VM billing (or lack thereof) infectious?

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Edwe

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After enjoying free VM GPRS for two days (and 180MB), I woke up this morning to find the VM network down. Luckily I have a backup Vodacom Vlive! enabled SIM, which I promptly inserted and have been using to surf the net today. The thing is, I only had R11.22 on my Vodacom SIM when I started, and, after a few minutes of surfing (for that is how long R11.22 will last on any network other than VM), I began to wonder why I hadn’t been disconnected yet due to insufficient funds. So I checked my balance and, to my surprise, saw that I still had R11.22 left.

Is it coincidence that both VM and Vodacom have stopped charging for GPRS or is it some kind of underhand ploy to attract more customers?

To sum up this post: WTF is going on?

//Me grins and piles on some more bandwidth
 
Vodafone Live is free during Off-Peak times, but is charged at the same rates as normal GPRS during peak times.

Not sure why Virgin is free since they are supposed to charge R0.50p/mb :confused:
 
GreatBigMouth said:
Vodafone Live is free during Off-Peak times, but is charged at the same rates as normal GPRS during peak times.
Click to expand...

Did Vodacom actually say that? :confused: It used to be completely free, but that was just a bug that they "fixed". That's the reason I switched to VM to begin with. Are downloads also free on Vlive?
 
I called the Customer Care and they told me that it's now free on weekends and after 8pm. It's probably official.

It's only completely free the first month, then it starts to charge during peak times.

Downloads from third party websites are free, since it's data transfer, but on the VLive site it still charges for content. (Eg. R5 for an Mp3 etc.)
 
GreatBigMouth said:
I called the Customer Care and they told me that it's now free on weekends and after 8pm. It's probably official.

It's only completely free the first month, then it starts to charge during peak times.

Downloads from third party websites are free, since it's data transfer, but on the VLive site it still charges for content. (Eg. R5 for an Mp3 etc.)
Click to expand...

Thanks...

Im on vlive and yep it sure is free,
this is a great move by voda
 
I agree... but I'm still on Virgin during peak times. It's cheaper to SMS on VM and I rarely make calls, so I still prefer VM. I'll use Voda only for data - they ripped me off long enough, so I don't feel too bad doing it to them. I'll just recharge R15 every now and then to keep my Voda SIM active.

By the way, I'm shocked at how slow VLive! is after using VData for so long.
 
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I got charged R36.33 for 76.71MB on the 21 which is normal. Then R21.34 for 52.54MB which seemed a bit more off that usual. Then R5.74 for 14.82MB and to my shock R1.92 for 23.48MB. Yesterday I got charged R11.15 for 38.21MB again. Is someone playing around with the setting since it is charging although very cheaply or are they adjusting it for a reason? Are they planning to announce a reduction sometime perhaps and want to ensure they don't overcharge? :D
 
GreatBigMouth said:
I called the Customer Care and they told me that it's now free on weekends and after 8pm. It's probably official.

It's only completely free the first month, then it starts to charge during peak times.

Downloads from third party websites are free, since it's data transfer, but on the VLive site it still charges for content. (Eg. R5 for an Mp3 etc.)
Click to expand...
Are you serious?? 100% sure?
When did Vodacom implement this? :confused:

I would find it extremely odd of them to do something like this without advertising it? Especially now that MNP is available...
 
redarrow said:
Are you serious?? 100% sure?
When did Vodacom implement this? :confused:

I would find it extremely odd of them to do something like this without advertising it? Especially now that MNP is available...
Click to expand...

People in the prodigits.co.uk wap and mobile forum claim Vodacom distributed pamphlets advertising this offer, but I assumed it was just a hoax. The Vlive! APN does only charge during peak times, so it must be real.
 
Edwe said:
People in the prodigits.co.uk wap and mobile forum claim Vodacom distributed pamphlets advertising this offer, but I assumed it was just a hoax. The Vlive! APN does only charge during peak times, so it must be real.
Click to expand...

What happens if you set your pc to use the vlive apn? Is surfing and downloading then free in off peak times? It sounds too good to be true...
 
ajax said:
What happens if you set your pc to use the vlive apn? Is surfing and downloading then free in off peak times? It sounds too good to be true...
Click to expand...

I'm using a data card... it's free,
but you must set the proxies in opera etc.

I'm using Firefox with opera set as user agent btw
 
Oh well, I am surfing for free on Vodacom 3G using my Virgin simcard. No special settings, just manually selected Vodacom. Look's like it's Xmas for everyone! :)
 
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ajax said:
It sounds too good to be true...
Click to expand...

Hold on there, there are some catches. Downloads are limited to 5MB per file (those few that actually start, that is), you can't use most third party applications unless you use a port forwarder, such as YourFreedom and the vlive! APN is currently as slow as a snail on valium.

GreatBigMouth said:
And so you get the full connection package, for free on off-peak... that's what I call a good deal! :D
Click to expand...

An even better deal is Virgin's vdata APN, which is currently also free, much faster than vlive! and without any limitations. Not sure how long that will last, though, but I'm enjoying it while it does... 200MB and counting. :D
 
Edwe said:
An even better deal is Virgin's vdata APN, which is currently also free, much faster than vlive! and without any limitations. Not sure how long that will last, though, but I'm enjoying it while it does... 200MB and counting. :D
Click to expand...
Mine dropped R2.03 using 9.93MB. :confused: But yes it's still a killer deal. :D
 
That's strange - I downloaded 122MB yesterday for exactly 9 cents. That's pretty close to free, I'd say and I'm still not getting charged. This is lasting way too long to be an accident, IMO.
 
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