That nasty shark

Paul Hjul said:
well you don't need to do much in the form of management to implement a user set soft-cap bundle. You need your monitoring and notification system to provide usage data to a system which holds user initiated soft-caps and when that system secures the necessary trigger point it processes a lock on data connections on the existing system - deactivating data on the sim card is one option - and sends a notification that the soft cap has been triggered. The management is pretty philistine - has the amount of monitored data exceed the user provided soft cap - on event lock down data usage. You don't need to monitor whether the system data usage goes back down below the cap on a monthly reset or anything because the user should have to access the system and re-allow data usage either by expanding their cap (which they manually do after buying a bundle or simply if they are prepared to go OOB) or by resetting when a recurring bundle happens.
It will no doubt cost VC money but it will put the OOBShark to permanent rest while still allowing whales who are happy to pay OOB the ability to do so.
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These things are simple on paper but slightly more complicated when you need to integrate into systems that process billions of records for tens of millions of users concurrently.

But, as I said, we've got a target architecture.

I can always extend you the offer I've made many time to the likes of marine1; you come and sort it out for us in the simple easy way you described above, and we'll pay you the big bucks. :)

BTW, marine1 never seems to take up the offers. ;)
 
Budza said:
Point remains.

The functionality is there, it's just not applied to contract users.
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The inverse is also true. Prepaid and Postpaid are two very different constructs on a network, each with their own networking elements, billing engines, etc.

Top up is actually a 'hybrid' of the two, with the in bundle portion handled by the postpaid system and the ad-hoc bundles by the perpaid system.
 
well I'll need proper documentation on the working systems and then access to those systems to sort it it out. Also Mountain Dew is a must :D

I get the fact that something very simple on paper can grow enormously complex in implementation but I also know that a modular solution is almost always better and that a solution that is complex on paper isn't going to be simpler in implementation. I get that to device systems costs money and take time (and there are relations - spending less money makes it take longer) but it really is in my view a logical step after getting a proper notification system in place.
I am also strongly of the view that in the long term a prepaid billing use model currently found for data on prepaid and topup cannot readily be extended to wholesale usage and that if there are any plans to survive VC is going to have to have a very dynamic set of tools to monitor and manage access to their network so the ability for a future ISP to forward instructions to a system which stops access to the network by a particular SIM card on reaching a particular usage trigger makes sense.

In particular the solution I am proposing quite specifically aims to work with as fer records concurrently as possible - largely by leveraging existing systems. You already have a system that does near-to-real-time notification which can give notification in different ways so conveying a message to another server system really isn't difficult. You also already have systems in place for activating and de-activating data capabilities on a particular SIM. I suspect this later system has some pretty big lag in play but no doubt it is possible to quickly enough discontinue access to a particular APN. On the current system if Vodacom disactivates a SIM card (for theft or whatever purpose) how long does it take to kill data access by that SIM?

As long as the STOP process is sufficiently fast the speed advantage in the monitoring system and so forth means that it needs to come in at 100 megs of target as a worst case scenario. What you end up with is a tool that allows users to decide whether to go OOB and by how much if they choose not to go OOB then they face a self-elected data lockdown. Unlocking can take 24 hours and responsible users will then buy data. Sales staff should give users the choice and now doubt there will be users who will choose not to use the service at all.
 
How about VC allowing a prepaid data APN on a contract voice SIM?

Similar to what Afrihost are doing with MTN.

That data is then billed through prepaid, thus avoiding the OOBShark on contract...

Big Bucks? :)
 
Budza said:
How about VC allowing a prepaid data APN on a contract voice SIM?

Similar to what Afrihost are doing with MTN.

That data is then billed through prepaid, thus avoiding the OOBShark on contract...

Big Bucks? :)
Click to expand...

We don't have seperate APNs for pre- and postpaid.

But it would not solve the problem in any case, you'd lose too many of the postpaid features. The correct answer is a move to a real-time billing system for postpaid.
 
Some documentation on the billing system for pre-paid would be helpful. Surely they use the same APN and access the network in an identical way so the authentication system must be able to support realtime authentication. I don't see why a trigger to the authentication system cannot be put in place for a postpaid account.
 
I'm busy chatting to a Vodacom consultant who tells me I can have a data contract on Top Up and avoid the OOB, so I only pay a set amount
 
you can and it is a bloody good idea for most data dongle users. The biggest disadvantage is that there is no night owl
 
Meh, when did this happen? Have I been out of the forums for THAT long?
 
jannievanzyl said:
No idea. Typically your first 3 digits of your mobile number will indicate your SP. Think there's a lookup online. At least there used to be. I'm 441 which changed hands many times but eventually ended up with VSP, for example.
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This was a prepaid vodacom converted to contract.

Was very strange but really didn't inspire me with confidence
 
Mantis said:
Meh, when did this happen? Have I been out of the forums for THAT long?
Click to expand...

Years ago.

If you read this forum, you'll see many people (including myself) advising people who never want to go OOB to buy the Top Up products. When you come to the end of your bundle, it'll stop and redirect you to a web page telling you to recharge and buy a new bundle. I.e. no OOB.
 
although you don't get night owl and your OOB rate is R2 per meg instead of R1 per meg for post-paid

Unfortunately most significantly it isn't perfectly suited to a smartphone user. The limitless products are where an OOBShark can cause limitless harm to somebody (especially if said person is not in a state of being drinkless) because lets face it wifi hotspot usage of a smart device is part of the functionality in some circumstances and moreover multisim approaches for bundle sharing is great. The only reason a premium customer can't risk taking a limitless voice and sms account with an extra 9 gigs bolted on and sharing data between multiple devices (tablet, router etc ...) is because Vodacom doesn't have a mechanism to allow a user to cap their data to a fixed volume. Even if an imperfect system is put in place (in that it has an inaccuracy range of R100 megs) you are able to get users to more meaningfully plan their usage.
 
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