Apple

[Nealclark2004]

Am I the only one to think the new tethering price plans are a bit of a con?

Lots of iPhone users have been keen to use the 'hotspot' (aka tethering) feature of their phones, but have until recently been forced to pay £5 for extra data outside of their normal monthly allowance.

Now that Vodafone have 'responded to customer demand' with their new price plans which include tethering, I see that they have slashed the monthly data allowance by 50%

I'm currently paying £35 a month for 1GB of monthly data which excludes tethering.

If I were to switch to the 'new and improved' price plans, I would end up paying £36 a month for 500MB of monthly data which includes tethering.

I'm no maths genius, but something tells me the consumer hasn't really won any victory here.

[le_bouch]

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Nealclark2004 wrote:

Am I the only one to think the new tethering price plans are a bit of a con?

I have the same tariff as you. I'd like to say that I'm really surprised but this is absolutely the last straw for me. The very least they should do is honour people's existing data amount until their contract expires, i.e. just let us bloody tether with the data we're already paying for.

Vodafone have once again shown the absolute contempt that they have for their customers. There is no justification for this - the complete pony that they trotted out giving reasons why we couldn't tether with our existing data was shown to be the BS that we all suspected it was when they suddenly said "actually, yes you can tether after all. It's just that we'll charge you more and halve the amount, for having the temerity to call us out".

Absolute shower. They should be ashamed - snouts in the trough once again.

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[Lostie]

TBH I  think this is going to be an own goal for Vodafone, with other network operators starting to offer unlimited mobile data usage. I think that many people if they need a lots of mobile data will look at other providers.

All tariffs are £35 per month 24 months contract

Orange.

400 minutes

unlimited texts

750MB Mobile Internet

Unlimited* Wi-Fi subject to fair use 10GB

Three

2000 mins,

5000 texts and All-you-can-eat Data.

Vodafone

600 mins,

Unlimited texts

500MB data

[le_bouch]

What I don't get is why these forums and others aren't full of people complaining? This is a CON and we are all being had over by Vodafone.
Maybe not many people actually tether, after all is said and done.
In announcing these new tariffs Vodafone have HALVED the available data amount on their plans but not one tech news site has picked up on this! All they've noticed is the "tethering now included" bit which O2 and Three have done for months anyway.
The suits at Vodafone must be laughing their heads off at us all.

[le_bouch]

I couldn't agree more. I also came from O2 and will be heading straight back.

I like the flexibility with O2's tariffs. I don't phone much and never send more than 500 texts. When this BS Vodafone contract expires I can get a sim-only 30 day 100 min / 500 texts for £10.50(!) with O2 - then 500MB (20 free MMS) is an additional £5 or 1GB (50 free MMS) an additional £10 - tethering included with no fuss or price-gouging. And that's a 'proper' network - there are even better deals on Three and Giff-Gaff (O2).

Vodafone had a real opportunity to put one over on the other networks here but as usual they bolloxed it up whilst simultaneously giving their existing customers the finger.

[Adamswood]

maybe vf are starting to see the effects of high data usage on the network like o2 did when they had the iPhone exclusive. it just can't cope. if you do a speed test with a full hsdpa Signal it struggles to even get to 1mb of download, they say the network is capable of high speeds but there's so many people using so much data it just can't keep up with demand. maybe by priceing high and limiting allowances they are trying to strangle the usage down to improve the network..??? ofcourse they won't invest much money in it now because 4g trials have started in cornwall, and I suspect that when 4g goes live in 2014/15 vf will have the 4g infrastructure all ready to go at the expense of today sham!

[le_bouch]

I think you're right. Trying to rip us all off in the meantime will not help them though. Ask any reasonably techy person whether they'd recommend Vodafone for smartphones and the answer is usually a resounding "No".