Vodafone changing SMS pricing for Prepay customers

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freitasm

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#6235 9-Jan-2006 16:31

Got the tip from someone and a confirmation from Vodafone: from 25 january 2006 Prepay customers will see an increase in the charges on SMS for international destinations.

According to Vodafone, the effect only applies to PrePay customers, due to different pricing strategies for PrePay and On Account customers.

The official word is "The effect only applies to PrePay customers since we have different pricing strategies for PrePay and On Account customers. In order to keep some of our core services at their current price it means we sometimes need to increase the price of other services - at this time, International TXT. It will still be free to receive international TXT messages. FREE TXT weekends is for National TXT messages only – ie. TXTs sent within NZ between 021 and 029 mobiles."

I agree that prices fluctuate, and if this means some other services can be kept at current levels or lowered, then that's an ok move.

We have to see how this unfold in terms of market. I think Vodafone wouldn't do this if international SMS ("Vodafone TXT" in their lingo) was a big chunk of their business.

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#25944 9-Jan-2006 16:50

It's interesting to see we have just gone back 10 years - originally BellSouth charged 30c for international SMS's vs the 20c for NZ.

freitasm

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#25946 9-Jan-2006 16:53

All Prepay customers should receive a SMS from today - if you receive one and your mobile is on a prepay SIM, this is not a hoax.

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#25949 9-Jan-2006 17:39

yeah i got the sms this afternoon, i'm indifferent about it i think

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#25953 9-Jan-2006 18:47

Vodafone have to be very very careful not to further piss off prepay customers. There are a good percentage of customer who would love to move to a plan but don't want to loose their number. They are just lucky Telecom's international SMS is still a dog and pretty much 1 way only to lots of networks or 2 way with a reply path.

There are going to have to be some pretty significant changes to Vodafone's plans over the next year anyway with portability coming into effect. Vodafone's decision to split their pricing and offer cheaper pricing for the likes of Motormouth will backfire big time once you can have a Telecom 021 phone in a little over a year! It will also cause an interesting scenario for other plans where they refer to cheap calls on the "Vodafone Network" - somebody could be calling an 027 number and be going to Vodafone, which is going to cause serious confusion for customers. Good on ya Vodafone!

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#25955 9-Jan-2006 19:24

In other countrys you get advised when call is going off net.

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#25957 9-Jan-2006 19:40

But Vodafone's terms and conditions on some plans specifically mention 021/029 and not only calls to Vodafone mobiles. This would mean any calls to an 021 Telecom number would have to be charged at the cheaper rate. Motormouth mentions VF to VF only in the fine print despite say "calls to 021/029" in the main text. SMS's are also listed as being to 021/029 with no mention of them only being to VF 021/029

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#25958 9-Jan-2006 19:45

Teresa should write a thank you letter to Russell.

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#25959 9-Jan-2006 19:47

Both Telecom and Vodafone will change the T&Cs

Its not that hard to figure out look whats going on around the world

sbiddle

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#25961 9-Jan-2006 20:14

But if I sign up on a 24 months You Choose contract today with the 1000 SMS addon I have a signed contract giving me 1000 SMS's per month to 021/029 mobiles - there is no mention anywhere that these SMS's are only to VF network phones. Vodafone changing their T&C's in a years time 1/2 way through a contract just because somebody screwed up is pretty lame reason for changing and would also probably be in breach of the contracts act.

Grantis

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#25964 9-Jan-2006 21:01

freitasm: Got the tip from someone and a confirmation from Vodafone: from 25 january 2006 Prepay customers will see an increase in the charges on SMS for international destinations.

According to Vodafone, the effect only applies to PrePay customers, due to different pricing strategies for PrePay and On Account customers.

The official word is "The effect only applies to PrePay customers since we have different pricing strategies for PrePay and On Account customers. In order to keep some of our core services at their current price it means we sometimes need to increase the price of other services - at this time, International TXT. It will still be free to receive international TXT messages. FREE TXT weekends is for National TXT messages only – ie. TXTs sent within NZ between 021 and 029 mobiles."

