Any advantage to renewing 3G Contract?

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Velenoso

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Evening guys,

Is there any real advantage to renewing my 3G contract? Should I rather just buy prepaid bundles? I already have a data card as well as the newer white modem E200? I think.

Thanks in advance.
 
It really depends what you want. Contract is debit and forget setup plus you get to upgrade every 2 years. Minus is bill shock when windows updates or spyware strikes.

Pre-paid allows you to manage your cost, plus with discount incentives on air time you can save some money. Minus is upfront cost for modem. If the modem breaks out of warranty it's out of your pocket. It does require a bit more management on your end to convert air time to bundles.

Maybe a good balance is the top-up contracts with a free modem. You convert the air time to bundles, no bill shock and a new modem every 2 years.

I have been on pre-paid for more than a year now and it's working well.
 
Whats the easiest way to convert to prepaid? Can i keep my sim and just asked VC to convert it, or must I just cancel my contract and get a new prepaid sim?
 
Grumpy Old Man said:
Whats the easiest way to convert to prepaid? Can i keep my sim and just asked VC to convert it, or must I just cancel my contract and get a new prepaid sim?
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Not 100% sure, but when you renew you can migrate yourself to another contract type (say top-up). Otherwise if you don't want a contract at all it might just be easier to cancel the contract and buy a R2 sim from PnP.
 
Sometimes I find that I have exceeded my databundle and I DESPERATELY need something that is larger than, say, 50 MB... which means R100

I find myself wishing that I could have had pre-paid sometimes. Does that help?
 
iDDQDm0de said:
Sometimes I find that I have exceeded my databundle and I DESPERATELY need something that is larger than, say, 50 MB... which means R100

I find myself wishing that I could have had pre-paid sometimes. Does that help?
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You can easily add ad-hoc (once-off) bundles on top of your contract to resolve this.
 
Another advantage of prepaid is that you only buy the megabytes you need. eg. if you are going on holiday without a laptop you don't need to buy data. Or if you got a new bit of software/game that will download lots you buy bigger bundles.

ad-hoc bundles on top of a contract are an option but it turns out expensive when for example you are on mygig1 and you know you will need 2 gigabytes for the month. it would have been far cheaper to buy a 2gig bundle in the first place.
 
morkhans said:
It really depends what you want. Contract is debit and forget setup plus you get to upgrade every 2 years. Minus is bill shock when windows updates or spyware strikes.

Pre-paid allows you to manage your cost, plus with discount incentives on air time you can save some money. Minus is upfront cost for modem. If the modem breaks out of warranty it's out of your pocket. It does require a bit more management on your end to convert air time to bundles.

Maybe a good balance is the top-up contracts with a free modem. You convert the air time to bundles, no bill shock and a new modem every 2 years.

I have been on pre-paid for more than a year now and it's working well.
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True. With pre-paid you have more control and no nasty little surprises. When you need more, just buy another data bundle. Easy.
 
Depending where you live, Telkom do a good deal at the monent too compared to VC and MTN.

I would go prepaid. A lot safer! The last thing you want is to have your salary debited in one go by a cellular company.
 
3G contract to 3G pre-paid

My two year 3G contract is finally over and I am seriously concidering going back to ADSL.

I would however like to keep the 3G for when i am out of town. I have read on this forum some time ago that some people think 3G pre-paid bundles makes a lot more sense than a contract.

Since I already have the 3G modem, will it possible to keep my same sim card and number after I cancel my contract and just downgrade it to pre-paid?

If one do use pre-paid, does your available bandwidth also expire at the end of the month or can you use it until it is finished?
 
pietpetoors said:
My two year 3G contract is finally over and I am seriously concidering going back to ADSL.

I would however like to keep the 3G for when i am out of town. I have read on this forum some time ago that some people think 3G pre-paid bundles makes a lot more sense than a contract.

Since I already have the 3G modem, will it possible to keep my same sim card and number after I cancel my contract and just downgrade it to pre-paid?

If one do use pre-paid, does your available bandwidth also expire at the end of the month or can you use it until it is finished?
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It will probably be easier to just cancel the contract outright and buy a cheap SIM from PnP. Pre-paid data bundles expire 30 days after activation.
 
