Why Vodacom depletes your new mobile data first

Geoff.D said:
When it comes to SMSs the "fallacy" is that you can charge for an SMS. In fact, you are being charged for a fixed block of TIME, which you should be allowed to use when you want to use that block of TIME when you use it. If you buy a prepaid number of blocks, you should be allowed to use them whenever you need to.

The same with data, you "buy" the right to use a "container" which you can push through the port, onto the highway, WHEN you need to, and ONLY when you need to. Hence IF you choose to accumulate your containers (which are in fact just a block of TIME), and use them when required makes it exactly the same as a booked telephone call in the old days.

SO, to summarise,
The fact that we pay IN ADVANCE for services in the form of minutes, SMS's and blocks of data given the label a "BYTE" means in essence that we give the industry, interest-free loans, which appears in their books as a liability, and THAT is why they pushed for and got away with it for years, that it should expire. Money can't expire. therefore by making your purchases expire, it means nothing else than THEFT, to cancel out an increasing liability that appears in the books of the entire industry!

And that is why this ruling of ICASA is so important. Because it prevents legalised THEFT.

So why are the banks worried? Because the next step would be to start getting the entire industry to pay back all the MONEY the industry has stolen from you for unused usage rights since the industry started. All that is ill-gotten gains, and exploitation!
Now think about all the other things we buy with these points systems coupons etc, that "expire". the same goes for them. Making these things expire is making a liability in the form of an interest-free loan expire, by using YOUR money to cancel out that Liability which is just stealing YOUR MONEY!
The ONLY fair system is to pay for TIME used and do so post usage, based on the measurement of the TIME that you used the service, POST-PAID, or by using up a CREDIT you bought if you did this prepaid.
Click to expand...
Kinda makes sense, only, we use data 24/7
 
Don't worry jannie will be here soon enough, with his destructive power of confusion and dodging. I shall call him Captain Dodge.Takes on enemies er consumers *ahem* with the power of confusion, enemies er consumers who resist, is then deflected with the power of dodge.

However Captain Dodge, has a special skill that is used as last resort, the power to be never wrong, he is the ultimate super villain, often kidnapping and holding DATA for random.His secret hi-tech bunker is surrounded by a pool of hungry OOB sharks, with frikken laser beams. The OOB sharks is regularly fed with unsuspecting enemies er consumers.

Captain Dodge is part of a secret villainous group called vodacon and lures in unsuspecting enemies er consumers with Greed, and promises of competitive market related services.Once enemies er consumers have been lured in, they are offered 24 months in the 7th level of hell, unaware they will be dragged to a dark damp back ally,
turned upside down, after which the shakedown will proceed.Enemies er consumers that survive the shake down are often left bruised and battered, pants and face down in the gutter.It's then when vodacon cronies sweep in and offer another 24 months with alleged better terms and shinny new devices

These shinny new devices blinds enemies er consumers into taking up another 24 months in the 7th level of hell.

Captain Dodge motto is. Screw them like it's hump day.
 
AstroTurf said:
Kinda makes sense, only, we use data 24/7
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No you don't.
You like many others, don't understand the term , "on line" and " always on" and what it means to have a permanent access to a port that is always open. You still only transmit data when required to do so. Most of the time, you are just sitting at the open port watching the empty "containers" or "time slots " wizzing past. You only transmit when YOU have a packet or a container to transmit!
Because the port is always open does NOT mean you are transmitting data all the time!
 
Pilgrim said:
Technology is ever evolving. To ensure the best customer experience Vodacom switches you to your latest bundle that makes use of the most recent technology.
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Unfortunately, what you have said here illustrates why they get away with it so easily. Bundles of service are technology agnostic! The chances are that the precise opposite actually happens. The system will use whatever technology is available.
 
Geoff.D said:
No you don't.
You like many others, don't understand the term , "on line" and " always on" and what it means to have a permanent access to a port that is always open. You still only transmit data when required to do so. Most of the time, you are just sitting at the open port watching the empty "containers" or "time slots " wizzing past. You only transmit when YOU have a packet or a container to transmit!
Because the port is always open does NOT mean you are transmitting data all the time!
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Or when I get an email, whatsapp, my device is sending location data, waiting for a command, doing updates and all those other little pings and data transfers that happen 24/7

Your view is dated.

 
AstroTurf said:
Or when I get an email, whatsapp, my device is sending location data, waiting for a command, doing updates and all those other little pings and data transfers that happen 24/7

Your view is dated.

Click to expand...
No, my view is spot on! It is not dated. It is the basis on how all this works. Why do you think I put in the words "Data is transmitted when required to do so"?

YOU have chosen to allow those Apps to do the background stuff and set them to send "acknowledgment of receipts, whatsapp reports back to the network, doing back ground updates, little pings and all that stuff". They only do that when required at which stage they fill a packet and send it through the port. The port is "open" so that they can do so at any time because you have an always ON service, no need to dialup first. All 24/7 means is the gate to your system is OPEN, nothing more.
IF you fully control data flows OUT of your system, then, you CLOSE the gate and ALL apps have to wait for you to OPEN the gate.

And BTW in our country we pay for data SMSs and CALLS made, NOT for data received ( hopefully it is still like that for data etc, it is still the case for voice calls). On the receive side, IF you put in security, the Port is CLOSED and when a packet arrives some negotiation takes place before the packet of data is allowed through, The Gate is Opened and then Closed again.

