{"id":74279,"date":"2013-03-30T10:29:36","date_gmt":"2013-03-30T08:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=74279"},"modified":"2013-03-30T10:30:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-30T08:30:05","slug":"vodacom-slashes-data-prices-but-not-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/columns\/74279-vodacom-slashes-data-prices-but-not-really.html","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom slashes data prices, but not really"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom<\/a> has cut the price of its one-off data bundles, seemingly due to pressure from unhappy prepaid customers who weren\u2019t too impressed with all the promotional activity in the 24-month data contract space. By comparison, the prices of one-off data bundles looked downright punitive.<\/p>\n

This also follows a move from MTN<\/a> at the start of this month.<\/p>\n

But both of these moves are temporary. Officially, normal pricing resumes from May 1 (unofficially, it seems MTN will extend its promotion until the middle of the year).<\/p>\n

Both large operators are crowing about these promotions. MTN is going so far as to advertise it as the \u201cBig Data Sale\u201d. Think about that for a second.<\/p>\n

Operators are aggressively marking down core services. Like a retailer would with last season\u2019s clothing. Or a supermarket does with washing powder. Aside from promotional tariff plans (a bundled suite of pricing), we really haven\u2019t seen this type of activity before.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying Vodacom\u2019s promotional prices are impressive (see table below).<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Bundle<\/strong><\/td>\nVodacom normal price<\/strong><\/td>\nVodacom promo price<\/strong><\/td>\nMTN standard price<\/strong><\/td>\nMTN promo price<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20MB<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\nR 10<\/td>\nR10*<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
30MB<\/td>\nR 25<\/td>\nR 12<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
100MB<\/td>\nR 49<\/td>\nR 29<\/td>\nR 49<\/td>\nR29**<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
250MB<\/td>\nR 99<\/td>\nR 59<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
300MB<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\nR 149<\/td>\nR 79<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
500MB<\/td>\nR 159<\/td>\nR 99<\/td>\nR 189<\/td>\nR 119<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1GB<\/td>\nR 279<\/td>\nR 149<\/td>\nR 289<\/td>\nR 149<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2GB<\/td>\nR 369<\/td>\nR 249<\/td>\nR 389<\/td>\nR 245<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3GB<\/td>\nR 499<\/td>\nR 299<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5GB<\/td>\nR 829<\/td>\nR 399<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20GB<\/td>\nR 3 199<\/td>\nR 499<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

* Usually a 10MB bundle. Now, 10 MB free.<\/p>\n

** Usually a 75MB bundle. Now, 25MB free.<\/p>\n

Data bundles are valid for 30 days from the date of purchase.<\/p>\n

Crucially, to benefit from these lower prices, prepaid customers also\u00a0need to select “Prepaid once-off promotion” from *111#<\/strong>\u00a0and not the usual Broadband Standard or Broadband Advanced bundles (still at “normal” prices)<\/p>\n

The big problem with all of this promotional activity? No one is blinking and is willing to make it permanent. Both operators are keeping their options open.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also completely content with locking unsuspecting users into 24-month data contracts which look unbelievable value right now.<\/p>\n

2GB for R99 a month? Sign me up! Except in 12 months time, that price is going to look punitive. In 18 months time, there are going to be tens of thousands of very, very unhappy consumers paying 3\/4\/5 times more for data than they should be. All because they\u2019re locked in.<\/p>\n

\"Shameel<\/a>

Shameel Joosub<\/p><\/div>\n

Shameel Joosub<\/a>, CEO of Vodacom has repeatedly defended its pricing strategy by saying that if something\u2019s always on promotion, then that\u2019s the effective price. Yes. But no.<\/p>\n

A permanent and dramatic cut in the price of data bundles will be the catalyst for a drastic change in consumption and habits, especially amongst high-end smartphone users. I\u2019m not too sure operators want to open that Pandora\u2019s box just yet.<\/p>\n

For now, they\u2019re happy to keep dangling the carrot. If a bunch of us get used to using 1GB of data a month at these prices, when they adjust back to the \u2018normal\u2019 pricing in May, we\u2019re not likely to cut back our usage. Especially if we\u2019ve bolted one of these bundles onto our normal voice contract.<\/p>\n

Cell C<\/a> blinked a long time ago. But with its market share (and continual network issues), that move isn\u2019t going to force a fundamental change in the way we use data.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s going to blink first? We know for sure that if one of the big two makes a move, the other will follow. For now, we wait. And get our fix on promotional prices.<\/p>\n

* Hilton Tarrant contributes to \u2018Broadband\u2019, a column covering the ICT sector in South Africa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: Moneyweb<\/a><\/p>\n

More Vodacom data articles<\/h3>\n

Massive Vodacom prepaid data price cuts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom to slash 5GB and 10GB data prices<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom slashes broadband prices<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom LTE for prepaid officially launched<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom to cage \u201cout-of-bundle shark\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite all the promotional activity, no-one\u2019s blinking first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":74032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[35,42,1958,41],"class_list":["post-74279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-shameel-joosub","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74305,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74279\/revisions\/74305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}