Vodacom to unlock data cards

[vodacom3g]

Obviously of historic value now, but one of the main reasons the Vodafone cards got locked was that for a while the only source of these cards into South Africa was via Vodafone and there was a serious short supply. Especially with the free swap-out of 3G to HSDPA cards done by Vodacom in South Africa, some 50 000 cards were swapped.

People bought these cards and used them on non-Vodafone networks, resulting in Vodafone/Vodacom customers loosing out in getting access to the cards.

Obviously Vodafone wants to ensure any benefits derived by Vodafone, as an international company, is passed to Vodafone customers.

 

[ic]

I think someone realised that you cannot have number portability with a locked device and then decided to spin it into the PR Good people thing

ATM number portability is somewhat irrelevant when it comes to Vodafone branded data cards used on Vodafone networks - bcos the Vodafone Mobile Connect [dashboard] software doesn't yet provide the ability to receive or make voice calls [although VoIP does work], having said that, the generic Huawei software allegedly does have voice call functionality, and MTN's dashboard s/w allegedly also has voice call functionality...

Basically what I'm saying is that there is currently no benefit to number porting any Vodacom sim card cellery numbers used in data cards bcos no one is receiving voice calls on those data card cellery sim card numbers, this will change when[if?] VMC supports receiving & making voice calls.

 

[Stinka]

Wow! - I can't believe the positive comments here about Vodacom...

Forgive me, but I don't see what the big deal is - I have always felt it disgraceful that phones, data cards, 56k modems, etc can be data/ISP locked - Especially if I OWN them.

Imagine buying (for example) a Sony CD player - but it only plays Sony / EMI labelled music? Duh

And whoopeedoo - Voda give up R100m POTENTIAL loss....

What do they leech from us? Is it R6b or R9b profit? Give me a break.

There should be laws against how much money they make............

And anyway - its probably just a Voda move towards eventual network roaming. That way they can still make money from you when their network is down (Which from my experience is quite often)

Don’t kid yourselves – Voda are in it for MAXIMAM PROFIT – it just so happens that their PR is better….

Why am I so bitter? Coz where I stay, I cannot get ADSL, IBurst or MyWireless – My only option is 3G – and it is killing me financially: R3k – R5k a month… sigh.

I’m already 1.8Gig over my limit, click a big web page CHING!! – another R2…. and so on. The worst part? - I'm a web addict.

 

[ic]

...I’m already 1.8Gig over my limit, click a big web page CHING!! – another R2…. and so on. The worst part? - I'm a web addict.

Consider using a Squid Proxy with your 3G - depending on your browsing habits you might save a lot by locally caching content from sites that you browse regularly - it is possible [although not simple] to setup either Smoothwall or IPCop in an old PC with a PCMCIA<->PCI adapter card if you use a 3G data card, a 3G phone might be easier to setup with Smoothwall or IPCop.

 

[charl.voster]

myadsl is doing some serious but kissing in this article!

 

[rpm]

myadsl is doing some serious but kissing in this article!

Hi Charl.Voster

I think we may have leaned towards Vodacom in this article (I guess the argument is that it should not have been locked in the first place), but it is very refreshing to see that a company reacts to consumer demands in a timely manner. This is not something we can say about many companies in the broadband space…

Regards,

RPM

 

[charl.voster]

They were wrong to do it and it's very un-cool that you gave them positive press on the matter.

Soon the readers/members will start to wonder whether certain people at myadsl may be getting free vodacoms services, especially with guy's like IC that sing vodacom praises 24x7 and articles like this.

There goes myadsl's credibility

 

[rpm]

Hi Charl

Point taken. We did however write a rather negative story on Vodacom’s data-card locking a few weeks ago, and this is a new positive development.

Regards,

RPM

 

[vodacomsucks]

And no I did not write the article.

And nobody said you did.

 

[bwana]

My 2¢ - they shouldn't have done it in the first place.

I cant tell from the article but have they apologised? Even just for the inconvenience caused?

 

[GavinMannion]

My 2 cents

Vodacom should be praised for reacting to customer complaints but should be villified for doing it in the first place. In the same article..

MTN should receive more praise for not doing it at all.

I do see slight Vodacom bias on myADSL, but maybe that is because they are good? I don't use them so I don't know.

people should not attack mods and mods should not react in News Threads. It is unprofessional. Take it OT.

Okay so maybe that was more than 2 cents ...

Glad to see the big boys are reacting to consumer complaints at the moment. iBurst and Vodacom both seem very good at the moment.....

 

[vodacom3g]

I cant tell from the article but have they apologised? Even just for the inconvenience caused?

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this process and for the inconvenience over the next month or so when you have to take your card in to be unlocked.

 

[bwana]

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this process and for the inconvenience over the next month or so when you have to take your card in to be unlocked.

Apology accepted.