Well, as long as you're a pre-pay (pay as you go) user anyway. The info doesn't seem to have made it onto Vodafone's web site yet, but as from 1st June, pre-pay users in the UK will be charged £2/MB for mobile data rather than the current £7.30/MB. It's not exactly flat rate, but it's a step in the right direction for those of us that don't want to go on contract.
Read on in the full article.
Wow, Vodafone users must be rejoicing at this news - �2/MB? What a joke.
Data charges across the board are a disgrace and are the biggest reason why internet based mobile content are failing.
I can't believe the exorbitant prices being charged in Britain. Here in Pakistan Telenor's EDGE and all other cellular operators' data is charged at Rs.19/MB. That's around 15 pence.
�2 is still way too much. Here in Finland we've had charges of �1 a megabyte or less for the past few years. Flat rate unlimited uncapped data packages can be as little as �7 a month.
What's even more laughable is when UK operators call a flat rate package "unlimited" and then say there's a limit on how much data you can use.
Clearly the phone network market is broken in Britain, the incumbents are able to outrageously fleece their customers with ease. The chief reasons for that are locked phones and long term contracts, and phone-locking at least ought to be banned.
It seems there is a huge variation in charges within europe. Let's face it the operators will always charge as much as they think they can get away with.
The UK consumers always consider themselves hard done by with excessive charges but many oher places would love to pay UK rates.
Here in spain data charges are astonomical - Vodafone spain charge a whopping EUR 23.20 per MB - thats around �15!!!
Heck we still have a connection charge for every call we make and no subsidised handsets.....
UK prices are hard for me to understand. I am currently working through a 3G connection in Finland and just did a 7MB download without even thinking of it. I am paying 10�/MB (bundled with a 2 year contract). If my phone supported it, I could even be using HSDPA for the same price. The operators ought to be careful, if users get pissed off, they will more readily move to WIMAX and the likes...
"Let's face it the operators will always charge as much as they think they can get away with. "
That's the point, we need the regulators to step in and make anti-competitive practices (such as locking phones) illegal.
The US is probably the most pro-capitalist place in the world, but even they stepped in when the Bell telephone company had too much control over landline networks and split it up so that the market would remain competitive.
Some people think being pro-competition is the same as being pro-business, but it isn't, they can be completely opposite things. Competition is (generally) good for the consumer, and if businesses try to use their large market share to stop competition then the government has to intervene.
here in germany i pay only 10� for 200mb and every following mb costs 50 cent.
hahaha, hate me 😎
"I am paying 10�/MB (bundled with a 2 year contract)."
Sorry for the mistake, I meant to say 10�/month for unlimited data transfer!!
In Mexico with telcel (dominating operator with 80% market share) we pay 0.12MXP/KB (yes here we measure still in KB), that means �5.44/MB or 10.89USD/MB.
Flat rate EDGE/GPRS costs �41 or 82USD per month.
the main GSM competition Movistar (15% market share) and the smaller operator Iusacell (CDMA/EVDO 5%) has similar rates, but IUSACELL has higer speeds.
By November this year numeric portability will be implemented, I expect(or should i say hope) this will get better conditions for consumer.
after all, the main shareholder of telcel is now the worlds second richest man, Carlos Slim.
Interesting comments, but I think some of you have partly missed the significance of the news - this is all specifically about pre-pay (pay as you go) customers, who for the first time (on any UK network?) have a data rate that's just about acceptable (as opposed to horrific)....
Many people, like me, prefer to go down the pre-pay route as it means we can have several SIM cards for testing in several devices at once. Oh, OK, so I'm not your typical user, but..... 8-)
Steve
"this is all specifically about pre-pay (pay as you go) customers, who for the first time (on any UK network?) have a data rate that's just about acceptable"
Not quite: Orange has had unlimited PAYG Internet access at GBP1/day for some time.
OK, it's not really "unlimited" (but then what is?), and if you use it every day it's GBP30 a month, but that's still cheaper than Vodafone.
R