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As a customer and a consumer of data of course I agree with you. As a businessman though I cannot. Fixed line broadband is not the same as mobile broadband either in the level of capital investment or the economic model that supports it. No network can afford to give unlimited data plans and those that have, like 3, e able to do as their owners didn't have the same market pressures that a company like Vodafone has (being a Chinese company).
@AndyGB wrote:"the Data Allowance part of a Tariff is the most expensive"
I do believe, unlike 3, their network is old and cannot handle such high bandwidth demands, probably because they haven't upgraded their backbone since it was installed. Plus the lower frequencies don't handle high capacity very well.
Old? Over the last 2 or 3 years Vodafone has spent billions on it's network and has a joint venture project with O2 to upgrade network infrastructure across the UK. Also your assessment of the economic impact of that investment is wrong. Vodafone has spent far more than it generates in free cash on the network, meaning it has had to borrow vast sums of money from the capital markets as well as its own shareholders. Those borrowings need to be serviced with interest payments and eventually repaid. Shareholders expect dividends. The company has to make a certain level of profit of the cost of borrowing increases.
A Chinese company like 3 does not have the same market pressures that a company like Vodafone has.
That is why they have to charge high prices and cannot give the stuff away. So yes, giving us all 50GB of data would have a significant impact on the business.
Your analogy doesn't stand up. The debts incurred by your potential employee were nothing to do with your business and thus were not your responsibility.
Raising billions of pounds on the capital markets has everything to do with Vodafone's business and hence the need to charge a price that allows them to service the debt. Given that other networks are not offering unlimited data, and actually Vodafone's sim free packages in particular are highly competitive and based on 20GB or 25GB of data I suggest that they are fully in line with the market price for data. The economics of running a business are complicated but the principles are often quite simple.
@AndyGB wrote:"Vodafone has spent billions on it's network"
Really? Where did that money go? On management no doubt because it certainly wasn't the network. The Vodafone network in the UK is **** (rubbish) compared to O2, Three, and EE. And it only seems to be getting worse.
It is going to be interested when the government clamp down on coverage and blackspots because vodafone will be screwed unless CTIL pull their finger out.
I can't agree with that at all. I rarely have network problems. Areas near me that were either not spots or very poor are now good with a decent 4G signal.
A friend of mine has recently switched from EE to Vodafone and is surprised how much better the network is.
