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MTN's "uncapped" mobile broadband a con? on Thu May 20, 2010 4:16 pm
eek
BANHAMMER admin NINJA
On Tuesday night, at a function ostensibly hosted to launch a soccer ball-shaped 3G HSPDA modem (I'm not making this up), MTN caught the market unawares with a hasty announcement that it would offer "uncapped" mobile broadband.
The announcement was made, and the MTN executive reportedly made a hurried exit. (Remember of course this event was originally planned to launch a device and that the announcement was not made by one of the bigwigs we're accustomed to. Surely this suggests the whole planning process for this product was rushed?)
MTN said the two products, MTN Uncapped Lite and MTN Uncapped Pro, would be available on 24-month contracts.
The Lite product costs R749 per month and has a fair usage limit of 3GB, while the Pro package retails for R1 999, when a 10GB fair usage policy applies.
So basically, when you hit those limits, you'll be throttled down to 128kbps. MTN will argue (to anyone who will listen), that users will not be cut off, and hence this does technically classify as an "uncapped" service.
But it isn't.
In the same way that **Helkom** internet's shared accounts (which don't cut you off once you've used your allocated bandwidth) are not an uncapped service. They're simply not. And **Helkom** will (hopefully) not be naïve enough to market them as such.
Internet service providers (both ADSL providers and the mobile networks) need to take responsibility and stop preying on confused consumers by selling them "uncapped" internet which is not uncapped.
And the majority of them are guilty.
In the rush to match Mweb, they announced prices and products with some "interesting" fine print.
A sizeable ISP has created a number of thresholds, hereafter users will be throttled. So, for example, if you download more than 50GB, your traffic will be more "aggressively shaped" (read "slow"). After 100GB, 150GB, 200GB and 250GB your line speed starts being throttled more and more. Over the 250GB, and you're down to a speed of 128kbps.
This is not uncapped internet. Consumers are being sold something while under the illusion it is something else. This will make them frustrated and less likely to trust any offer from any ISP.
Imagine dining at an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant and being told that after eating two plates, you're only allowed to use a saucer for food, and after two of those, you're not allowed to use a plate.
Then again, maybe MTN's new products make sense for corporate users who use their mobile data connections to check work e-mail while mobile, who don't need a super-fast connection, and who cannot afford not to be connected.
And at only R100 more per month than the existing R749 for 3GB, it might be a way to coax a little more revenue per month from corporates who have 3G/HSDPA contracts for their staff. (And the corporates don't have to worry about their staff not being able to access mail.)
As for the "Pro" package, R1 999 is an absurd price, even for 10GB of "super-fast" data. I seriously doubt you'll be able to stay connected long enough (consistently) to download that amount of data across a month. Unless, of course, you live under a cellular tower.
Hopefully sanity prevails and Vodacom (and later this year, Cell C) don't rush headlong into mimicking MTN. They'll just confuse the market more.
And yes, MTN did launch a soccer ball-shaped 3G/HSDPA modem.
* Hilton Tarrant contributes to "Broadband", a column on Moneyweb covering the ICT sector in South Africa. Uncapped internet is uncapped internet. No strings. No funny thresholds. No throttling.
SOURCE
The announcement was made, and the MTN executive reportedly made a hurried exit. (Remember of course this event was originally planned to launch a device and that the announcement was not made by one of the bigwigs we're accustomed to. Surely this suggests the whole planning process for this product was rushed?)
MTN said the two products, MTN Uncapped Lite and MTN Uncapped Pro, would be available on 24-month contracts.
The Lite product costs R749 per month and has a fair usage limit of 3GB, while the Pro package retails for R1 999, when a 10GB fair usage policy applies.
So basically, when you hit those limits, you'll be throttled down to 128kbps. MTN will argue (to anyone who will listen), that users will not be cut off, and hence this does technically classify as an "uncapped" service.
But it isn't.
In the same way that **Helkom** internet's shared accounts (which don't cut you off once you've used your allocated bandwidth) are not an uncapped service. They're simply not. And **Helkom** will (hopefully) not be naïve enough to market them as such.
Internet service providers (both ADSL providers and the mobile networks) need to take responsibility and stop preying on confused consumers by selling them "uncapped" internet which is not uncapped.
And the majority of them are guilty.
In the rush to match Mweb, they announced prices and products with some "interesting" fine print.
A sizeable ISP has created a number of thresholds, hereafter users will be throttled. So, for example, if you download more than 50GB, your traffic will be more "aggressively shaped" (read "slow"). After 100GB, 150GB, 200GB and 250GB your line speed starts being throttled more and more. Over the 250GB, and you're down to a speed of 128kbps.
This is not uncapped internet. Consumers are being sold something while under the illusion it is something else. This will make them frustrated and less likely to trust any offer from any ISP.
Imagine dining at an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant and being told that after eating two plates, you're only allowed to use a saucer for food, and after two of those, you're not allowed to use a plate.
Then again, maybe MTN's new products make sense for corporate users who use their mobile data connections to check work e-mail while mobile, who don't need a super-fast connection, and who cannot afford not to be connected.
And at only R100 more per month than the existing R749 for 3GB, it might be a way to coax a little more revenue per month from corporates who have 3G/HSDPA contracts for their staff. (And the corporates don't have to worry about their staff not being able to access mail.)
As for the "Pro" package, R1 999 is an absurd price, even for 10GB of "super-fast" data. I seriously doubt you'll be able to stay connected long enough (consistently) to download that amount of data across a month. Unless, of course, you live under a cellular tower.
Hopefully sanity prevails and Vodacom (and later this year, Cell C) don't rush headlong into mimicking MTN. They'll just confuse the market more.
And yes, MTN did launch a soccer ball-shaped 3G/HSDPA modem.
* Hilton Tarrant contributes to "Broadband", a column on Moneyweb covering the ICT sector in South Africa. Uncapped internet is uncapped internet. No strings. No funny thresholds. No throttling.
SOURCE
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