DISQUS

Mobile Industry Review: In April, I used 275mb of my 120mb Vodafone allowance = 220 quid

  • martin · 1 year ago
    Sim only on tmobile with data, use vodafone for calls only, that's what i'm doing, waiting to see if iphone comes out on tmobile, and will switch to it - wont the new iphone force vodafone to switch their data requriements?
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    Ah who knows... I'm beginning to lose patience entirely with Big Red. It
    didn't take me that long..
  • Tone · 1 year ago
    I reckon you will be getting a call from the forum intervention team very shortly offering you a big bundle of data....
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    Doubt that!
  • Mike42 · 1 year ago
    <cut to Newbury> <interior of office in corner top floor, with nice view of A34>

    <Removal man 1> Sir, where would you like this potplant?
    <Colao> Over there, next to the Espresso machine, along from the picture of the Pope
    <Sarin> er...about this Macleod guy, you know, we had him in last month for a chat...well, er....
    <Colao> What? Some blogger? Who cares?
    <Sarin> But he speaks directly to 250,000 mobile industry people...like us!
    <Colao> Esattamente! The real people don't care a bean, remember our bet? How long they will pay £2.35 per megabit? We have years of this left. Those amateurs at T-Mobile & 3! Pah! Look at their data ARPU. We are the kings of mobile data!
    <Sarin> But, er, 3 has the highest data ARPU of anyone
    <Colao> Yes, but for how many of their customers, eh? EH?
    <Sarin> But their customers, they purchase these dongle things like candy
    <Colao> Esattamente! They are babys! We are the men of mobile! PregoPregoLamborghiniRistretto!
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    Genius
  • Ben Smith · 1 year ago
    Mike for president or king or something.... Brilliant.
  • jonmul · 1 year ago
    Very funny!
  • DanLane · 1 year ago
    I've not had any problems with Three UK apart from my brief insolvable customer service issue (which was, admittedly, due to a 3rd party credit card processor, and they did sort that out by sending me a free USB dongle). If I could use my contract Three SIM in my iPhone, I would use them as my main network of choice!... hopefully I'll be able to get the 3G iPhone up and running on Three with relative ease :)
  • Ben Smith · 1 year ago
    That's the problem isn't it... if 'unlimited' = '500MB' then there can't be any number > 500 can there? At least not one that's 'fair'...

    On the plus side had you had 500MB of data you would have been OK!

    My approach? One handset for calls with some data (iPhone for me because I heart Steve) and workhorse on 3 pre-pay - £5 per month for 1GB data. Even though they seem to be killing x-series through neglect I still love them so much for all the other stuff I think I'll always keep one of their handsets around.
  • Vlad · 1 year ago
    See, it's interesting. If they think the vast majority of users will not go over the 500MB, then why cap it in the first place? Why not leave it truly unlimited, if nobody's going to use more than that anyway? It's funny, in a way.
  • Ricky Chotai · 1 year ago
    my view is that it is ridiculous in this day, that people like you ewan are having to contemplate having to use 2 phones because one network cannot offer everything you need.
    Personally I think vodafone need to learn by not offering good data they will lose customers, data is demanded just as much as voice calls and I think you should pull your business entirely!!!
  • andrewgrill · 1 year ago
    Ewan, at lest you're on a consumer plan and actually get 500Mb to play with. As a high spending "Small Business" plan user, I have to pay £15 to get just 20MB of data!

    The disparity between human/handset users and machine/data card users is amazing.

    For £15/month I get 3,000Mb (3GB) for my data card - but not available for us humans to use - no voice tariff on this just data only plan. WHY? The data supplied is the same, but if you dare also have a voice contract you get slugged for data usage on your handset.

    Please explain?

    Amazing also is their new "unlimited internet and email" promotion - plastered all over their shopfronts like here http://andrewgrill.com/images/unlimited_vodafon...

    BUT - no asterisk, no disclaimer - they say unlimited on ALL plans.

    Wonder how long until the advertising standards people grab them for this one. Remember the recent "best in Britain bar none" campaign....
  • steves71 · 1 year ago
    If you can get a decent amount of calls and texts on a different network I'd do that and leave Voda. I left orange after 8 years because they couldn't sort me out with a text package big enough to fit my needs, then I gave them another chance 12 months later only to be screwed for a £25 phonecall that should have been free. Reward the networks with your business that have good service and plans, ditch those that don't. I've been with 3 the last 3.5 years and this would have never happened with them, even with their x-series 1gig fair use policy you can go upto 2gig on occasion without being charged extra.
  • jonathan · 1 year ago
    It baffles me that the onus of all of this is placed on customers to be vigilant. What ever happened to the idea of courtesy calls from diligent companies to alert us to how we're using their services? Not to mention we're talking about mobile phone companies here so they can easily send helpful warning text messages to remind us of the fact we might be straying over their arbitrary 'unlimited' line?
    It is wholly profiteering of them to just sit on their behinds and watch with glee as we go and spend more and more. I've recently had a five month battle with Orange over additional charges generated by their systems going wrong. It would have gone under the carpet if I'd not chased it.
    There was also that case of the Canadian man who ended up with a bill of $85,000 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/71419...) for using a cell phone as an ISP-replacement. Sure, he too signed up for it and should've read the small print. But if we're being encouraged to use our mobile devices to access the internet in our mobile lives, I think companies should be responsible and let us know in advance if we're going to be in 'trouble'. If they refuse to communicate with us responsibly, then we should vote with our feet.
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    agreed, Jonathan
  • HeavyLight · 1 year ago
    MobileToday have details of VF's new business plans:

    "Vodafone has unveiled new business tariffs which focus on mobile email and internet to satisfy a growing number of workers on the move.
    "The Vodafone Total Business plans will be launched on 2 June targeting small to medium enterprises.
    "They will replace the existing Sharetime Plus and Small Business price plans.
    "The new plans include individual text packs and mobile internet and email packs which can be added to specific users within a company.
    "The mobile internet and mobile email packs come in two sizes - standard usage bundles offer 500MB while high usage bundles offer 5GB."
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    Yes I noticed I didn't get that update...
  • Anon · 1 year ago
    I cancelled my contract from Vodafone earlier this year because of the ridiculous data charges i was incurring and have moved to an unlimited £7.50 per month data tariff with T Mobile. I could not be happier. I had been with vodafone for over 10 years and was paying £75 per month tariff. They tried to retain me but are just so out of date. I have no problems with T Mobile and get good 3G reception. I am sure Vodafone will catch up eventually but not until data usuage becomes more widespread