Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 14:45
Business IT -
Technology
Page 2 of 3
In response to a question on what specifically Vodafone is doing to ensure its network can cope with lots of new users, many of whom will likely be “unlimited voice” users, Vodafone generically assures us with words to the effect that it is always monitoring the network and the number of users, and works to keep it all running as smoothly as possible – let’s hope that’s what happens as the trend to unlimited voice calls accelerates.
Full pricing details are available at the
Vodafone iPhone 3G S page, with the headline plans being as follows:
“Vodafone will offer the iPhone 3G S 16GB free on its $69 iPhone Cap (24 months), which includes $400 value, unlimited free Vodafone-to-Vodafone calls during the evening and on weekends and 1GB of included data downloads.
“The iPhone 3G S 32GB is free on Vodafone’s $114 Cap (24 months), which includes unlimited calls and a massive 2GB data. Vodafone business customers can purchase the iPhone 3G S on the corresponding $69 Single Business Cap and $114 Unlimited Single Business Cap, 24 month contracts.”
Vodafone has also wisely chosen to avoid the imposition of any tethering charge, unlike Optus, allowing iPhone owners to use as much of their included data through their computer as desired.
In August 2009, Vodafone will start offering an addition 1GB of data per month at $24.95 per month, or 2GB of data per month at $29.95. This is because the iPhone itself uses a lot of data and if you want to do computer browsing on top of that you’ll probably want to take advantage of the extra data packs.
I asked whether larger data packs would be on the way, especially given that Vodafone is the company that brought 5GB of wireless broadband for $39 per month, but received another similarly generic answer along the lines of Vodafone always monitoring the situation to make sure of value and good performance for all, etc etc.
Vodafone did confirm the “pay as you go” pricing incurred once you go past your chosen data package, which is that “customers are charged 12 cents per Mb, once they exceed the data allowance in their cap”, and that “customers are billed per Kb with a minimum session of 50Kb”.
So, what are the prepaid "upfront" prices, and what extra gimmicks is Vodafone unveiling to hype up the iPhype... I mean... iPhone 3G S launch? Final details on page 3, please continue...
