Subscribers were able to buy a 12-month recurring bundle from Vodacom<\/a> up-front: 1GB x 12 months for R1,199 and 2GB x 12 months for R1,999.<\/p>\n After extending the promotion, Vodacom went on to cut the price of the bundles<\/a> in October to R999 for the 12GB bundle and R1,499 for the 24GB bundle.<\/p>\n In the details of the deal, Vodacom explained that bundles are allocated every 30 days. Similar to its other bundles, Vodacom also lets data roll over to the end of the following month.<\/p>\n It is this combination of \u201c30-days\u201d and \u201cend-of-month\u201d clauses in the business rules that could make for a confusing experience until you sit down and analyse what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n Firstly, with bundles being allocated every 30 days, it is possible for two bundles to be allocated in the same month: on the 1st and 31st.<\/p>\n This causes a knock-on effect which effectively shortens how long subsequent monthly bundles are valid for, and more importantly, when your last bundle is allocated.<\/p>\n For example, the longest overall validity period of 699 days could have been achieved by activating on 5 August 2012. However, if you activated on 31 August 2012 you would only get 387 days of validity overall.<\/p>\n It should be noted that this measure of “overall validity” is not how long you would be given access, but rather the sum of the validity periods of the 12 individual bundles that are allocated as part of this package.<\/p>\n The graph below shows how the overall validity and access period compare over the time that Vodacom’s 12GB and 24GB promotions were available.<\/p>\n 30 day recurring bundle with end of following month expiry overall validity and access period graph<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s interesting to note that Cell C<\/a> and Telkom Mobile<\/a> avoid this type of confusion by simply not letting data roll over on their recurring bundles.<\/p>\n Like Vodacom, Cell C has elected to allocate its recurring data bundles every 30 days but does not offer roll-over. When the new bundle is allocated, Cell C\u2019s business rules state that it overrides the previous bundle.<\/p>\n Telkom Mobile\u2019s Internet starter pack offers 200MB of data per month, allocated on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n This means that although Vodacom\u2019s method can be somewhat confusing, it does offer a longer overall period of bundle validity compared to other offerings, even if you activated a pre-paid \u201cPay Once\u201d bundle on a sub-optimal date.<\/p>\n That said, mobile data bundle buyers would do well to go through the finer details of the business rules of their operator of choice if they want to extract maximum value from a deal.<\/p>\n Original forum thread: Last month\u2019s data didn\u2019t carry over!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Thanks to Hades for sending this in<\/em><\/p>\n Update:<\/strong> The article has been updated to more clearly explain the measurement used.<\/p>\n Happily paying R1.5-million per GB<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Vodacom Everyday Extra prepaid promotion launched<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Best prepaid data and modem deal ever<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n![\"30](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/30-day-recurring-bundle-with-end-of-following-month-expiry-overall-validity-and-access-period-graph.jpg\")
Cell C, Telkom avoid problem<\/h3>\n
More mobile data articles<\/h3>\n