South African mobile operator, Vodacom announced this week a promotion which will see data costs for Prepaid and Top Up customers reduced by 87%. This promotion introduces Vodacom’s lowest per megabyte Prepaid mobile data price of 2.4 cents (about US $0.02).
The data promotion launches on 7 November 2011 and will continue until 9 January 2012.
The price reduction will apply to Broadband Advanced MyGig 20 Prepaid and Top Up once-off data bundles, now priced at R499 (about US $63.2). The normal retail price of the My Gig 20 Advanced bundle is R 3 620 (about US $458.7). The new promotional price gives a saving of R3 121 (about US $395.5).
Chris Ross, Managing Executive: Commercial Development at Vodacom says, “Offering increased value to our customers is our top priority, which is why we’re excited to offer this significant data price reduction to our Prepaid and Top Up customers. With this promotion, we are providing our customers great value for the festive season.”
Customers interested in purchasing unlimited Broadband Advanced MyGig 20 promotional bundles can do so through the following Vodacom Prepaid sales channels:
-Dial *111#, free from a Vodacom cellphone and follow the prompts;
-SMS “MyGig 20 Advanced” to 100; or Go to vodacom.co.za, click on ‘Sign in to My Account’ to register/login and follow the menu structure to purchase the promotional bundle. Multiple bundles may be bought in one month.
All Broadband Advanced MyGig 20 Prepaid and Top Up once-off promotional bundles purchased will be valid until the last day of the next month; thus if a bundle is purchased in November 2011, the bundle will be valid until 31 December 2011 and if the bundle is purchased in December 2011, the bundle will be valid until 31 January 2012. Bundles purchased in January 2012 will be valid until 29 February 2012.
Staff Writer
Less than 2 months ago Vodacom was crying that high data usage was degrading the user experience on their network and threatening to throttle Blackberry users. Now they are trying to flood 20GB data bundles into the market which are only valid for a month, thereby forcing users who would not normally use 20GB to try to do so. What happened to prioritising user experience? What has changed in Vodacom's network in the past few weeks? Is there a catch on this offer?
there is no mention of speed ???
"Offering increased value to our customers is our top priority.." What a crock of sh.. manure. please read " relieving our custemers of there hard earned cash is our top priority…
20Gig in one month??? WTF is that about??? One of their weak attempts at "promoting" their data rates as one of the cheapest in SA? Though, reading between the lines, it seems they are taking quite a "hit" from cell c and 8ta data offerings and are scrambling to catch up… albeit in this case, very stupidly…. 20gig in 1 month… what a laugh… idiots…
What use is 20 gigs if you have to use it in 2 months? Most users I bet are looking for something similar to what cell-C had….about R999 for 2 gigs a month..for a year. This Vodacom deal would be a good price if it was 20 gigs to use over a year. But over 2 months? Get stuffed.
Sorry Vodacom but this is unsustainable. :p
I know many people complaining about the bad network. They can't even get SMS to work right. I just tried to send one and had to restart my phone again the same as every time. The main reason Vodacom has never sold cheap bundles is that their network simply can't handle what Cell C's for example can. This despite many sports sponsorships and still making huge profits. Even in the face of competition from 8.ta, Cell C, and now even MTN they don't want to reduce their rates permanently. All these "promotions" are simply stop-loss procedures to combat their inability to compete. Vodacom is in trouble as they have never reinvested profits back into the network like other network do.