Wifi in New Zealand could mean flat rate 3G data prices on Vodafone

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Wifi in New Zealand could mean flat rate 3G data prices on Vodafone

abc123456

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#16020 20-Sep-2007 15:41

well wifi in new zealand is about to take off big time.lets talk about it.

the kordia wifi in auckland is great.but the coverage is too small. if you go to their website and look at their coverage map for kroad,it only covers about one quarter of kroad. and they are keeping their broadband speed a secret.
i think they may speed limit you because on their website it says it costs $9.95 for twenty four hours use with no cap. so with a standard broadband plan you will be able to download much more than one gigabyte in a day right? if you look at their other plan which costs $14.95,it says it has only a small one hundred megabyte cap.

but are public wifi hotspots going to be sucessful? certainly with the ipod touch being available in new zealand now,will make wifi hotspots more popular because the ipod touch has inbuilt wifi and a web browser.

the youth of new zealand will be using wifi with their new ipod touch now and will not be using their vodafone mobile phone wap browser anymore because it is small,cannot display html webpages correctly and also because vodafone new zealand data plans are absolutely overpriced and i am sure vodafone and telecom will be worrying now that the ipod touch is out.
vodafone cannot do anything to lockout the ipod touch because it is not a phone. vodafone may be able to block the iphone wifi feature but it can't block the ipod touch wifi, and the iphone is probably a year away and most people will have an ipod touch by then.

there is an integrated firmware solution called tomizone which is being installed on all new dlink routers which lets users share their wifi connection and charge for it without any additional hardware. all you need is your home dlink router. now the average person can create their own wifi hotspots and charge for it,so why would you need kordia then.

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#87396 20-Sep-2007 16:50

Hi. Not sure who you are - welcome to Geekzone.

I think you'll find the Vodafone data prices are not "overpriced" at all and are, in fact, the cheapest mobile data prices in the world.

From our website you'll find you can buy 1GB of data for $49.95/month or 3GB from $79.95/month. Add another $10/month and you can double your capacity, so for $89.95/month you get 6GB of data on the 3G mobile network.

Nobody else comes close to that. In Australia it would cost thousands of dollars to buy 6GB of data on the mobile network.

Hope that helps your understanding

Cheers

Paul

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

sbiddle

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#87400 20-Sep-2007 17:20

While I do appreciate we have some of the cheapest mobile data pricing in the world Paul the problem is it's all monthy subscription based and of absolutely no use for a casual person who wants to be able to use casual data without committing to a monthly plan. This aspect of WiFi makes it far superior to what either Vodafone or Telecom can offer. TomiZone can offer me 1hr of casual data usage for $1 - I've yet to see Vodafone offer anything close.

bonkiebonks

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#87401 20-Sep-2007 17:23

I totally agree. Why can't we buy data in blocks, or as add-on like TXT2000, or BestMate?

sbiddle

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#87402 20-Sep-2007 17:27

abc123456:

there is an integrated firmware solution called tomizone which is being installed on all new dlink routers which lets users share their wifi connection and charge for it without any additional hardware. all you need is your home dlink router. now the average person can create their own wifi hotspots and charge for it,so why would you need kordia then.

It's not being installed on new routers by default, it's available to install if you want it.

So why do we need Kordia? You yourself have just answered that question in your post. Lots of people sharing their own broadband connection with a wireless router isn't going to create large coverage areas. Kordia are planning on rolling out large scale coverage areas around our major cities and letting other WiFi providers such as TomiZone jump onboard.

I use WiFi a lot and have a great interest in the WiFi hotspot market however I disagree with the basis of your post that WiFi hotspots will be succesful. The business model being adopted in NZ IMHO is very much untested in market like NZ which has a much smaller population base compared to cities such as London.

VFNZPaulBrislen

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#87405 20-Sep-2007 17:50

sbiddle:
While I do appreciate we have some of the cheapest mobile data pricing in the world Paul the problem is it's all monthy subscription based and of absolutely no use for a casual person who wants to be able to use casual data without committing to a monthly plan. This aspect of WiFi makes it far superior to what either Vodafone or Telecom can offer. TomiZone can offer me 1hr of casual data usage for $1 - I've yet to see Vodafone offer anything close.

Hi there,

Absolutely, on that point I agree... but the original poster simply said Vodafone charged too much and I disagree with that. We've gone down the "subscribe and we'll give you more" path, primarily because of the cost of providing mobile data. That's not to say that's the only way of course.

Cheers

Paul

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Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

tonyhughes

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#87409 20-Sep-2007 17:59

PaulBrislen: the original poster simply said Vodafone charged too much and I disagree with that. We've gone down the "subscribe and we'll give you more" path, primarily because of the cost of providing mobile data. That's not to say that's the only way of course.

Good answer. I firmly believe that mobile data is very affordable for people who are using a relatively significant amount on a regular basis. Its just the casual use that really looks expensive (on both networks).

CrispinMullins

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#87412 20-Sep-2007 18:14

PaulBrislen: I think you'll find the Vodafone data prices are not "overpriced" at all and are, in fact, the cheapest mobile data prices in the world. From our website you'll find you can buy 1GB of data for $49.95/month or 3GB from $79.95/month. Add another $10/month and you can double your capacity, so for $89.95/month you get 6GB of data on the 3G mobile network. Nobody else comes close to that.

