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Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
Vodacom gets in there first
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
ettubrute
Expert Member
Good for Vodacom! Actually, was stupid of MTN to announce their HSDPA is up and running, without users being able to use it! White elephant... 
Pity my address isn't covered by Vodacom's HSDPA
...
...but v3g promised to look at the problem!
Pity my address isn't covered by Vodacom's HSDPA
......but v3g promised to look at the problem!
rehd
Well-Known Member
ettubrute said:Good for Vodacom! Actually, was stupid of MTN to announce their HSDPA is up and running, without users being able to use it! White elephant...
Pity my address isn't covered by Vodacom's HSDPA
...but v3g promised to look at the problem!
Quite right users havent been able to use it, however we have been using it before MTN announced it. We were using the serria wireless 850 card.
DigitalSoldier
Honorary Master
I have heard the same thing. And they compare good with other countries. But still a drop in price would be good
Vodacom must forget that its a Wireless service and try compete against DSL if they are comparing it there saying its twice as fast as Telkom's offering. If they want to compete against Telkom, give us better than Telkom.
I can supply the entire country with a 1Gbps line, its just that you pay R10 000 per MB. Who wants my service?
I can supply the entire country with a 1Gbps line, its just that you pay R10 000 per MB. Who wants my service?
Really? How sure are you of that?JStrike said:
Vodafone UK - Unlimited Data plan £45.00 (r480.00)
T-Mobile USA - Unlimited data - $49.99 (r310.00)
02 UK - Unlimited Data - £75.00 (r800)
First three I looked at and it might just be me but r499 per gb looks like a whole lot more. Granted the 02 is r800 but that again is for unlimited use.
If memory serves there used to be claims that Vodacom was globally competitive WRT voice calls but I'm not even sure if thats the case any longer.
Last edited:
bwana v.9 said:
I believe you're correct. A recent report on cellular voice tarrifs had Vodacom comparing favourably in the global markets. But as far as data tarrifs I'd rather go with a Wi-Fi provider than pay R499/GB - that's waaay too much, especially considering the DSL or WiFi alternative. Even then the DSL tariffs, as we all know it, are overinflated in this country.
Hi Bwana and others
While I agree that data rates should decrease, Vodacom and MTN are competitively priced when compared to international offerings. Most of the so-called unlimited packages carry a 1 GB limit, or at least some restrictions when you reach that limit. The out of bundle rates are usually more expensive that SA offerings (R 10 per MB (UK); R 4-45 (Australia) ), and considering that local companies must buy international BW on SAT3 from Telkom they are not doing too badly. Here I think Sentech in particular is doing a great job with their classic offerings…soft caps of up to 40 G are not bad.
In SA the problem is that ADSL is so exorbitantly priced that we see the mobile guys competing against Telkom’s fixed line service. Your fixed line connection with ample bandwidth should be a low cost service (internationally the term negligible is appropriate), which means that you will have a mobile broadband connection for mobile connectivity only. Here 1 GB is not bad, since all your windows updates, large downloads etc. will be scheduled when you are at your home or hotel hotspot.
Just a quick comparison:
Vodafone New Zealand
R 555 per Gig
http://www.vodafone.co.nz/pricing_plans/mobile_data.jsp
Vodafone Australia
Unlimited: R 441
“The Data Unlimited bundle is subject to the Fair Use Policy which may affect usage over 1GB per month”
http://www.vodafone.com.au/business...undle.jsp?gs=business&hd=bussol&ss=databundle
[Vodafone UK
Unlimited: R 481
“The ‘unlimited’ price plans are subject to a fair usage limit of 1GB per month”
http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispat..._pageLabel=Page_ProductDetails&pageID=BS_0701
When we look at ADSL costs comparisons in the same countries we are generally 1000% + more expensive.
