Vodacom’s Fix-it network plan

BBSA said:
Did Jannie not say the reason their prices is higher than the rest is to ensure they have a stable and reliable network?
Click to expand...
No, don't think so. Would not be so silly to open myself up with such a statement on this forum. :)

But the concept is valid. The more you spend (i.e. the bigger the network, etc.), the higher your costs. And (before we get that argument), it's not linear. Once you've got the sweet spots and move into the rural areas the ratios change. One thing rolling out the first 40%, another pushing it to 75% or 99.5% (our current GSM coverage).

In any case, as I did explain a few times, the "big outage" was clearly a disaster of note and not nice for anyone. People seem to forget that it's as painful, if not more, for Vodacom than you guys. No network, no revenue.

For me, an interesting side effect of all of this is how the outage heightened everyone's sensitivity to any other failures and the reaction to those.

You must remember, if you sit with tens of millions of users, thousands of towers and tens of thousands of backhaul links, something is going to be broken at any given point in time. But even these 'normal' failures are now creating more adverse reactions than normal.

Last week-end there were a number of issues on the network; there was a problem with BB (NOTE: not in South Africa even though it affected SA users), some transmission links were upgraded in Sandton (to help marine1 ;)) and some sims that had previously done a swim-swap failed to register on the network. These are not uncommon things to go wrong, as much as one wants perfect systems.

But the reaction to these were quite severe, way out of proportion to what we would normally see. I believe this is because everyone's confidence in Vodacom is now dented after the "big outage" and we'll see this for a while still.

BTW, I saw the stats on actual impact of the "big outage" and was surprised how small it was. Just like you guys, I got the impression that everything was broken for a long time but it seems that, at any given time, most things were working to some degree. But it was intermittent and random, giving the feeling that everything was broken, all the time.
 
jannievanzyl said:
But the concept is valid. The more you spend (i.e. the bigger the network, etc.), the higher your costs. And (before we get that argument), it's not linear. Once you've got the sweet spots and move into the rural areas the ratios change. One thing rolling out the first 40%, another pushing it to 75% or 99.5% (our current GSM coverage).
Click to expand...

Sure the cost is higher, but is your cost per user also higher?

So Vodacom users pay a premium for a bigger network but not necessary a better one?

Trevor's latest ad is about correct then? (I just love that scooter ad, sadly I can not find it on youtube.)
 
BBSA said:
Sure the cost is higher, but is your cost per user also higher?
Click to expand...
Of course it is. And it's not a "Vodacom" thing, but just how business works.

Let's take an arbitrary example; you sell a national newspaper and you need to distribute it nationally. What is your cost/newspaper to deliver to Pofadder where your readership is a few hundred, vs. your delivery cost in Jhb where your readership counts in tens of thousands?

Why do business always go after the low-hanging fruit first? Because that's where you get the most return, you go where the bulk of your customers concentrate.

Why did Cell C and 8ta start their rollout in the metros, just like Vodacom and MTN did originally? Because that's where you get the best cost/user ratio.

Bean-Counting-101.
 
BBSA said:
So it is better to go with the smaller networks (cheaper and more stable) except if you live in Pofadder;)
Click to expand...

That why it's called the free market. And I'm not being flippant.

Every consumer needs to work out what balance of various parameters (price/coverage/performance/support/etc.) works best for him or her.

Every provider needs to work out what balance of those parameters it provides.

The free market will do the rest.
 
jannievanzyl said:
That why it's called the free market. And I'm not being flippant.

Every consumer needs to work out what balance of various parameters (price/coverage/performance/support/etc.) works best for him or her.

Every provider needs to work out what balance of those parameters it provides.

The free market will do the rest.
Click to expand...

As a consumer and a IT service provider making recommendations to my clients which netorks to go for, I expect all the broadband networks to operate as a utility - i.e. always up, always available, always providing service. Most of all I expect that the service providers will make use of whatever platforms (their own website, MyBB, Facebook, Twitter) that are available to them to notify users timeously (i.e. within 10 to 20 minutes of realising there is a major outage) that there is a problem, and keep it updated until the problem is resolved.

I value a SP saying we have a problem, we are still identifying the cause, rather than keeping quiet and leaving the users to battle along until they figure out there is a major problem. :mad:

So far not one of the Service Providers that have experienced outages have demonstrated that they have the b@lls to do so. It takes hours before any official comment is made as was proved today by Cell-C and previously by Vodacom and MTN.
 
jannievanzyl said:
That why it's called the free market. And I'm not being flippant.

Every consumer needs to work out what balance of various parameters (price/coverage/performance/support/etc.) works best for him or her.

Every provider needs to work out what balance of those parameters it provides.

The free market will do the rest.
Click to expand...

Correct. The free market just takes some time to adjust. It is happening in Australia and sooner or later it will happen here.
 
BBSA said:
Correct. The free market just takes some time to adjust. It is happening in Australia and sooner or later it will happen here.
Click to expand...

I was in Australia in during May 2011 and spent my time on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane. I purchased a Pay as you go card from a Vodafone shop. Their service was great but I later found the network to suck. I will never use VF again on my future trips.
BTW. I live 800m from the VC tower in Sunward Park, Boksburg and still have dropped calls and "no network" outages. So VC your problems are still not solved!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X