smart phones on vodafone, have to be a millionaire?

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#302879 28-Feb-2010 08:24

Actually I was going to make a separate post for this but this seems like a reasonable place to put these comments.

Up till about 2 months ago I had a SE P1I and used it for data mainly for mail and occasional surfing. I got a Nexus One when I was in the US and use it regularly. I am on a plan which is the basic 100MB/$10.

With judicious use (only sync mail and contacts), email, maps and some browsing, and using wifi when I can around (Wellington) and at home and at work, I have not exceeded 100MB yet. I do use a app called Net counter to let me know how my usage is tracking. One thing I did turn off immediately was syncing Picasa photos - just couldn't see a reason for doing that.

Now granted our data plans are not that flash compared with say ATT's plan in the US which is unlimited data for US$15/month so there is room for improvement and I wouldn't mind seeing a drop in data charges as the OP noted.

As a point of comparison I have been using Cafenet around Wellington for years. I found my data had dropped below a certain level and was going to top up and then saw that for 70MB it's $20 and for 350MB it's $80. Certainly most times it's faster than cellular data but given the modest investment in infrastructure, that seems out of line. I think I won't top up and just use mobile data instead.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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#302886 28-Feb-2010 08:44

There is NO such thing as unlimited mobile data I wish people would stop saying the US do unlimited data for XX amount of dollars. Read the T&Cs of what unlimited is.

VFNZPaulBrislen

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#302889 28-Feb-2010 09:01

Data prices in NZ have dropped dramatically over the past year, with the introduction of Prepay mobile data. Prices are down roughly 90% which isn't too shabby, considering everything else (power, water, petrol, rates, food, clothing, books) is going up.

Our latest price drop was in November/December and we dropped the price of 512MB by 33%.

Cheers

Paul

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#302892 28-Feb-2010 09:14

johnr: There is NO such thing as unlimited mobile data I wish people would stop saying the US do unlimited data for XX amount of dollars. Read the T&Cs of what unlimited is.

Correct. Most "unlimited" plans in the U.S. and Asia are limited at 5GB or 3GB. Still, 5GB on a mobile handset is HUGE.

Vodafone UK offers "unlimited" 500MB for email and web on all contract plans by default. This used to be a £7.50 add-on which is no longer charged.

Obviously you and I will agree "500MB" is not "unlimited" but Vodafone UK is applying a fair use policy. Unlike New Zealand operators offerings you won't be charged an extra block automatically if you go over 500MB. But if you go too many times over the 500MB then they will ask you to go on a data plan.

This would be nice to have here in New Zealand.

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#302893 28-Feb-2010 09:18

I'm with the Commerce Commission on this issue: unlimited that isn't unlimited shouldn't be called unlimited. Something that clearly had a limit should be called what it is.

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Paul

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juha

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#302894 28-Feb-2010 09:23

And I'm with Paul. Nobody else is allowed to repurpose the English language so that "unlimited" means "limited, but shush, let's pretend it isn't because it makes the ads look better", so why should telcos get away with it?

Juha

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#302907 28-Feb-2010 09:46

johnr: There is NO such thing as unlimited mobile data I wish people would stop saying the US do unlimited data for XX amount of dollars. Read the T&Cs of what unlimited is.

Well for AT&T's Data Unlimited I have read the T&C's and there's nothing there about there being a cap

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms.jsp

Of course there is a big clause about not being able to tether the phone and using it to view television redirected from home (say using a Slingbox) and the tethering might annoy some folks which might get around it and violate the T&C's.

But say $30(US) for their messaging and data unlimited plan would also be quite good.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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harrylin

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#302915 28-Feb-2010 10:11

The way they market the mobile data and the way they set its price are wrong. Tnz and voda keep on upgrading their network by investing lots o money. So yes, they have upgraded their network to hspa+, which is one of the fastest speed available, and only a few countries have done that, at 21mb per second. So now, the problem is, who are gonna use all of these high Speed data if the price is too high because of huge investment??? Now, let me give you a example, it's japan. Japanese NTT Docomo invented wcdma. But their network speed is only at 7.2mb max download, upload max is 368k. But their price is 50 USD for unlimited data. What they have done is that they limited te network speed to 7.2mbps for people to enjoy unlimited 3g data and they increase the capacity of the netwrk. In NZ, tnz and voda keep on increase the download speed and forget about the fact that most people just can't afford to pay for the high price for using the mobile data service. So why they upgrade to the latest technology is beyond my knowledge. Maybe tnz and voda just follow their Aussie counterparts?? If the price is lower, nobody here will care about the speed!!!!!! As long as I can get 1mb download per second and pay 50 for unlimited data, I'm very very happy!! I don't need to get 4mbps speed and pay 60 for 1 gig of data.. If japan hasn't upgraded to hspa+ , why should NZ do that?? I want affordability instead of sheer speed! So change your marketing plans and set your prices lower and forget about upgrading the speed of network, it's meaningless.

