New 3G / HSDPA Tariffs

[vodacom3g]

I for one agree, when , on this site, it was announced about the upgrade to HSDPA, it didnt say that if you dont upgrade, and stay on 3G, you going to get a cheaper subscription. If both options were put on the table at the same time, I think 1.) you would not have had a HUGE flood of people upgrading, and 2.) it would have been more transparent. Both announcements should have been made simulatenously, cause now it looks like Vodacom screwed you over.

We did try and announce at the same time, but had to get approval from ICASA for the price reductions, but even then it was only announced 2 days apart.

There were very active discussions at that time, but probably got a bit forgotten in all the HSDPA ra-ra...

 

[eagle-slayor]

I personally am quite impressed with the speed and have gotten used to paying the higher (current) rates so I will be sticking with HSDPA. If no price reduction came about, so many issues wouldn't have been brought to light and everyone who swapped out their 3G cards would continue using HSDPA.

i suppose I'll also tick with HSDPA

 

[Kneebough]

Results:

Below is the data used to calculate your download speed:

* Download time: 10.172 seconds
* Size of file: 500 KiloBytes
* Estimated line speed: 401.1 (kilobits/second)
* Estimated line speed: 49.2 (kiloBytes/second)

Below is the data used to calculate your download speed:

* Download time: 10.625 seconds
* Size of file: 500 KiloBytes
* Estimated line speed: 384 (kilobits/second)
* Estimated line speed: 47.1 (kiloBytes/second)

No antenna on HSDPA

But earlier on today I was grabbing an update from an international site and this is the speed i got: http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/3279/du4zs.jpg
1.3mbps / 159.4KB/sec

 

[PDonut]

is it not possible to use the hsdpa card, but bolt on a 3G bundle and pay the lower rate?
then there is no need to swap back the card itself.
or do I have it wrong?

I'm also interested in this point, Can someone answer this?

I imagine that if u get the HSDPA card on contract, technically vodacom still own it so they can be bastard and ask for it back.
But what if you get it on a family top-up and buy bolt-ons with the intent of maybe jumping between 3G and HSDPA as u please?

 

[jalize]

Get a HSDPA card on a weekender contract for R50 a month from a specific shop in Vodaworld (On Special). Then just add a 3G databundle of any size for the month at the lower rate.

Thats what I did!! Now I surf with a HSDPA card but with a bolt-on 3G databundle!!

 

[biometrics]

I am confused by the lumping of EDGE with HSDPA. At my house I have a 3G Router with a 3G card. When I go away I take my twinned sim and Nokia 6680. I typically use it in rural areas where there's EDGE.

So will I be charged differently? Less at home on 3G and more in the rural areas on EDGE?

 

[Prometheus]

All of Vodacom's 3G towers|base-stations were upgraded to HSDPA, so if you get vanilla-3G from any particular Vodacom tower, then that tower also supports HSDPA.

I think the question you want to be asking, is what happens if you have an HSDPA data card, and you only get GPRS at a higher price...

No... what Prometheus is asking is, if you have the HSDPA card, but the reception at the point where you use it it so bad that it actually the equivalent of vanilla-3G, what are you going to pay then? Surely Vodacom must know the difference?

Actually you are both somewhat correct. But v3g did state somewhere that the HSDPA footprint might be a few meters smaller than the 3G footprint. So if you are on the edge (no pun intended) of HSDPA coverage you might sporadically switch to 3G coverage. And then when you switch over to EDGE you will be billed at HSDPA rates despite a slower speed than 3G. This isn't fair at all. I'm still wondering if someone at Vodacom didn't mistake EDGE for a faster technology than 3G because it made its appearance after 3G.

 

[vodacom3g]

I am confused by the lumping of EDGE with HSDPA. At my house I have a 3G Router with a 3G card.

It's more a side-effect of the current available cards where the only EDGE capable cards are also HSDPA. And the 3G cards are GPRS with no EDGE.

So the current cards dictate the 3G/GPRS and HSDPA/EDGE pairings.

I, personally, would not even bring GPRS or EDGE into this argument.

Rather think of the max possible speed you can get, on HSDPA (normal tariffs) you can get up to 1.5+Mb/s. Anything lower is automatically available.

On 3G (reduced tariffs), 384Kb/s. Again, anything lower should be available, except there are no EDGE-capable 3G cards around. If they do become available, you'll automatically get EDGE as well.

So, we have this situation where if you want EDGE, you have to get a HSDPA card, implying you want HSDPA (true or not) and you end up on the HSDPA package.

Not the most elegant situation, but dictated by the cards at the moment. We're looking into handling this more elegantly in the back-end.

 

[biometrics]

Ok, so on my "3G tarrif" I can use EDGE on my phone. Got it. I think.

 

[ajax]

Ok, so on my "3G tarrif" I can use EDGE on my phone. Got it. I think.

The way I see it explained is the other way -> if you use EDGE you will be billed HSDPA rates, and it doesn't matter whether you use a phone or data card.

If this is true, it sucks BIG TIME! What about all those with 3G Nokias with EDGE capability included? We know very well these phones sporadically switch to 2G mode and then it is likely you will be using EDGE (we can't switch EDGE off now can we?). Now it REALLY is necessary to be able to lock onto 3G. Thank goodness I have a 6680 with netmonitor and not a N70...