I agree that prices fluctuate, and if this means some other services can be kept at current levels or lowered, then that's an ok move.

We have to see how this unfold in terms of market. I think Vodafone wouldn't do this if international SMS ("Vodafone TXT" in their lingo) was a big chunk of their business.

Do you have any "Official Release" about this from Vodafone, or any other official source? Otherwise it's hard to believe.

I'm on account myself, so this doesn't effect me at all & I personally hardly ever send International Text, needless to say, I'm curious of your source.

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#25965 9-Jan-2006 21:16

The 30c for international SMS is listed on the Vodafone website as of this afternoon and I've also received an SMS on my prepay SIM.

freitasm

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#25967 9-Jan-2006 21:23

Grantis: Do you have any "Official Release" about this from Vodafone, or any other official source? Otherwise it's hard to believe.

Users on prepay are receiving this message. When I was alerted about this I contacted Vodafone and got their version of the story.

As sbiddle says it's now on Vodafone:

Grantis: needless to say, I'm curious of your source.

It's a person in the Vodafone PR team. I asked them about this, before posting this here. I am curious to know why would you doubt my post - after all I am probably the only person here with an identity - everyone else is pretty much anonymous.

By the way, interesting signature yours: If it wasn't for Vodafone, just imagine what Telecom would charge for mobile phone use... In context now.

Grantis

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#25971 9-Jan-2006 21:37

freitasm:
Grantis: Do you have any "Official Release" about this from Vodafone, or any other official source? Otherwise it's hard to believe.
Users on prepay are receiving this message. When I was alerted about this I contacted Vodafone and got their version of the story.

As sbiddle says it's now on Vodafone:

Grantis: needless to say, I'm curious of your source.
It's a person in the Vodafone PR team. I asked them about this, before posting this here. I am curious to know why would you doubt my post - after all I am probably the only person here with an identity - everyone else is pretty much anonymous.

By the way, interesting signature yours: If it wasn't for Vodafone, just imagine what Telecom would charge for mobile phone use... In context now.

Thanks for the information, I appreciate that. :-)

As for your comment about my signature, would you mind elaborating on that, as I'm not certain how to interpret what you are meaning.

Thanks in advance.

freitasm

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#25972 9-Jan-2006 21:41

Well, let's just say that the other way is also true: "If it wasn't for Telecom, just imagine what Vodafone would charge for mobile phone use".

Thinking about it, Telecom users don't have much luck with international SMS (either none, or reply path only).

So if one needs to use this feature, Vodafone is the way to go. And the prices just went up - seeing that they pretty much have monopoly on this type of communication and everything else would be hard to justify changing prices due to competition.

But this is OT now, so better get back on the original discussion.

Grantis

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#25974 9-Jan-2006 21:59

freitasm: Well, let's just say that the other way is also true: "If it wasn't for Telecom, just imagine what Vodafone would charge for mobile phone use".

Thinking about it, Telecom users don't have much luck with international SMS (either none, or reply path only).

So if one needs to use this feature, Vodafone is the way to go. And the prices just went up - seeing that they pretty much have monopoly on this type of communication and everything else would be hard to justify changing prices due to competition.

But this is OT now, so better get back on the original discussion.

Not wanting to go OT either, I feel I need to explain the reason behind my signature, as I feel it raises a few points.

I see your point, however Telecom is the imcumbent, not Vodafone. If Bell South or Vodafone never invested in New Zealand, then Telecom would still hold the monopoly & I would hate to imagine what we would be paying for Mobile services now, yet alone their hardware.

Vodafone aren't "God's Gift" to the mobile world, but they introduced "TRUE" competition into New Zealand, with their own extensive national network, which sadly, can't be said about New Zealand's fixed line/broadband services.

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