Are you not aware of Germany's BASE, which offers an all-you-can-eat GPRS, UMTS, and HSPDA plan for €25.00 a month over 24 months and includes a free Expresscard or Vodem-style device?

There are also a variety of "close to that" offerings around the world, such as Vodafone UK's 3GB for GBP25.00 plan, which at the current exchange price of NZ$68.12 is cheaper than Vodafone NZ for users who want 3GB of data.

(And just look at the new iPhone plans in the United States and the UK - plans which include unlimited data and a varying number of minutes for US$59.95 on AT&T or GBP35.00 on o2, even if it is only EDGE and is limited to data on the iPhone itself.)

Paul, your statements may have been true when Vodafone NZ introduced these plans, but they are certainly not now. Vodafone NZ may be reasonable, affordable, whatever -- but it is not the cheapest in the world.

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#87417 20-Sep-2007 18:33

For 6GB of traffic I think you'll be hard pressed to find any operator offering a price that comes near ours. I have looked and haven't seen one.

If you find one do let me know, I'll have to tell the marketing boys.

10GB/month, here we come.

Cheers

Paul

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

CrispinMullins

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#87419 20-Sep-2007 18:39

I just listed one -- BASE's unlimited data (which I am sure is limited by fair use, but my buddies use well over 10GB) for €25.00 a month, currently NZ$47.62.

nzbnw

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#87440 20-Sep-2007 19:56

CrispinMullins: I just listed one -- BASE's unlimited data (which I am sure is limited by fair use, but my buddies use well over 10GB) for €25.00 a month, currently NZ$47.62.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Check the T & C's, I'm sure you will find some limitations.

nzbnw

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#87442 20-Sep-2007 20:09

well, my German's pretty rusty but I think you need to buy a home phone first for another 25 Euro before you can get the UMTS at 25... is that right? Even so, E50 is pretty good but my Deutsche is not up to reading the T&C so I'll leave it to someone else to tell me what the AUP says. I can see something about GPRS but beyond that... it's all Dutch to me.

www.base.de

Anyone?

Cheers

Paul

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

CrispinMullins

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#87443 20-Sep-2007 20:15

nzbnw: There is no such thing as a free lunch. Check the T & C's, I'm sure you will find some limitations.

Other than the fact that the use of VOIP is expressly prohibited, nothing. I suppose BASE's customers potentially use less data on the move than NZ customers would, given that all-you-can-eat ADSL2 plans are available for as little as €25.00 a month in Germany. But mostly, this pricing will have been made possible by a) competition and b) user-pays customer support.

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#87444 20-Sep-2007 20:19

Or C) Location. Or D) Location of where the main bandwidth is coming from (locally).

Those 'all you can eat' mobile plans certainly do have limitations, its just a case of reading the fine print.

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#87445 20-Sep-2007 20:23

Check the fine print. We have a long discussion some months ago whre people were pointing to Singapore, Hong Kong and other places and in every single example the "unlimited" was actually limited by a Fair use Policy and in most cases it was set at 3GB.

I doubt you can find a truly unlimited plan.

This was disucssed so many times before that it's really getting tired.

CrispinMullins

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#87447 20-Sep-2007 20:38

PaulBrislen: well, my German's pretty rusty but I think you need to buy a home phone first for another 25 Euro before you can get the UMTS at 25... is that right? Even so, E50 is pretty good but my Deutsche is not up to reading the T&C so I'll leave it to someone else to tell me what the AUP says. I can see something about GPRS but beyond that... it's all Dutch to me. www.base.de Anyone?

The page outlining this plan is at http://www.base.de/101_internetflatrate.jsp, and the relevant fine print is in paragraph 6, which reads (my translation):

6 The BASE Internet Flatrate (the usage of which requires a UTMS or GPRS-capable device) applies only to packet data within the E-Plus UMTS and GPRS network. The usage of voice services (e.g. voicemail, voice information services) and video telephony is not possible. The usage of Voice Over IP is prohibited. One-off connection fee €25.00 (may be waived depending on current offers), monthly fee €25.00. Available only with a 24-month contract, which is automatically extended by 12 months if not cancelled 3 months before the end of contract period in question.

The actual T&Cs are at http://www.base.de/downloads/BASE_AGB_Preisliste_Leistungsbeschreibung_Internet-Flatrate.pdf; most of it is the standard stuff, but the important bit is paragraph A4, which reads (my translation):

Mit der "Base Internet Flatrate" sind alle Packet-Switched-UMTS/GPRS-Verbindungen innerhalb des E-
Plus Netzes über die in der nachstehenden Ziffer genannten Zugangspunkte (APNs) kostenfrei.

With the "Base Internet Flatrate", all packet-switched data transmitted via UMTS or GPRS
is free of charge within the E-Plus Network when sent via the access points (APNs) listed below.

This, obviously, suggests that they their flatrate customers must use a dedicated APN; other parts of the T&Cs mention that filesharing ports are rate limited and that VOIP of any kind is prohibited. But there is nothing about a data cap, nothing about fair usage, and the sentence I translated above explicitly says that all data sent through the APN provided is free of charge. There is also nothing about being required to have a voice plan or a home phone.

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