Vodafone's At Home pricing revealed early?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Vodafone's At Home pricing revealed early?

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#58085 16-Jan-2007 14:49

I've always been a bit put off by having a landline and broadband connection that I use very lightly... its nice that its there but really it isn't serving to its full capacity. Its really a waste in a way.
All my calls come in on my cellphone, go out on the phone.... I use "mobile broadband" when I'm out and use it when I get home too... heavy downloads are the only things that go on the broadband connection + automated backups.

Having discounted 'home areas' type plans would really suit me and probably drive up the amount of money that I spend on my VFNZ account...

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#58090 16-Jan-2007 15:17

juha: I think you'll find that discounted plans for calls to designated numbers will be used instead of a large-radius At Home.

Well exploiting the system is easy - it's that it will cost you $$ to save $. Hook you new AtHome SIM into a GSM->VOIP adapter, run it through an Asterisk box to another GSM adapter. Hook your normal mobile and the 2nd adapter up on BestMate and you'll get free incoming calls to your mobile from your landline anywhere in NZ. Ring your Asterisk box from your mobile and you'll get free local calling and cheap mobile calls.

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#58202 17-Jan-2007 23:32

I am totally against this if they make me mess around with 2 numbers. It should make it simpler to get hold of someone.

By all means use my minuites when I am out of my home area, but whatever you do dont tell callers that I am outside the area and make them mess around having to hang up and dial another number like they do at present.

While you are at it, give me a decent bundle or minuites. 300 is a pathetic offering.

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#58207 18-Jan-2007 06:41

IMHO the price Vodafone set the forwarding rate at (calls from your landline number to mobile when you are outside your HomeZone) is going to be the key to this product suceeding or failing. Set it too high you'll have people avoiding the service, set it too low and Vodafone are going to be losing precious termination revenue. It wouldn't surprise me if Vodafone set a capped rate for this and give people a choice of paying per min or for a capped rate.

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#58227 18-Jan-2007 10:02

sbiddle: IMHO the price Vodafone set the forwarding rate at (calls from your landline number to mobile when you are outside your HomeZone) is going to be the key to this product suceeding or failing. Set it too high you'll have people avoiding the service, set it too low and Vodafone are going to be losing precious termination revenue. It wouldn't surprise me if Vodafone set a capped rate for this and give people a choice of paying per min or for a capped rate.

I wouldnt be surprised if the rate matched, or was close to the incomming call rate of a causual 0800 number on your Vodafone. I have one and pay no monthly fee, and $0.39/min for incomming calls, which I find very reasonable. You can of course opt for a bundle of minutes per month, and then pay a lower per minute charge after that.

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#58240 18-Jan-2007 11:10

adamj:
I wouldnt be surprised if the rate matched, or was close to the incomming call rate of a causual 0800 number on your Vodafone. I have one and pay no monthly fee, and $0.39/min for incomming calls, which I find very reasonable. You can of course opt for a bundle of minutes per month, and then pay a lower per minute charge after that.

39c is way to high - that's more than many people already pay for home to mobile calls.

Whatever way it goes Vodafone are potentially going to take a hit in their termination revenues, something that have tried very hard to keep high since their business model (like all mobile operators in countries with CPP) revolves around these termination rates.

The big advantage of Vodafone offering their own local number is that the cost of the diversion is all theirs to keep so if it's set at 30c they get 30c. If the divert is from a Telecom landline than Vodafone only get 20c (or whatever the current rate is) and Telecom get to keep the rest. This potential loss of revenue for Telecom was one of the reasons they objected to Vodafone offering a local service.

I think the even bigger question is whether Telecom will follow. Not everybody is going to see it as a replacement for a landline however there will be obviously be people who ditch their Telecom line and go 100% Vodafone. Will Telecom match the offer which has the potential to seriously hurt their landline business even further or will they simply go down the convergence path while trying to maintain their revenue stream?

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#58243 18-Jan-2007 11:19

I will still keep my Telecom landline (For several reasons) but will also get a local number for my Vodafone. I assume that you need to be On Account for such a service so if Vodafone make a good BestMate offing to On Account customers (They should hurry up with that BTW) as well it could be a very good incentive to get some of those Prepay customers locked into a plan.

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#58260 18-Jan-2007 14:26

And when is this wonderful new service to be released ?

Vodafone seem to be very quiet about it...

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#58262 18-Jan-2007 14:33

xlinknz: And when is this wonderful new service to be released ?

Vodafone seem to be very quiet about it...

They have said on numerous occasions that it would be mid 2007 at the latest.

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#58263 18-Jan-2007 14:35

It makes no sense to release it now, 3 months away from number portability.

My bet is they release it at the same time you can take your telecom number over.

I may migrate my italk number if possible, so long as they have sorted it at the time so I can go on a plan and keep my prepay number as well.

Richard rich.ms

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#58266 18-Jan-2007 14:43

richms: It makes no sense to release it now, 3 months away from number portability.

My bet is they release it at the same time you can take your telecom number over.

I may migrate my italk number if possible, so long as they have sorted it at the time so I can go on a plan and keep my prepay number as well.

I hope I can port my Woosh number across, or at least have some sort of redirection until a new phone book comes out.

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#58270 18-Jan-2007 15:15

xlinknz: And when is this wonderful new service to be released ?
Vodafone seem to be very quiet about it...

April this year was what I was told officially, since that's when number portability kicks in. Never know with Voda though.

Juha

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#58271 18-Jan-2007 15:21

I hope they get some anonymous call rejection in place before offering it since I cant exactly put an asterisk box between my cellphone and the network to rid me of those calls.

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#58288 18-Jan-2007 17:55

richms: I hope they get some anonymous call rejection in place before offering it since I cant exactly put an asterisk box between my cellphone and the network to rid me of those calls.

Eww Anonymous call rejection is the spawn of Satan. There are dozens of perfectly good reasons why people have restricted numbers.

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#58292 18-Jan-2007 18:46

You may feel that way, but I like to be in control of who can and cannot disturb me. The lack of being able to screen calls like I am able to with asterisk like I can with italk is a major turnoff for a service like this for me.

The only problem I have is my sister at westpac lost caller id presentation when they did some "upgrade" to the phone system. And from her work calls it seems that rejecting anonymous calls on mobiles is almost a routine thing.

As far as I am concerned there is no justification for hiding your number ever, and people that do are generally marketeers or similar.

Richard rich.ms

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