Regards,
RPM
While I agree that data rates should decrease, Vodacom and MTN are competitively priced when compared to international offerings. Most of the so-called unlimited packages carry a 1 GB limit, or at least some restrictions when you reach that limit. The out of bundle rates are usually more expensive that SA offerings (R 10 per MB (UK); R 4-45 (Australia) ), and considering that local companies must buy international BW on SAT3 from Telkom they are not doing too badly. Here I think Sentech in particular is doing a great job with their classic offerings…soft caps of up to 40 G are not bad.
In SA the problem is that ADSL is so exorbitantly priced that we see the mobile guys competing against Telkom’s fixed line service. Your fixed line connection with ample bandwidth should be a low cost service (internationally the term negligible is appropriate), which means that you will have a mobile broadband connection for mobile connectivity only. Here 1 GB is not bad, since all your windows updates, large downloads etc. will be scheduled when you are at your home or hotel hotspot.
Just a quick comparison:
Vodafone New Zealand
R 555 per Gig
http://www.vodafone.co.nz/pricing_plans/mobile_data.jsp
Vodafone Australia
Unlimited: R 441
“The Data Unlimited bundle is subject to the Fair Use Policy which may affect usage over 1GB per month”
http://www.vodafone.com.au/business...undle.jsp?gs=business&hd=bussol&ss=databundle
[Vodafone UK
Unlimited: R 481
“The ‘unlimited’ price plans are subject to a fair usage limit of 1GB per month”
http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispat..._pageLabel=Page_ProductDetails&pageID=BS_0701
When we look at ADSL costs comparisons in the same countries we are generally 1000% + more expensive.
Regards,
RPM
Deckert
Well-Known Member
Increase international bandwidth first
New technologies like HSDPA and enhanced 3G may offer "up to" 1.8MBits/sec, but that's just what you can get (as a maximum) to the tower. Both operators will seriously have to look at beefing up their international bandwidth component.
On my DSL512 I get at least 40kBytes/sec most of the time to a variety of international sites with a local latency of <40ms.
On my 3G card (both MTN and Vodacom) I get less than 12kBytes/sec to the same sites at the same time with a local latency of around 400ms at the best of times. The latency issue makes the service less attractive to use for support and the likes where interactive response times vastly improve the user's experience (with apps such a Terminal Server/rdesktop, VNC and SSH/Telnet).
Local speeds on 3G and EDGE are better, but they vary greatly according to my location or how many users are sharing the tower with me.
--deckert
New technologies like HSDPA and enhanced 3G may offer "up to" 1.8MBits/sec, but that's just what you can get (as a maximum) to the tower. Both operators will seriously have to look at beefing up their international bandwidth component.
On my DSL512 I get at least 40kBytes/sec most of the time to a variety of international sites with a local latency of <40ms.
On my 3G card (both MTN and Vodacom) I get less than 12kBytes/sec to the same sites at the same time with a local latency of around 400ms at the best of times. The latency issue makes the service less attractive to use for support and the likes where interactive response times vastly improve the user's experience (with apps such a Terminal Server/rdesktop, VNC and SSH/Telnet).
Local speeds on 3G and EDGE are better, but they vary greatly according to my location or how many users are sharing the tower with me.
--deckert
supersunbird
Honorary Master
How can it be unlimited if the have such mall limits? 
F'n hate lying companies...
F'n hate lying companies...
SoTrue
Expert Member
We are all missing the point here. The uptake of 3G is also slow in other countries. The obvious reason is price. Come on, Vodacom! Be the world market leader you can be! Go for gold - reduce price significantly - you will see an amazing response!
DigitalSoldier
Honorary Master
The irony vodacom, telkoms sister company can be a market leader and is already a world class company but then you get telkom who dont even have a real broadband connection.
The real joy of being able to download bad television at 1.8MBits/sec is that you can download movies real fast and pay R499 GB! Imagine if they ever were thinking of distributing dvd quality movies via the net in ZA. A movie will weigh in at at least 4 GB so youll pay R2000 to watch the latest blockbuster using the current billing model.