Now I wonder about the EDGE coding scheme on the towers. Some towers can't do full speed EDGE, do those users also pay HSDPA rates or not? Where is the line drawn?

 

[Prometheus]

The way I see it explained is the other way -> if you use EDGE you will be billed HSDPA rates, and it doesn't matter whether you use a phone or data card.

That's not how I see it. The way v3g has explained it is that it's more a matter with the cards. The 3G ones support only GPRS and 3G and the HSDPA ones support HSDPA as well as EDGE. If you are on a 3G contract you get a 3G card and on a HSDPA contract you get a HSDPA card. If you change contracts you have to swap out your card, but if you own a HSDPA card with an ad-on bundle you can change it to a 3G bundle without exchanging your card. If you are on a 3G bundle you get throttled on 384kbps and can still use EDGE without being charged HSDPA rates. If you are using out of bundle data you get charged HSDPA rates of R2/meg independant of what you use.

That's how I understand it anyway. Maybe v3g can comment on this.

 

[ibanez]

Maybe there should be some consideration for someone connecting from a rural area that only has GPRS/EDGE coverage, using an EDGE capable data card. Doesn’t make sense to charge HSDPA rates when it’s not available.

What are the typical speeds for EDGE?
(I get between 70-100kbps)

 

[Prometheus]

Maybe there should be some consideration for someone connecting from a rural area that only has GPRS/EDGE coverage, using an EDGE capable data card. Doesn’t make sense to charge HSDPA rates when it’s not available.

What are the typical speeds for EDGE?
(I get between 70-100kbps)

Buy a HSDPA card and then a 3G bundle or a prepaid bundle when they imminently arrive next month.

 

[vodacom3g]

Let me get more clarity on this and revert.

I fully understand the intention with these packages, you should only buy a max speed.

The current hardware does impose certain restrictions on the model and EDGE capable phones might cause another interpretation.

Give me a day to clear up and I'll revert.

 

[Diplos]

• Customers will be required to swap their data cards in order to migrate between 3G / GPRS and HSDPA / EDGE data tariffs / bolt-on bundles

V3G

Does this mean that if I am currently on HSDPA and I want to migrate to the cheaper rates I need to swap to a 3G only card, or is the swap only in the other direction?

 

[vodacom3g]

V3G

Does this mean that if I am currently on HSDPA and I want to migrate to the cheaper rates I need to swap to a 3G only card, or is the swap only in the other direction?

You'll need to swap your card back to a 3G one. I see two reasons for this:

1) You can't use the HSDPA speeds, in any case.
2) With the current stock shortages on HSDPA, it would make sense to distribute HSDPA cards to the people awaiting them.

 

[Diplos]

I find it a bit irritating that I only received my data card about 2 weeks ago (when Vodacom received stock) and:

1. No one informed my that the billing and data allowance for May was pro rata.

2. At the time I asked if I couldn't somehow just get a 3G card (not 3G and HSDPA) as I don't need the extra speed and was told 'why would you want a 3G-only card'.

I specifically checked this forum's threads on 2nd hand 3G cards and it seemed Vodacom had no idea what they were going to do.... Now it appears that they have just wasted my time instead of communicating their strategy from the beginning.

It seems that this strategy was unclear even to themselves.

Who actually wants to pay a 20 % premium for the extra speed?

Has Vodacom really thought this through!?

 

[Tony_GSI]

Hear Hear !!

I find it a bit irritating that I only received my data card about 2 weeks ago (when Vodacom received stock) and:

1. No one informed my that the billing and data allowance for May was pro rata.

2. At the time I asked if I couldn't somehow just get a 3G card (not 3G and HSDPA) as I don't need the extra speed and was told 'why would you want a 3G-only card'.

I specifically checked this forum's threads on 2nd hand 3G cards and it seemed Vodacom had no idea what they were going to do.... Now it appears that they have just wasted my time instead of communicating their strategy from the beginning.

It seems that this strategy was unclear even to themselves.

Who actually wants to pay a 20 % premium for the extra speed?

Has Vodacom really thought this through!?

I applied for my 3G card in April, but there was no stock. Finally got a HSDPA (U740) card delivered in May, as Vodacom said 3g cards are discontinued (paid R300 additionally, got billed for April and May months, still not sorted with Vodacom). I've viewed my May itemised billing, and most of the connections are 3G, with the balance being GPRS. Not once have I seen the HSDPA 'dirty blue' / magenta LED. Swopping my HSDPA card for a 3G will mean I lose my R300, and get a 2nd hand card as well. Poor showing, Vodacom !

 

[PDonut]

bonjour,

quick question: Is it possible to use a 4U contract (0 R/pm as i see it) and then buy bolt-on data bundles if i've bought the card for cash?
Havnt been able to find a definitve answer.
Any1 doing this?

 

[kaspaas]

Ordered a 3G 500 package today for the company.

Was told that I'll get an HSDPA card, but it will be activated for 3G only as there are no more 3G cards left at no additional charge.

I do hope the sales person had her facts straight...