[Hands0n]

I have just noticed that Vodafone seem to have done away with their Anytime 500 Extra Value tariff @ £40pcm - the one that I selected for my W900i when I signed over to them just before Christmas 2005. This was an 18 month contract that had 1/2 price line rental for 6 (six) months, 500 Voice mins, 100 SMS, 50 mins Videocall, Live 3G TV until end Jan 2006 and Stop The Clock

All that seems to be left is their Anytime 500 @ £50pcm! Again, an 18 month contract with 500 Voice mins, 500 SMS, 1/2 price rental for 3 (three) months, STC and Live TV until end Jan 2006

Apart from the additional 400 SMS per month, it seems lesser value at a tenner more per month and three months less half-price rental.

Thats a shame really, the "Extra Value" is what did it for me.

[Ben]

Mhm, still, 400 SMS at the standard rate is £48, so I guess the 'extra value' has just been shuffled about to give more texts to the text-hungry nation. The inclusive SMS allowance with contracts seems to be going up and up these days. I'm not sure whether that's good or not. It's bringing the price-per-message down, while leaving the 'standard rate' as high as ever. Yet again the networks are defying any adjustment to their core pricing structures, relying on promotions instead.

[Hands0n]

I reckon that it is a touch of Smoke & Mirrors. It costs the networks nothing at all to allow an increased number of SMS, Voice, Video, MMS etc. and WHY. It is only network capacity that is being utilised, and I wonder if there is not tons of the stuff around to play with.

What they could not be seen to do is to reduce their income by bring down the tariffs in actual terms of cold hard cash. That is why, I believe, they will not touch the out-of-bundle charges. They'll just make it increasingly hard to hit OOB from within a contract.

Is that such a bad thing? I don't know how I feel about it really. In real terms we've never had it so good for contracts, even Voda's 30-Day SIM-only is astonishing value for the traditional voice and text user. So my jury is staying out for the moment. I'm intrigued by what 2006 may bring in this area.

Edit: If you'd told me two years ago that I would be paying £40pcm for an airtime agreement, I would have laughed in your face. Now, I am running a pair of 500 voice minute contracts (one will have to be decreased next year) total value £75pcm.

[maxspank]

Yeah the the extra vale at500 is actually 3g only, I'm glad I nabbed mine before they made their departure