Vodafone Chops Dataplan Prices for New Users

[Ewan]

More good news for prospective Vodafone users, as they drop their 3gb/month data plan to #15 (reports SMS Text News). It's a long contract (18 or 24 months) but it does come with a USB 3G modem. No word if this will be available to eisting users with data enabled handsets, but it's a sign that data pricing is definitly on its way to becoming a commodity, rather than a luxury, on people's monthly bills.

Read on in the full article.

"The cost of its Mobile Broadband 3GB package is being reduced from £30 to £15 for a "limited period", though Vodafone would not confirm how long this will run for.
Customers who exceed this limit will be charged £15 for each 1GB.........."

Hardly the start of a data revolution! Plus for people using handsets 3 & T-Mobile have been offering "unlimited (well maybe 1GB)" data for several months now at the not so luxury price of 5/7.50 pounds. Its just that the "big" operators like Vodafone/O2/Orange are very slow to react to anything and think that non-business customers do not want "real" data (unlike the "unreal" data services (non stop football & pop gossip) some of these companies provide in their ring fenced worlds). Unless they wake up then these 3G licenses are going to take a long time to pay off!

Baloney. Nobody goes on contract. What is the price of prepaid data? That is the only figure that matters. In Europe, Vodafone charges 20,000 Euros per Gigabyte. Even a Saudi prince would have to spill a lot of oil to afford that. And forget about all that so-called 3G garbage. GPRS works perfectly well. What we need is flat rate prepaid data pricing for under 300 Euros per month.

Heres a little trick, you dont always have to be a registered business to get a business contract in the UK, some of the networks just dont care. They offer some nice deals, although you have to check whether VAT is inclusive when they read you the prices

- good luck

[Paul-UK]

This is my first time using this forum, so apoligies if I have not posted it correctly. I have a Vodafone 3gb pebble modem, it's my third one now, the first being the card type, which I hated due to poor signal coverage. The second being the modem that looks a bit like a bar of soap. I recently changed to the pebble modem as I was at the point where I could upgrade to recieve a free modem also to take advantage of the 3gb for £15.00. I was sick of spending £45.00 plus vat for 1gb, although some months I was using lots more, but was never charged extra. I suppose the months I only used a few megs made up for other months higher usage.

My question, well first I know if I exceed 3GB, (3072 MB) that I will be charged £15 per GB.
However what would the charge be for exceeding by less than 1GB .

If I were to use say. 3½ GB. Would I be charged any more than the £15.00 basic rental
If so would I be charged, £7.50 or the whole £15.
What if I used say 3100 mb. 28mb's over the 3gb. Would I have to pay any extra, if so would vodafone charge me £15 for exceeding, or would it be 0.014p. Per mb over.

Thanks

[gembo2609]

Hi Paul,

It's great to hear you’ve signed up to our new data price plan; it's a fantastic offer at £15 for 3GB.

As you rightly said if you go over the 3GB limit you’re then charged at £15 per GB. This charge is for anything up to a GB and is not calculated pro rata. So in your example if you used 3.5 GB you’d be charged £30.

If you’d like more information on our data plans please visit the Vodafone mobile broadband section of our website here.

I hope this answers your question. (All charges Inc Vat.)

Happy Browsing!

Gembo
Vodafone UK

[kontraband]

blah, its still being wayyy over charged for data in this day and age... £15 for 3GB... pfft. Carriers!

[Paul-UK]

Originally Posted by Paul-UK

This is my first time using this forum, so apoligies if I have not posted it correctly. I have a Vodafone 3gb pebble modem, it's my third one now, the first being the card type, which I hated due to poor signal coverage. The second being the modem that looks a bit like a bar of soap. I recently changed to the pebble modem as I was at the point where I could upgrade to recieve a free modem also to take advantage of the 3gb for £15.00. I was sick of spending £45.00 plus vat for 1gb, although some months I was using lots more, but was never charged extra. I suppose the months I only used a few megs made up for other months higher usage.

My question, well first I know if I exceed 3GB, (3072 MB) that I will be charged £15 per GB.
However what would the charge be for exceeding by less than 1GB .

If I were to use say. 3½ GB. Would I be charged any more than the £15.00 basic rental
If so would I be charged, £7.50 or the whole £15.
What if I used say 3100 mb. 28mb's over the 3gb. Would I have to pay any extra, if so would vodafone charge me £15 for exceeding, or would it be 0.014p. Per mb over.

Thanks

Thanks for the reply Gembo. But I hope that vodafone does allow slight overshoots of 3gb before charging the additional £15.00, for example if I ever overshot by just a few mb's. I would hate to have to pay £15 extra if I ever went over 3072mb by just a few mb's. I have set my pebble software to warn me when it reaches 3072mb. Also to notify me before it reaches. However if I was surfing away and suddenly it tells me I am now up to my limit, obviously its then down to me if I log off for the rest of that month, but by the time I have logged off, a mb or two could of added to the 3072mb. And I would be really P***** if I had to then pay £15 extra.

[Paul-UK]

Originally Posted by kontraband

blah, its still being wayyy over charged for data in this day and age... £15 for 3GB... pfft. Carriers!

It is expensive in one respect considering I only pay £10 a month for my broadband at home (AOL), it's UNLIMITED no fare use policy and speed up to 8megs. But at least it gives me internet almost anywhere and hotspots are much more expensive. It's also a pity, that vodafone do not do a pay as you use package. I wanted my older data modem put on a pay as u use package, that can be topped up. Simular to that of 3. All they could do was set it so it's charged at £9.99 for 500mb in a 24 hour period, payable by direct debit. If they had a package that allowed top up. And priced it, fairly and not more expensive that contract then I would of given my old modem to me niece for her laptop. She's not old enough for a contract. It would of been ideal for her. She was happy to pay £5 to add a GB to it.

[techgirl]

Originally Posted by Paul-UK

Thanks for the reply Gembo. But I hope that vodafone does allow slight overshoots of 3gb before charging the additional £15.00, for example if I ever overshot by just a few mb's. I would hate to have to pay £15 extra if I ever went over 3072mb by just a few mb's. I have set my pebble software to warn me when it reaches 3072mb. Also to notify me before it reaches. However if I was surfing away and suddenly it tells me I am now up to my limit, obviously its then down to me if I log off for the rest of that month, but by the time I have logged off, a mb or two could of added to the 3072mb. And I would be really P***** if I had to then pay £15 extra.

Hi,

Unfortunately there has to be a cut of point so if you were to go over the 3GB, even by the smallest amount you would be charged.

It's good to hear you've set your usage alerts so you'll be aware of the data you have used, this would be the only advice I could give you to monitor your usage.

Any further questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Techgirl
Vodafone UK

hi ive just recieved my new laptop with usb moble broadband but am so confused about how much time i can spend online and how long 3gb will last a month
ive set my limit to 2500 for 3g and gprs as told to by vodafone but if i go on volume based to see how much ive used ive used 60hrs out of 80hrs in 2 days ????
but volume based i havent even nearly reached 1 gb so what on earth do i do go on volume or time and how can both be soooo different ????