Vodafone has taken a knife to its 3G pricing, cutting the cost of a monthly data subscription by half, to £15, for a distinctly reasonable allowance of 3GB, in a move that looks like it’s designed to open up 3G data cards from businessmen on the go to the average Joe.
Of course, you’ll need to sign up for an 18 or 24 month contract but Voda will sweeten the deal by throwing in a USB modem for gratis. For commitment phobes, there’s a 30-day package for £20 with no contract to sign and for roamers, there’s a £9.99 option for 24 hours’ access if you’re on one of Vodafone’s networks outside the UK.
While Vodafone UK has been a little slow to introduce this sort of much-needed commodity pricing – its Aussie arm unveiled a 5GB for $39 (about £18) in December – halving prices will hopefully see the number of data users shoot up. Obviously cheaper 3G is good news for consumers but it could well be a smart move for Vodafone too, with the operator revealing data revenue is up by 50 percent while data card users up by 100 percent. The only downside on the deal? No word on whether existing users will get to take up the new tariff or if it’s only for newbies.
It worked for the iPhone, looks like Vodafone took note. The iPhone forced customers to take an unlimited data package when they were first sold in the US. What happened? Everyone browsed around and used the data package with the iPhone.
What the carriers missed here is they kept prices high, thus deterring normal people from trying the mobile web. Lower prices and a strange thing happens. MORE people try it, thus bringing in more revenue.
I hope this practice spreads around the world. You have to get people hooked on a service before you charge high prices. If you don’t get them hooked first, they simply believe what you have to offer is not a NEED of theirs…
Giff Gfroerer, i2SMS
Note – this deal is ONLY for Data Cards and USB Modems.
It is NOT for handsets or normal mobile tariffs.
Customers hoping to add this amount of data to their monthly phone bill, ie 3GB for £15 instead of 120mb for £7.50 can go whistle for it.
This isn’t about Vodafone learning from the iPhone, not is it about the Mobile Web.
It is about a cheap data card that lets you browse over VFs network that you can ONLY use in conjunction with a PC/Mac.. NOT a phone.
Rubbish.
I note the price comparison Ewan. Is a direct forex conversion appropriate? Shouldn’t we be comparing Purchasing Power Parity rates? I.e. The Voda tariff in Aussie for 3GB is (for example) 5% of the avg disposable monthly income, whereas in the UK it’s 3% (or whatever). Ergo, data is cheaper in Blighty.
That way you’ll get a true picture of the average bloke’s propensity/ability to splurge on mobile data.
£0.02
Mike
I am puzzled how they can tell the difference between
1/ someone using the web browser on their phone (i.e. not through their
wap gateway)
2/ someone using their phone as a modem for their computer
3/ using a dedicated data adaptor (USB, PCMCIA etc)
unless they have a list of IMEIs issues to data-only devices?
@Paul – I *believe* they can tell by the SIM cards.
I had a LONG conversation with someone at Voda a while back who told me (and this could be guff so apologies in advance if it is) that I could get a 3G datacard plan and swap the SIM out of the card and into my phone.
Awesome I thought. Until I discovered that calls from that SIM would be barred.
Brilliant.
@James,
well, I wouldn’t mind too much getting a really basic 3G phone with bluetooth as then I could use it as a cordless self-powered modem for my PDAs…
my nokia tablet’s usb host can source very little current – nowhere near enough for a usb 3g device and has no CF slot.
my Palm has no USB host or anything.
my zaurus has CF and CF to PCMCIA adaptors (that way round) are hard to find, and its usb host can only power low-power devices without a hardware mod!