[Ben]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/31/phone_for_business/


In other tariff news Vodafone is rejigging the way it charges businesses and consumers for mobile data. From 4 February Vodafone's 3 GB mobile broadband service costs £15 a month.

You can roam abroad for £9.99 a day (24 hours). This applies to most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the USA.

If you go over your limit then charges will be £15 per GB.

Business customers will see monthly fair usage limits increased from 3GB to 5GB.
That's right boys and girls, the price of Vodafone's Mobile Broadband just dropped by about 50%! Given the outstanding quality and coverage of Vodafone's data network this, I am convinced, is now the most attractive mobile broadband proposition on the market today - especially when coupled with Vodafone's excellent 'Stick' USB modem.

As for the roaming charge abroad having a £15/GB 'backup' - well, if it's true, it's bloody fantastic. It should ensure nobody can ever get the shock that I had after I got back from Spain!

You could have been alerted about this story by text for free! Click here for more information (https://talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4874).

[Ben]

Of course, being Vodafone, the changes are quite complex... have a muddle through at your leasure: http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/local_press_releases/uk_press_releases/2007/vodafone_uk_unveils.html

From what I understand, consumers get £15/3GB and businesses get £25+VAT/5GB. So, I'll get a bigger data allowance, while home users get a cheaper tariff. It also reads like the £15/GB applies to UK out-of-bundle usage... don't know about abroad at this stage.

[Hands0n]

I'm confused :confused:

Yes it is a step in the right direction by Vodafone, being almost last but not quite (good old Orange are dragging their heels as usual ....). But is there a sting in this particular tail?

The article suggests that the £15 is a new tariff but Vodafone's own write-up says that it is only for a promotional period

In broadening the appeal of its high-quality Mobile Broadband Vodafone UK will reduce the cost for consumers by 50% during a promotional period ......

So does that mean that the price will go up to £30/3GB after a while - albeit not for customers who buy in now

£15 monthly promotional access for Mobile Broadband customers for life
So get in quick before the offer expires?

[Ben]

Yeah, it's definitely not a '£15 for x months' offer, but they're not saying 'our new price is £15' either.

But then STC and Passport are also promotional, so don't read too much into it. It's mostly cover for if it all goes titsup :D

[Hands0n]

Well, they are saying that if you take the £15/3GB now then it is for life. So thats not so bad.

I've just been on to Vodafone about changing a couple of my family tariffs, things have changed for the better there too - see another thread.

[whatleydude]

And yet us mobile users are still stuck on a measly 120mb.

[Hands0n]

Oh yea! Missed that :(

[Ben]

Lol, yeah, the handset add-on is still in need of some major work. I think handsets like the N95 have put the fear of God into Vodafone in terms of handset data usage.

[Hands0n]

I can't see why they fear the N95 and its successor. After all, Vodafone merely brand out anything that they don't like, such as the SIP client.

What the mobile networks have got to get their heads around is that the Magic Bullet [that they have been questing for] is nothing more complex than access to the Internet itself.

They can still do their Portal and other stuff if they really want to, but the competition for them in that arena is much more fierce. But if they cannot get this Internet access right then they'll lose out to WiMAX which, from what I read of late, is being built into almost everything with an Intel CPU. That means that by 2009 there will be an abundance of WiMAX-ready devices. And the mobile network operators ignore that at their peril. Especially as there is no wholesale converging of 3G capabilities into mobile apparatus.

[chaslam]

Ok here is the info:

£15/3GB fair use policy
£30/5GB fair use policy

USB 7.2 Modem free on 18 and 24 monther on both tariffs
USB stick on £50 on both contracts
If you take the 18 monther on £30 you get 3 months free
If you take the 24 monther on £30 you get 6 months free (effectively making it an 18 month contract with 6 months free)

This deal is to counteract 3s position in the market. One thing you have to be aware is that Vodafone are pretty lenient with their fair use policy. Their old £30 a month tariff with a 3GB FUP we have many customers who come back who have used much more then 3GB (some up to 20GB!) and not got charged extra.

[Ben]

Unfortunately I think the new FUP's are £15/GB when a customer goes over, and I assume that will be automatic charging. I did prefer the old way, where you could, within reason, use as much data as you wanted and there were no automatic charges for doing so.

Without that clause, £30/5GB looks like terrible value. With it, somebody who uses 5GB would pay £45 if they were only on the £15 tariff, so it retains some purpose - maybe enough to stop business customers doing a runner.

[Hands0n]

Vodafone have shown themselves in the past, and not too distant past either, to be willing to levy huge data charges against private individual customers, and to hold them to account relentlessly too. Okay, so some of the examples that hit the headlines are extreme (£24,000 or thereabouts). But I would have to advise strict caution to anyone using a network like Vodafone for mobile data as they do have a very effective mechanism for detecting and charging for any use over and above their tariffed levels.

Perhaps this is why Vodafone waited so long to release their low-cost data tariffs - because if they can charge accurately for over-use they are well positioned to reap the financial benefits for those who do stray over by even minute amounts.

Contrast with other mobile network operators such as T-Mobile who operate a far more lenient policy.

These are very early days in this new [data] market - caution and awareness are advised. Check and check again, assume nothing.

[Ben]

Of course, there are variations in Vodafone's leniency.

On-handset data use is very strictly controlled. I believe in the not too distant past a Vodafone representative was quoted as saying, to paraphrase, "Don't use a mobile phone as a modem." Silly, I know.

The other strictly controlled area is data used while roaming. This is the one that I personally fell foul to... their £8.50/£9.99 'day pass' system just does not work on a practical level. Hell, I'd have been in a better position had I been billed by the megabyte, at least I'd have known where I stood. Still, they made it right, for me anyway.

