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Cellular Phone Forum / Country Specific / UK Group / April 2007Vodafone data charging
From 1st June Vodafone are changing the way they charge for data. Reading between the lines web access will plateau at £1 per day for up to 15MB, but other IP access will cost £2 per MB (down from £2.35 now). My contract (which still has another 11 or 12 months to run) currently includes £30 of data/SMS, which is 250 text messages (at 12p each) interchangeable with data at £2.35 per MB. If I continue the same usage (~10 MB per month, and a handful of text messages) my bill will increase from £25 per month to at least £45 per month, but with each data session now to cost 5p, it would probably go higher as my phone checks for new e-mail, which would normally only send a few bytes. Given this is a detrimental change to the consumer, does anyone have any experience of how Vodafone handles this? I will contact them in a few days - experience has taught me the operators do not always know about new changes as soon as they appear, and trying to explain the difference between ssh and http protocols, so as to ask if they are charged differently might be hard! Cheers, Mark. Oh, this is the link to the info: www.vodafone.co.uk/dataprices > From 1st June Vodafone are changing the way they charge for data. Reading > between the lines web access will plateau at £1 per day for up to 15MB, [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Mark. I rang them the day I got the SMS and the guys at the call centre knew just about as much as the website still says. In fact I got the impression that the guy I was talking to was reading directly from the website to me. They've stated that there will be monthly data bundles but no other details, although with a 30 day cancellation policy, you'd hope they'ed be published before 1st May so that we all have time to sign up with Web'n'Walk..... > They've stated that there will be monthly data bundles but no other details, > although with a 30 day cancellation policy, you'd hope they'ed be published > before 1st May so that we all have time to sign up with Web'n'Walk..... Does Web'n'Walk allow peer-to-peer services (by this I mean ssh from my putty client to a linux box)? VF will excluded peer-to-peer communications, which, by my reading will exclude ssh, pop, imap, smtp etc, as these all go peer to peer and not via an http proxy. I think they may have shot themselves in the foot here, as if the competition are offering a lot more, why will people stay? Mark. > Does Web'n'Walk allow peer-to-peer services (by this I mean ssh from my > putty client to a linux box)? It certainly does, I use it all the time and on a non-standard port too. Steve. >> They've stated that there will be monthly data bundles but no other >> details, although with a 30 day cancellation policy, you'd hope [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > communications, which, by my reading will exclude ssh, pop, imap, smtp > etc, as these all go peer to peer and not via an http proxy. Peer to peer services tend to mean p2p sharing - certainly in my experience in a network admin role. I've no idea if mobile networks take a different stand on it. Most capped cost/all-you-can-eat/unlimited data bundles exclude p2p (sharing) as these usually are high bandwidth applications. I'm on T-Mobile W'n'W and certainly web and mail from my device is explicitly covered in the unlimited bundle (with things like video streaming, p2p sharing, instant messaging explicitly excluded). It is possible they take the same stand as you - I don't know. D > Peer to peer services tend to mean p2p sharing - certainly in my > experience in a network admin role. I've no idea if mobile networks > take a different stand on it. Well they have traditionally had a different understanding of 'internet access' to the rest of us, confusing it with 'web access', so maybe I need to make some more enquiries. Interestingly, I've just calculated what last month's bill would have been under the new charging scheme, assuming a 5p minimum charge per data session and capping at £1 a day (though knowing VF ssh/putty traffic would be treated as the most expensive as they would have no way of knowing if it was web/voip/file sharing etc so would would have to assume it was the most expensive). Normally I'd pay £25 a month and rarely go over my data/sms limit, but I reckon for the same usage it would now cost £49.51 with no added benefits for me. That is an hefty change. I shall make some enquiries to Trading Standards next week to see what the law says. Mark. >> Peer to peer services tend to mean p2p sharing - certainly in my >> experience in a network admin role. I've no idea if mobile networks take [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Mark. If price changes are detrimental in that the increase is more than inflation you should be able to cancel your contract. >>> Peer to peer services tend to mean p2p sharing - certainly in my >>> experience in a network admin role. I've no idea if mobile networks [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > If price changes are detrimental in that the increase is more than > inflation you should be able to cancel your contract. But only if the price changes are in the contractual part - ie. the monthly line rental/free minutes/free texts etc. If data is included in that price, and now it won't be - then you'll have a good case. If it's not included (ie. is an optional bundle which has increased in price) then you'll be allowed to cancel the bundle - which you're normally allowed to do anyway. Networks are very hot on doing things in a way which doesn't trigger these get-out clauses. Often they'll say it's for new customers and upgrades only (ie. when you take out a new minimum term). Alternatively, which is what Orange did in these cases, they give a bundle or something for free for the remainder of the minimum term which matches the original deal. Therefore the person doesn't pay any more, but will at the end of their contract - and so do all new customers. I'd be surprised if Vodafone weren't aware of this and had already thought of some solutions to stopping people from canceling. D > I'd be surprised if Vodafone weren't aware of this and had already > thought of some solutions to stopping people from canceling. I've sent a message off to VF pointing out by how much my bill will go up if I continue my current usage, and to ask about cancellation options even though I'm only 7 or so months into an 18 month contract. I had a reply not long after - they are sorry I'm not happy with their price changes and they've passed my message on to a 'Data Specialist' for further consideration. Mark. >>> I shall make some enquiries to Trading Standards next week to see what the >>> law says. [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > (ie. is an optional bundle which has increased in price) then you'll be > allowed to cancel the bundle - which you're normally allowed to do anyway. VF have now indicated that the extras pack, as it was offered 'free', does not form part of the contract so they can effectively remove it, or alter it as long as they give a month's notice. Given that I agreed to an 18 month contract on the basis that I would pay 25GBP per month in exchange for 200 STC minutes and 30GBP of data/SMS usage, I fail to understand how the data provision does not fall within the remit of the contract that we both agreed on. Had it not been there I wouldn't have agreed to staying with VF. Mark. > VF have now indicated that the extras pack, as it was offered 'free', > does not form part of the contract so they can effectively remove it, > or alter it as long as they give a month's notice. IANAL but I did not think that such 'weaseling' was allowed. That if you pay £N and get X and Y, then your rights etc are the same whether the seller says that you are buying both or whether they claim that you are buying X and getting Y free. >> From 1st June Vodafone are changing the way they charge for data. Reading <snipped> So, yesterday in the Vodafone stores, they're saying that they will be offering a package for £7per month to rival T-Mobile but there are no confirmed or published details yet. Other than Web'n'Walk, I thought I'd test the other operators. O2: £3 per megabyte unless you want a blackberry pearl in which case you can have unlimited access for £10 per month. Orange: Does Orange World which is £4 for 4Mb or £8 for 10Mb or £16 for 25Mb Neither of these seems a particularly good bargain. Exactly how do these guys think they'll pesuade people to use mobile data and recoup some of the money they spent on licenses if it's prohibitively expensive to use. Am I missing something here? Jeremy. >O2: £3 per megabyte unless you want a blackberry pearl in which case you >can have unlimited access for £10 per month. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >guys think they'll pesuade people to use mobile data and recoup some of the >money they spent on licenses if it's prohibitively expensive to use. I have the £4 bundle on my Orange ED50 phone, which I find works nicely for occasional use (and includes ssh traffic :) which would be £3/MB if I had no bundle. For the times I need to hammer it, there's the Orange PAYG SIM. I find this combination gives me a pretty reasonable deal without having to pay for loads of data if I don't need it, but the flexibility to get good data rates when I do need it. Of course if I needed to hammer it every day I'd get a WnW Plus (or whatever they call it) connection for data usage. Currently though, that's more expensive than my current setup for my needs.  Signature-- Michael "Soruk" McConnell Eridani Star System MailStripper - http://www.MailStripper.eu/ - SMTP spam filter Mail Me Anywhere - http://www.MailMeAnywhere.com/ - Mobile email Second Number - http://secondnumber.matrixnetwork.co.uk/ |
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