertaining. It must be more fun than browsing on opera mini on a small CRT.)

My idea of this is it is very old technology (edge/gprs, and MTN with 3g). MTN/Vodacom do not know how to compete with Cell C, so they have colluded in opening up an old project that should've been released around the time of dial-up.

Rather then selling these, they should give them away. That is the only way these will help the poor.

Tricksters.

 

[Antonf]

For easy comparison I have constructed a handy table:

RPM might be p'd off at me for saying this, but your table is better than the one in the article!

 

[bierman]

i think Mtn's is a better option tho, u can use USB on it, and Office for those who use email attachements, and the price diffrence isnt that much seeing u can have a better surfing experience aswell, Vodacom's looks nice but thats about it

 

[Aztech]

Everybody seems so negative, seeming to miss the positive points of the device. I have yet to see a alternative solution which comes close to R750 for startup.

Maybe a metaphor will help you get your head around how ridiculous these products are:

Imagine if VW claimed they were going to help the poor by selling no-frills cars for R750, but the fuel for these cars would cost R650 per litre.

It's much the same with these TV boxes. The quality and features of the hardware is irrelevant when the claimed target market can barely afford the 'running' costs.

 

[Reelix]

How much is a Gig nowadays? R30?

Well, I pay the cheapest Vodacom Rate - A (not-too) happy R390 for 2.3GB's

SO, I'd say around R220

Unless you go at the default rates, and 1GB = R2048

 

[boerseun]

Well, I pay the cheapest Vodacom Rate - A (not-too) happy R390 for 2.3GB's

SO, I'd say around R220

Unless you go at the default rates, and 1GB = R2048

WTF WTF WTF!!?? The price for ADSL is R30 per Gig! If you use saix its closer to R70 per gig, not f@cking R220 per gig! Jeez, do these people have no shame in charging R2048 per gig?

 

[SaiyanZ]

If people are going to use a GB rather go with CellC's R999 data bundle and use whatever phone they've got. You get 2GB data a month! Older phones will only give Edge connection (same as Vodacom offer) but it will be way cheaper. CRT TV's resolution are generally around 320x480 or something of that sort. Most cellphones nowdays have a better resolution so it's not like you're going to be seeing more on the TV (unless you have an LCD/Plasma but then no VGA/HDMI connection so the display will still look like crap, mostly unreadable). Bigger does not equal better in this case.

And anyone saying that 100mb will last longer on Edge than on 3G can keep smoking their socks. A web page is a web page. If the page takes 4mb of data to fully open then that's what it will take, with Edge or 3G. With Edge it will just take 10 times longer to open. So you're going to browse the same number of pages whether you have Edge or 3G. 3G will get there faster.