The 10c per MB mobile data price barrier

8ta's R199 for 10GB special has been running for around a year now and will go on for around another year. It's a 24 month contract as well. So their special is effectively over a period of around 4 years at less than 2c per mb.
 
If the cost comes down by 20% p.a. it must get below 10c/MB...
 
What a P.Uys. You dominate the market share, but offer no market innovation. Give us some good new Mr Uys, with you its always can't do this, can't do that!

(and for Gods sake enable gmail sms!!)
 
I highly doubt that it can cost 10c to transmit a MB on a mobile network.
 
If the real cost of data is 10c/meg, and voice is just data bits over the network, then voice call costs (at a generous calc of 250kB/min) would equate to 2.5c/min: a total of 5c/min to call another user on the same network and 17.5c/min to call a telkom line.

An SMS is just 140 bytes of data, costing a fraction of a cent - 0.0014c (excluding the SMS and billing parts).
 
Allin said:
If the cost comes down by 20% p.a. it must get below 10c/MB...
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And it will at some point.

As the cost to deliver data drives down (radio network, national transmission, international capacity being the 3 big ones at a network level), the retail prices wil come down in line. While the international capacity is now well sorted, national backhaul is still expensive (as we lay fibre) and the big one will then be the radio network where LTE will make the next big dent in those costs.

But we need spectrum.....
 
jannievanzyl said:
No they should just give us (and the other operators) the spectrum. "Use or loose it". Simple.
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I agree fully. But imagine you can turn the Sentech and Brixton tower into one massive BTS! *drools*

This LTE and spectrum thing...it really has become really silly. I honestly do not understand how this can possibly take this long. There simply is no good reason for it as far as I can tell.
 
“As volumes increase and we invest in things like self-provided transmission, we are able to support lower data prices. Having said that, to support a sub 10c per MB level we need to ramp up the work we are doing in the network,” said Uys.
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So what are you waiting for ? lemme guess ICASA - then we all screwed
 
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Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys says that a very efficient network is needed to support a sub-10c per MB price level
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And there you have it. They've been charging us these ridiculous mobile data prices because their network is inefficient.
 
Sodan said:
And there you have it. They've been charging us these ridiculous mobile data prices because their network is inefficient.
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Tell you what. Come across, we'll give you a job. You design and build us an more efficient network than the HSPA+, fibre-connected, WACS-driven one we were so stupid to build in the first place.

I think we can start you off on around R5 000 000 CTC.

Let me know if I can clear a desk for you.
 
Stalker said:
So what are you waiting for ? lemme guess ICASA - then we all screwed
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Actually we're waiting on the DoC to publish a policy direction - ICASA already published an ITA (which, to be fair, was quite controversial).

Until the DoC put out its policy direction, ICASA's hands are tied and the debate on its proposed assignment plan can't continue, as I understand it.
 
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