The data you transmit is accumulated and counts off against your package, INCLUDING all this background stuff.
That is why ALL the operators will first respond to complaints about "dissapperaing data" by saying that you have set up your phone, whatever in such a way that you are unaware of all the background data flows going on. IF you choose to leave everything at defaults then sure BUT IF you take the trouble to see what is going on you will CLOSE the gate for this stuff, and regardless of the "always on" or "24/7" status, NO data flows when the gate is closed.

ALL my devices are set like that. The gate is CLOSED, just like the gate across my driveway. NOTHING enters my system that I am not aware of. OF course this limits me BUT it means I am in control of MY stuff. IF I choose to allow Whatsapp to communicate in the background, keeping me update to date and the "network" up to date about my Whastapp status, then it is because I have decided to allow this, not because Whastapp has or wants it.

This concept IS at the heart of truly understanding how things work in this environment. And it is simple when you boil it down to the absolute basics.
 
And to add, when you choose to download a new App, you should IF you are truly serious about knowing what the apps is going to do, NOT just click the Accept button, but read the fine print about what that App wants to "control" or have access to on your device and what it is going to do in the background. It took lots of lobbying to get to the point where App developers are supposed to declare up front what the Apps does.

As an example, the Eskom Load shedding App WANTS to control and have access to the camera on your device. Why? What has your camera got to do with keeping YOU up to date with THEIR load shedding schedules? They cant or wont answer that question. So, IF you are truly interested in protecting your privacy, that App never gets downloaded to your device.
RTFM RTFM ALWAYS EVERYTIME is the answer.
 
Simple as I have said before, I have been on about the FIFO principle for years and years.

And because I am totally amazed that so many in the industry don't have a sound grip on the basics.
 
It's amazing how in the days of 56k modems where you were hogging a resource permanently we had more relaxed rules than today's dial-up where all resources are virtual and you only hog it when actually using it.
 
BBSA said:
Yes, I still remember, what a load of BS.

You must give @jannievanzyl credit, everyone disagreed with him, but he stuck to his gun.
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The reasons I gave were valid. As applied to recurring bundles, IIRC.

Prepaid once-off is a different matter, where FIFO makes more sense.
 
wizardofid said:
Don't worry jannie will be here soon enough, with his destructive power of confusion and dodging. I shall call him Captain Dodge.Takes on enemies er consumers *ahem* with the power of confusion, enemies er consumers who resist, is then deflected with the power of dodge.

However Captain Dodge, has a special skill that is used as last resort, the power to be never wrong, he is the ultimate super villain, often kidnapping and holding DATA for random.His secret hi-tech bunker is surrounded by a pool of hungry OOB sharks, with frikken laser beams. The OOB sharks is regularly fed with unsuspecting enemies er consumers.

Captain Dodge is part of a secret villainous group called vodacon and lures in unsuspecting enemies er consumers with Greed, and promises of competitive market related services.Once enemies er consumers have been lured in, they are offered 24 months in the 7th level of hell, unaware they will be dragged to a dark damp back ally,
turned upside down, after which the shakedown will proceed.Enemies er consumers that survive the shake down are often left bruised and battered, pants and face down in the gutter.It's then when vodacon cronies sweep in and offer another 24 months with alleged better terms and shinny new devices

These shinny new devices blinds enemies er consumers into taking up another 24 months in the 7th level of hell.

Captain Dodge motto is. Screw them like it's hump day.
Click to expand...
Love you too. ;)
 
Geoff.D said:
No you don't.
You like many others, don't understand the term , "on line" and " always on" and what it means to have a permanent access to a port that is always open. You still only transmit data when required to do so. Most of the time, you are just sitting at the open port watching the empty "containers" or "time slots " wizzing past. You only transmit when YOU have a packet or a container to transmit!
Because the port is always open does NOT mean you are transmitting data all the time!
Click to expand...
But there is 24x7 capacity which, if you or someone else don't use it, is lost forever. But it incurred a cost.

Put another way, data is not a product, but a service which must be available 24x7 in case someone uses it.
 
jannievanzyl said:
But there is 24x7 capacity which, if you or someone else don't use it, is lost forever. But it incurred a cost.

Put another way, data is not a product, but a service which must be available 24x7 in case someone uses it.
Click to expand...
Which begs the question why are networks even wanting to punish us for using it? You could give night data at 100th the cost that you do. Even Cell C cancelled theirs for some reason. Just mind boggling how networks are behaving if data is a scarce resource.
 
Swa said:
Which begs the question why are networks even wanting to punish us for using it? You could give night data at 100th the cost that you do. Even Cell C cancelled theirs for some reason. Just mind boggling how networks are behaving if data is a scarce resource.
Click to expand...

Data isn't scarce, spectrum is.

But you are right about off peak time, but then again, people are always going on about how "nobody can use that"
 
jannievanzyl said:
The reasons I gave were valid. As applied to recurring bundles, IIRC.

Prepaid once-off is a different matter, where FIFO makes more sense.
Click to expand...

The difference between prepaid and postpaid is only about when you pay. Before you eat the sandwich or drink the coffee (a take away) or a sit-down meal in the restaurant. The ONLY difference is the timing, nothing about consuming the product, which remains the same, it is still a sandwich or a coffee.
 
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