Data use on a 'proper' data tariff (i.e. modem tariff) on the home network has been attractive and 'safe' for some time now. I'm totally with you on advising caution, though, on all of the UK's new mobile broadband offerings.

[Hands0n]

There is a lot to be said for transparency - some do it very well, others abysmally. I'll leave it to you to decide.

I was having another look at these tariffs and I'm facing a decision. Stay with T-Mobile's £12.50 Web N Walk Plus (3GB and a very flexible FUP, if you go over you don't get the crap beaten out of you on your next bill), or jump ship to one of the competition.

I am considering Three's £15/3GB dongle or Vodafone's £15/3GB** stick. Both have their merits - Vodafone's being their comprehensive network and of course 7.2Mbps vs Three's 2.8Mbps. When used with a computer the additional speed will be noticeable, whenever it kicks in.

My dilemma is the penalties for going over the 3GB, if or when it happens. Vodafone have shown themselves in the past to be very ready to wield the big stick for anyone having the sheer audacity to use the network for data.

Three's out of bundle price is 10p/MB (£100/GB)
Vodafone's out of bundle price is ............. unfathomable, because if its there it is totally obscure on their website

10. If you subscribe to any daily or monthly bundle of data access, once you’ve used up your allowance in any charging period you’ll be charged at our standard out of bundle rate for data access. To see the current rates that apply please go to www.vodafone.co.uk/mobilebroadband (ED: the link does not, however, tell you the detail you need to know)

I am thinking that I might steer for Three's offering simply because it is completely transparent in comparison to Vodafone's being completely obscure - and the Vodafone are not to be trusted in that respect.

Whoever writes and approve Vodafone's website needs to be sacked. They are doing a terrible job of things if they're confusing and putting off experienced people like myself. If I cannot find my way through their maze of supposed information what hope the average punter? And what would OFCOM make of that obscurity and the reasons behind it?

Vodafone need to consider this; their website is their shop window. To have one that is so difficult to locate essential information is commercial suicide. I would write to Vodafone about this, but I feel it will just fall on deaf ears.

NB: Has Vodafone's £15 promotion ended already? Apart from the link in this thread visitors to the Vodafone website are faced with only the minimum £30/3GB tariff, and no mention of a promotional 50% reduction for life. If that is the case then Vodafone have just priced themselves out of the 3GB marketspace in one fell swoop.

Nice one Vodafone. Very clever of you, not.

[Ben]

Lol, get off your soapbox and go to the right page ;)

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=template08&pageID=VA_0031&WT_ref=INT-COUK-010208-Broadband-Pricepage

£15/mo for 3GB, £15/GB if you go over. Very reasonable. Very very!

[Hands0n]

Fair enough but .... From where on the homepage does that link come from. Because every single link I follow takes me back to what spurred the above comments. If Vodafone insist on have redundant pages on their website they will inevitably draw criticism. Grrrrrrrr. Still cannot get to that link of yours from anywhere on their homepages! :confused::confused:

Its plain silly :p

[Ben]

It's under Broadband. From there you pick either home or mobile. Though going to the Business shop via the Stick link on the homepage took me to http://www.vodafonebusinessshop.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=MobileEmailAndData.usbModemst ick&planDuration=18 which has the new prices on also.

Lord knows what that page you visited is still doing online. I think that's the URL that was given out on marketing material advertising the £30/mo service, so perhaps they're still getting responses from that and charging the higher rate :S

[solo12002]

does three not beat those prices at 10p per meg? 1024 MB at 10p pers meg £10 something?

[Ben]

No, 1024 x £0.10 = £102.40. Scary.

[Hands0n]

Lord knows what that page you visited is still doing online. I think that's the URL that was given out on marketing material advertising the £30/mo service, so perhaps they're still getting responses from that and charging the higher rate :S

Try this for size http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=template04&pageID=MB_0001 linked to directly from the Vodafone Broadband page - I still cannot see how to trip the light fantastic to the page you found. Oh well, perhaps some other punters will get lucky also and find "your" page. But my money's on them finding "my page" first :D

The over-run rate with Vodafone is much cheaper than Three's - so that makes it a bit of a clincher really.... Best give T-Mobile a call tomorrow then :) And then Vodafone .....

[Ben]

On the Vodafone homepage click the small 'Broadband' link towards the top and you'll wind up here: http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=template11&pageID=VA_0005

Oh how differently our minds must work! That's the problem with having an incomprehensible website, visitors all go in different directions. Vodafone's website has never been 'ahead of the pack' - that accolade went to Orange for a long time. Now Orange's site is one of the worst. Go figure.

[Hands0n]

Yea and Three's is a shining beacon of light :) Figure, indeed

[solo12002]

Have you seen the fair use policy:


Fair usage policy

All Mobile Broadband price plans are subject to a fair usage policy to ensure the service is fast and reliable for all of our customers. Monthly price plans subject to 3GB UK fair usage policy, 24 hour UK sessions subject to 500MB fair usage policy,

24 hour roaming sessions subject to 50MB fair usage policy. See terms and conditions for details. so you realy get 50Mb for your £10 on roaming

All prices include VAT and are subject to a minimum term contract. Unused data is not carried over to the next month.

[Ben]

Yeah, the 50MB on roaming is a bit pants, but at 'standard rates' it'd be about £200, rather than £10, so it's something. The problem is that you can only use 50MB in 24 hours while roaming - you can't pay that £10 again before the 24 hours is up, so you either watch what you use like a hawk or pay through the nose.

That UK limit is just on the pay-per-day thing, afaik. Neither of these terms should have implications on a person using the £15/mo 3GB deal within the UK.