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Vodafone UK and data: Setting the record straight

Every time I think of the money I’ve spunked using data on Vodafone UK, my heart races faster.

Throughout the weekend and early this week, I’ve been saying to myself, ‘What’s changed? Here we are, 2008 and I’m *still* being nailed for data on a per megabyte basis?’

Then I thought back to the chump-campaign we ran for SMS Text News (where I routinely referred to any o2 customer I met as a ‘chump’ for putting up with their per meg pricing). Per meg data pricing wasn’t an issue at this point last year as I was using both T-Mobile and 3 and enjoying their unlimited data policies.

In April I was on their 7.50 ‘120mb unlimited’ data plan. The key point with this plan being that if you go over 120mb, you get nailed to the wall for 2.35 plus VAT. This from the alleged market leader. Ridiculous, I hear you say. HAHA, I hear the 3UK customers yell.

The problem here isn’t Vodafone. It’s me, not quite understanding how things work. I restricted my usage. This annoyed me, but I worked hard at not using much data at all. Then things got out of hand and I slipped up toward the end of the month of April. I was at the Internet World conference and wanted to use QIK to do some video recording. I tried desperately to log on to their wireless internet. Anything to avoid using my Vodafone data connection. I eventually had no choice, alas. If I wanted to do streaming video for the teeming masses of SMS Text News readers watching online, then I needed to use Vodafone. Much as it pained me. I just hoped I wasn’t going over the 120mb limit. Now and again, I had to think to myself, ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ I purchased Vodafone service for a reason — reliability being the chief reason. But I think I also thought that, if I did go over that 120mb limit, well, … you know.. it’s fair use, right?

No.

It was in the terms and conditions. I’m pretty confident I couldn’t bring myself to examine the 120mb price plan terms and conditions in detail. It would have been far too depressing and a reminder to me that, as much as I wanted Vodafone to live up to it’s we-are-a-data-leader reputation (just look at the amount of space-age USB modem advertising around the country), the reality was far, far, FAR from the truth. Or, actually, that their price plan geniuses were just that: Ultra smart bastards. If I looked to closely, I’d recognise that that the emperor did have clothes. And they were the finest in the kingdom, because of what I was agreeing to pay.

So we move on.

Where are we today? Well, Jakub of Vodafone UK PR called me to explain that when Vodafone announced that all new price plans include 500mb of data, they made a big switch. Here’s the science bit: Previously, the data bundle was 120mb. Anything over this amount was billable. The new bundle has a fair use policy of 500mb. That’s the important bit — fair use. That is, if you go over that amount, no one’s going to shoot you and, crucially, no one’s going to whack you for data charges.

If you exceed the 500mb, chances are, no one from Vodafone will come knocking with baseball bats. If you are consistently using 2GB a month, you can expect some communication from Vodafone to ask you to reduce your usage. I then imagine if you continue, they’ll switch you on to a per-meg mobile broadband tariff.

So. The key difference is fair usage. Why did they set it at 500mb?

Well, I asked Jakub for a direct quote:

We know that our customers enjoy accessing social networks and use email on their mobile so we wanted to make things easier for them. Our statistics show that social networks are amongst the top five most searched for on mobile internet for example so embedding data charges into price plans and raising the bar on data downloads is a logical development allowing even more customers to enjoy mobile internet when around and about. The new price plans give Vodafone customers greater confidence to access their favorite social network or e-bay because they no longer need to worry about how much data they download and they know exactly how much they will pay at the end of the month.

This value does serve to highlight a gulf between Vodafone and its competitors. Obviously most people won’t use anywhere near this amount of data per month. Some will. If you’re a heavy data user (from your handset), should you still be with Vodafone?

Yes. I reckon. I’m sticking with them. Once I understood the fair usage viewpoint, I was a lot more content.

Phew.

ONE IMPORTANT POINT: In order to qualify for the 500mb fair use agreement, do phone up customer services and make sure it’s activated on your account. I think I’m on an older price plan that doesn’t automatically have it included (all new ones do). I’m going to call CS and check as I’m still paying 7.50/month on top of my existing tariff.

I’m going to use my Vodafone N90 with abandon now (i.e. without limiting myself to one or two photo uploads a day and so on) and see what my average usage is going to be at the end of the month. It was near 700 or 800mb with T-Mobile and 3 in the past.

23 COMMENTS

  1. One thing. Earlier you mentioned that your Qik posts were probably at 3mb per minute. This seems about 3x too large. Have you actually checked the file sizes? One of the Directors at Moblog was in the states a while back and she didnt turn Shozu off. What happened was that Shozu tried to upload images in the background her whole trip, never quite making it off the phone, at which point the upload was attempted again. This created something like a

  2. Alfie, the video I did with Adam of Esendex was about 10 minutes long and
    32mb in size when I downloaded the flash encoded version. That's where I
    got the figure!

  3. From a recent news report
    “Vodafone Total Business plans will be launched on 2 June targeting small to medium-sized enterprises, reports Mobile Today. They will replace the existing Sharetime Plus and Small Business price plans. The new plans include individual SMS packs, mobile internet and email packs which can be added to specific users within a company. Standard usage bundles offer 500 MB while high usage bundles offer 5 GB. “

  4. Result!

    Welcome to last year's news, Vodafone subscribers. So that's potentially another 11M UK users who maybe won't be quite so terrified of te mobile nets.

    Good news for alI I say.

    /m

  5. Ok, I've got a question Re this fair use thingy.

    I bought a VF internet dongle today (after much plucking about due to VF's incompentancies, but thats another story) and have got the 3GB plan. However, it says in the small print of the brochure that a fair use policy applies. This contradicts what I got told both from VF CS and in store that if I go over the 3GB limit, then I will be charged extra……

    Is the fair use on the dongles actually unfair?

    Hmm….

  6. I've honestly not heard of 'fair usage policy' meaning anything else than 'if you go over this limit, you will be charged extra', but here's hoping…that your next bill won't be even worse (“we reserve the right to charge you for the excessive element of your usage at the standard out of bundle rate for your price plan” – quote is from Vodafone's Mobile Internet TOS).
    And it's a bit funny how you asked (or so I gathered) Jakub why ONLY 500MB, and his reply was as if you asked something like 'wow, isn't that too much?'.
    Anyway, perhaps you'll be able to get one of those plans that launch June 2nd and all will be well. I die a little bit inside each time you mention having to refrain from uploading stuff.

  7. I've honestly not heard of 'fair usage policy' meaning anything else than 'if you go over this limit, you will be charged extra', but here's hoping…that your next bill won't be even worse (“we reserve the right to charge you for the excessive element of your usage at the standard out of bundle rate for your price plan” – quote is from Vodafone's Mobile Internet TOS).
    And it's a bit funny how you asked (or so I gathered) Jakub why ONLY 500MB, and his reply was as if you asked something like 'wow, isn't that too much?'.
    Anyway, perhaps you'll be able to get one of those plans that launch June 2nd and all will be well. I die a little bit inside each time you mention having to refrain from uploading stuff.

  8. I've honestly not heard of 'fair usage policy' meaning anything else than 'if you go over this limit, you will be charged extra', but here's hoping…that your next bill won't be even worse (“we reserve the right to charge you for the excessive element of your usage at the standard out of bundle rate for your price plan” – quote is from Vodafone's Mobile Internet TOS).
    And it's a bit funny how you asked (or so I gathered) Jakub why ONLY 500MB, and his reply was as if you asked something like 'wow, isn't that too much?'.
    Anyway, perhaps you'll be able to get one of those plans that launch June 2nd and all will be well. I die a little bit inside each time you mention having to refrain from uploading stuff.

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