iBurst throws in free months
iBurst today sent out a press release saying that that consumers signing up for a 24-month iBurst HSDPA contract between February and April 2009 will receive “a free HSDPA USB modem, 2 months free subscription and free SIM and connection valued at R202.”
“With phenomenally fast HSDPA speeds and up to 10 gigabytes of data included in our HSDPA packages, it’s a very compelling broadband option that is now even more attractive,” said Thami Mtshali, CEO of iBurst.
According to the broadband provider, subscribers will be billed pro-rata for the current and following month’s subscription as per the standard iBurst billing process after which they will receive 2 months free subscription.
Marketing spin?
With HSDPA modems typically costing in the region of R 2 000 per unit this seems like a particularly generous gesture from iBurst to throw it in ‘free of charge’, but upon closer investigation this new offering appears to be more of a marketing stunt than a true reduction in price. iBurst’s prices are exactly the same as Vodacom’s HSDPA contract pricing which also includes a modem, a 64K SIM card and free setup.
The contract price from both Vodacom and iBurst is R 60 extra per month, translating into an additional payment of R 1 440 over the 24 month contract period. This is a good option for consumers who are unable to buy the modem up front, but it can hardly be called ‘free’. The same goes for the ‘free SIM card’ which comes standard with contract data packages from Vodacom.
What is however good news is that iBurst will give consumers the 3rd and 4th month of their contract free, which means that subscribers will only have to pay for 22 months of their 24 month contract. This brings about a saving on both bandwidth fees and device cost.
“We’d like to illustrate by means of this example: MyMeg 500 subscriptions are R249 including VAT per month. If a subscriber signs up in February 2009, iBurst will discount April and May subscriptions by 100% i.e. free. That is a saving of R498 over the contract period,” iBurst explains.
iBurst HSDPA special discussion
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