No uncapped mobile broadband in SA in the foreseeable future

Blackberry BIS is a limited service and uncapped mobile in S.A is a pipe dream.
 
I would rather have a high quality capped package than a *****ty uncapped experience...
 
Inevitable said:
But Blackberry users get uncapped broadband internet....
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It is not really the same thing. BB data is meant for browsing and emails only. If you stream data like video then you pay.

I would still like to see the options of having a uncapped throttled service. Something like:

Price per month: R300.00 per month
Throttled down to 1mbs for the first 2Gigs
After that line is throttled down to 500Kbs untill the beginning of the next month. :D
 
Unsustainable

Where have I heard this before? :D

Let's hope one mobile operator has the guts to go and prove them wrong, like MWEB did with ADSL.

Pretty soon the only unsustainable option will be the ****bags charging the currently stupidly high mobile data rates.

Also remember: The "international players moving away from uncapped" are moving to reasonable caps, like 200GB, which for a phone or a portable laptop modem is more than enough one would think. Not this puny 500Mb or 1GB crap we have here.
 
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Most of their so called reasons are just as valid for ADSL and were fairly successfully addressed by MWEB.

It may be that the 3G technology does not provide for spreading contention on a tower fairly and that a user with a hoard of multiple connections can take all the bandwidth on that tower. In this case they can surely do "something" - soft capping, strict fair use enforcement, etc.

In short, I don't buy their "technical" excuses. I'm sure the decision is driven by money and not technical limitations.

Once one of them takes the lead like MWEB did, I'm sure the rest will follow suit.

I will happily take a lower speed uncapped account than one of those ridiculous high-speed ones that will run out in literally less than half an hour.
 
Hey the US is starting to cap - ummmm slight difference they are starting capping at 250GB and you can pay for a extra 50GB for $10. I am happy with capping if it is similar to that not a pathetic 5GB. When you consider the salary to cost of Internet ratio that will be like us paying R30 for an extra 50GB.
 
How much is MTN's uncapped 128kbps after-cap package? Which package is that... anyone know? It might be unsustainable to offer full-speed uncapped at this time, but a throttled 128k-512k after-cap service sounds feasible to me? Might be something for CellC etc to consider as it could make all the difference in terms of competition... (not like CellC are under any threat from vodacom/mtn's ridiculous data prices, though)
 
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boerseun said:
Dear Jannie, Zoltan and Lars. Please pay a visit to Namibia Telecoms. They are offering Uncapped 3G at around R1000 per month. Wonder how they are able to sustain that? Ohh I know, they not f#cking greedy pigs!

http://www.telecom.na/index.php/products/broadband/488
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Yep, I also can't help but feel that their particular 'unsustainable' is just a neat way of covering up 'collusion'/'price-fixing'/'greed'
 
Theres a couple of African countries with uncapped 3G, its R490/month in Kenya.

Its "unsustainable" because then the Telco's will not make R16billion net operating profit, maybe only R15billion.
 
fragtion said:
How much is MTN's uncapped 128kbps after-cap package? Which package is that... anyone know? It might be unsustainable to offer full-speed uncapped at this time, but a throttled 128k-512k after-cap service sounds feasible to me? Might be something for CellC etc to consider as it could make all the difference in terms of competition... (not like CellC are under any threat from vodacom/mtn's ridiculous data prices, though)
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It's their 24 hour R50 package and after 150MB your speed is cut to 128KB
 
@fragtion: MTN's uncapped offers aren't really uncapped. Depending which one of the two packages you take, you're either limited to 3GB or 10GB according to their fair use policy.

The MNO's are too afraid to offer uncapped mobile broadband due to the fact that a small percentage of users will congest the entire network...

Namibia Telecoms are here @ the conference and they didnt oppose the view of not offering uncapped mobile broadband. I'm not sure about their R1000 deal for uncapped, i kinda feel they probably have a fair use policy in place like mtn.
 
This is a tough one.

I'm currently trying to talk to Vodacom about a 100GB package split over 3 sim cards. We're not talking small change here, but do you think they want to come to the table with a decent price per gig?

The way I see it, Vodacom and MTN simply won't do uncapped as they fear their network would be over exposed.

So that leaves Cell-C.

Cell-C have the network. They also have a product called "Virgin" that uses Richard Branson's company's branding. So maybe it's time Mr Branson got into his Gulfstream - or whatever he transports himself in - came down here and turned things upside down by being the first to offer uncapped cellular broadband.

What's the point of having a fancy network if it's not being used? Moore's Law says it's going to be outdated within two years, so use the wretched thing NOW!
 
Pavan said:
@fragtion: MTN's uncapped offers aren't really uncapped. Depending which one of the two packages you take, you're either limited to 3GB or 10GB according to their fair use policy.
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According to the article, it's 128kbps uncapped after reaching the account data threshold? 3/10GB isn't uncapped - can't have it both ways?
Pavan said:
The MNO's are too afraid to offer uncapped mobile broadband due to the fact that a small percentage of users will congest the entire network...
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What if the after-cap throttled speed is between 128k and 512k as I proposed? Surely that won't threaten their network if any ONE not-yet-capped user has potentially 7-21mbps at their disposal at any given time?
SA is falling behind - the rest of the world is going LTE 100+ Mbps and here we are paying a fortune for a few megabytes a month... it's a clear JOKE.

Rather than them being paranoid about their network crippling if they were to offer uncapped, hows about they pocket less of their ludicrous profits, and invest some of that into ensuring that their networks are ready for uncapped - with WACS, Main One, ACE and EASSy on the horizon, we're going to have a massive surplus of bandwidth available - they need to get their national network up to shape, and that means sacrificing the pocket for a while... otherwise we're going to have a very depressing state of affairs on our hands: to have so much international bandwidth available, yet not able to offer small fraction of that (and what is offered costs a fortune & has harsh limits) is after all what I'd call a disaster for any country with aspirations of prosperity & development
 
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Has anyone on these forums use MTN's so called uncap product?
 
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