Kilack

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#302919 28-Feb-2010 10:23

lchiu7:
johnr: There is NO such thing as unlimited mobile data I wish people would stop saying the US do unlimited data for XX amount of dollars. Read the T&Cs of what unlimited is.

Well for AT&T's Data Unlimited I have read the T&C's and there's nothing there about there being a cap

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms.jsp

Of course there is a big clause about not being able to tether the phone and using it to view television redirected from home (say using a Slingbox) and the tethering might annoy some folks which might get around it and violate the T&C's.

But say $30(US) for their messaging and data unlimited plan would also be quite good.

They also have a $60 unlimited plan that allows tethering.

also $20 for 5 gigs.. nice :)

those are all with at&t..

Good summary here of packages in the states and what you really get with the unlimited plans..
http://gigaom.com/2008/09/03/where-to-get-the-cheapest-mobile-data-plans/

but it does seem that at&t's unlimited plans are unlimited...

harrylin

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#302920 28-Feb-2010 10:25

So if tnz or voda give me 20 or 40gig of mobile data, I will use them all on my iPhone in a month. I don't use much now simply because I can't afford to pay. If you give me 50gig I will use 50gig. If you only give me 1gig, I won't use more than 1gig. Very simple. If you give me 100 gig I will use 100 gig. It's as simple as that. So their ideology of tnz and voda is wrong. Lol. All of their excuses doesn't work for me.

VFNZPaulBrislen

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#302922 28-Feb-2010 10:37

Mobile companies in NZ have to face an issue that mobile companies in the US do not - international data travelling on someone else's network.

AT&T customers typically download US-based content. NZ customers also typically download US-based content. The difference is the NZ carriers pay per MB for that data while the US carriers do not (local peering).

The cost to us is massive compared to the same data being served to US-based customers. Unfortunately you're unlikely to see a 40GB mobile data plan in NZ in the foreseeable future.

Never say never but I'd have to say at this point in time it's highly unlikely.

Paul

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freitasm

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#302925 28-Feb-2010 10:49

PaulBrislen: Mobile companies in NZ have to face an issue that mobile companies in the US do not - international data travelling on someone else's network.

AT&T customers typically download US-based content. NZ customers also typically download US-based content. The difference is the NZ carriers pay per MB for that data while the US carriers do not (local peering).

The cost to us is massive compared to the same data being served to US-based customers. Unfortunately you're unlikely to see a 40GB mobile data plan in NZ in the foreseeable future.

Never say never but I'd have to say at this point in time it's highly unlikely.

Paul

TelstraClear used to meter national traffic at 10%... They stopped it when they decided to remove peering. Orcon offers a (limited) free national traffic to some New Zealand-based websites. Would Vodafone be prepared to create a similar offer (for both fixed and mobile broadbands)?

I would like to have Geekzone added to such a list. We already have peering in AKL anyway.

Harrylin, your comments just show why no telco in the world would give "unlimited" on mobile broaband - or any other service for that matter. 50GB on a mobile device? Are you dreaming? What can you use that for? It's mobile, it's not fixed. Unless it's a solution where fixed is not available, in which case I think mobile operators should launch a product that costs the same as fixed, but limited to only those places where fixed is non-existent - and even so it shouldn't be necessarily cheaper.

harrylin

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#302926 28-Feb-2010 10:56

Why does china telecom has enough capacity to offer 160 million Chinese citizens unlimited broadband access for 70 dollars (15 nz dollars), but why tnz or tcl or voda doesnt have enough capacity to offer 4 million nz people unlimited broadband access?? Most of my mates in china download about 4 to 6 gig a day from their broadband, because everybody there does live tv streaming and movie streaming for the whole day.

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#302930 28-Feb-2010 11:06

harrylin: Why does china telecom has enough capacity to offer 160 million Chinese citizens unlimited broadband access for 70 dollars (15 nz dollars), but why tnz or tcl or voda doesnt have enough capacity to offer 4 million nz people unlimited broadband access?? Most of my mates in china download about 4 to 6 gig a day from their broadband, because everybody there does live tv streaming and movie streaming for the whole day.

Think about it... How much content Americans get from overseas? Not much. How much content Chinese get from overseas? Not much. How much content New Zealanders get from overseas? A lot.

It just costs more here. However telcos should be working with content providers to offer options. For example Google offers to colocate caches for their content services. In return they get free peering bandwidth (or did you think Google is good all the time?).

People talking about "unlimited" Internet should really examine all aspects of the problem, not only the "other countries off unlimited, we don't have it here".

VFNZPaulBrislen

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#302937 28-Feb-2010 11:20

The problem with offering different rates for local versus international traffic is that most customers not only don't care where their data comes from but don't get the distinction between local/international and .co.nz/.com... So local compaines (with a .co.nz address) might not be hosted in NZ.

That makes it a very awkward conversation to have. "I'm sorry Mr Customer but that website is hosted in LA not NZ therefore it's a different rate".

Paul Brislen
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