Thanx for the prompt reply Morkhans.

Pre-paid data bundles expire 30 days after activation.
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That really sucks, are there any of the networks where one can actually use the amount of data you paid for or do they all expire after one month?
 
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pietpetoors said:
Thanx for the prompt reply Morkhans.
That really sucks, are there any of the networks where one can actually use the amount of data you paid for or do they all expire after one month?
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3G/HSDPA: most certainly not. ADSL: There are a very few ISPs offering some more creative solutions to the use it or loose it situation we currently face. Here is hoping Seacom brings some relief in the form of larger bundles for the cost of current bundles and the opportunity for someone to offer roll-over.

The problem is all the ISPs in the various data services are all to chicken to come up with innovative solutions that break the current mould. So as long as everyone maintains the status quo, everyone can maximise the profits they rake in.

I am not denying the fact that it costs large amounts of money to build the kind of networks we currently have, but it is rather shocking (and obvious that something is wrong) when everyone (ISPs) follow exactly the same costing model.
 
3g mafia

Yes, that also seems fishy to me. I wonder if the Competition Commission and those blokes have looked into this yet?
 
Velenoso said:
Is there any real advantage to renewing my 3G contract? Should I rather just buy prepaid bundles? I already have a data card as well as the newer white modem E200? I think.
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The answer is simple: NO.

Incidentally, you don't 'renew' the contract, it just continues until you give notice. Prepaid is simple to use, no surprises at the end of the month... Vodacom's capping does not work in any case!
 
3g

capping does not work in any case!
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That is for sure, I once had a R1,700 surprise.

Makes you think, if they can make so much extra when you go over your cap why on earth would they want their cap to work?
 
3G data contract expire soon - now what?

I can upgrade in 2 weeks - and I was just wondering what my options are :

- month-by-month ; cheaper because not subsidising a modem?

- sign 2 year and get a new modem (HSUPA)

- sign 2 year and get a phone

- sign 3 year and get a netbook

Any of these possible?
 
- sign 2 year and get a new modem (HSUPA)]
would be the best option if u just need a fast mode,if u need a phone also u can get 7.2mps phone and use it as modem and buy data bundles on it
 
I had to make the same decision last year, and did this:

(Long answer)
1. Cancelled 3G contract, bought PPDBs
2. Bought 3G HSDPA modem (E272, excellent modem, esp. with Huawei's own software instead of VMC!)
3. Bought Billion HSDPA router, with wireless and ADSL
4. Struggled with increasingly poor performance of 3G (that's where pre-paid really works - you can switch from VC to MTN by the hour while their respective services flounder. I have a SIM card farm next to the modem - 1 VC and 2 MTNs!)
5. Gave up on 3G and installed 4mb ADSL. Took less than a week to get up and running, works on the Billion 3G router. Now use 3G as failover (has happened twice due to lightning).

Overall I'm happy with this arrangement. My LAN (wireless and GigE) have fast access to the Net, low latency (about 20ms locally, 250ms international). ADSL bundles are cheap and even though I'm paying Telkom monthly for the line it's more than offset by the price and number of data-bundles I use in a month. AND I'm not tied into any contracts.

(Short answer)
Dont renew the contract! Buy PPDBs and watch the broadband space over the coming months. There are miles of fibre going into the ground at the moment and there will be new offerings.

BTW - if you're think of renewing to get a better modem, rather buy a good used one (look on gumtree.co.za). There are usually some bargains there, and people will take offers. I put a HSDPA modem there and it still hasn't sold (maybe because no-one wants PCMCIA!). As for getting good deals on laptops and netbooks with a contract - dream on! They're usually out of date by the time you get them, and they're really not cheap either. You can do much better deals elsewhere.
 
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Yea I guess that's the way forward ; seems like all the 3G users are migrating to other services, reducing usuage or going PPDB after the initial 2 year contract. Vodacom should think of a way to keep them!

Other reason I don't want a contract right now, is I think there'll be a lot of change in broadband in the next 2 years - and I don't want to be tied down
 
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