[3GScottishUser]

Vodafone UK Press Release (28/09/2006):

Vodafone pay as you talk customers will be able to call any network from just 10p per minute and send texts from as little as 3p from 1 October when the new 'Anynet' and 'Anytime' calling plans replace the current 'Smartplus' and 'Smartstep' tariffs.

Responding to customer demand for control, simplicity and value by creating two straightforward plans, Vodafone UK is reducing the price of texts and offering greater value where it counts. Crucially, for pay as you talk customers, Vodafone has abolished higher call rates to other networks. For example, calls to other networks on evenings and weekends are now just 10p, giving the most competitive rate in the market.

With a standard text reduced to just 10p, customers can also benefit from extras packs, enabling them to send messages from as little as 3p each with a 500 text pack for GBP 15. Customers can get even more value as the plans can be coupled with Free Weekends and Vodafone Stop the Clock. In addition, they can also receive 10% back when they buy a top-up card by credit or debit card worth GBP 15 or more.

"Pay as you talk customers told us that they disliked paying a premium for calls to other networks. Having introduced Stop the Clock and Free Weekends, we've now reduced our pay as you talk tariff on both peak and off-peak calls to any network, giving customers greater assurance on what they are spending," says Tim Yates, Director of Vodafone's Consumer Business Unit.

"This latest initiative shows our commitment to giving customers value where they want it. Free Weekends has been incredibly popular in the three months since launch and we believe that customers will like these new plans. In combination with our great network, quality content and extras like Stop the Clock and Passport, Vodafone is removing the barriers for everyone to get more from their mobile."

All new customers activating after 1 October will go onto the new plans, whilst other customers can switch by calling 2345.

More information can be found by visiting www.vodafone.co.uk

http://www.vodafone.com/article_with_thumbnail/0,3038,OPCO%253D40018%2526CATEGORY_ID%253D210%2526 MT_ID%253Dpr%2526LANGUAGE_ID%253D0%2526CONTENT_ID% 253D289343,00.html

[Ben]

Ooer, that sounds rather spiffy does it not?

[3GScottishUser]

Yes rather.

A 30 minute call on Vodafone PAYG to another network Off-Peak with Stop the Clock will be 30p.

On 3's WePay it will be £ 9.00

On T-Mobile's Everyone it'll be £ 3.60

On Tesco Mobile it'll be £ 3.00

Just a few examples but one can easily see why Vodafone night become the darling of the students and those who use their phones for social calls in the evenings and weekends.

[Hands0n]

Blimey! This is staggeringly good. Looking at their article the tariffs are overall very good. It used to be that you could not add Stop The Clock into the Smartstep tariff, but the suggestion below is that both replacement tariffs can incorporate STC - which makes them incredible value.

Coupled with a reasonably priced SIM-Free handset these tariffs could be very competitive with Contract, meeting them head-on in the right circumstances. Not for everyone, for sure. But there will be those who will be able to exploit these to the max.

Well done Vodafone.



Anynet (default tariff)
All peak calls p/min - 30p
All off-peak calls p/min - 10p
Text messages - 10p

Anytime (opt-in tariff)
1st 3 mins each day p/min - 30p
Thereafter p/min - 10p
Text messages - 10p

Text from 3p
Buy a 500 text pack for GBP 15 - 3p
Buy a 200 text pack for GBP 10 - 5p
Buy a 70 text pack for GBP 5 - 7p

About Vodafone Free Weekends
Launched in July, Vodafone pay as you talk customers (new or existing) can get free calls and texts every weekend. To enjoy, customers should simply spend GBP 5 during the week for free weekend texts and calls to any network. Alternatively if they spend just GBP 2.50, customers will get free texts all weekend. As an added bonus, the weekend starts at 7.30pm on Friday until midnight Sunday.

About Vodafone Stop the Clock
Vodafone Stop the Clock is available for both pay as you talk and contract customers. Customers can phone any standard landline or mobile on evening and weekends and simply pay for the first three minutes of each call. Each call can last for up-to one hour, meaning that 57 minutes of the call are completely free.

[a_ukboy]

Yeah its good for off peak use, but all peak calls at 30p per min, even calling other Vodafones, wow that's expensive!!!

[solo12002]

but all peak calls at 30p per min. I agree so in short if you use your mobile during the day as a number of ppl do, its still beaten by t-mobile who charge 12p anytime.

As for 3p texts again its not 3p texts only if you buy a pack, so its not clear cut.

As for the statement which vodafone have on their site:

" Vodafone pay as you talk customers will be able to call any network from just 10p per minute" This is misleading and should be reported to the ASA , I love to know how I can call any network from 10PPM when they also state:

ANYNET - ALL PEAK CALLS 30PPM

ANYTIME - 30PPM for first three mins.

So how do I call anynet for 10 PPM then?

[Hands0n]

The keyword is "from".

Anytime (opt in tariff) is 30ppm for the first three minutes, thereafter it is 10ppm any network.

Anynet suits those that make occasional calls in Peak time, but mostly in off-peak when it is 10ppm. Coupled with STC that makes is 30p for a call for an hour in off-peak - it would cost you very much more on T-Mobile Everyone to hold an hour-long call!

So it really is a touch of swings and roundabouts - these will not suit everyone all of the time. My personal thoughts are that you should have one of each (T-Mobile Everyone and Vodafone Anynet/Anytime) and get the best of both worlds for your tenner top-up.

[crowfield99]

Thought at the mo it only costs 5p a min to call a landline in the evenings and weekends on Vodafone?

Will that go up to 10p a min now?

[Hands0n]

Good spot, maybe. I'm really not sure now ...... and cannot check it as the Vodafone online store is down! It wasn't working yesterday either!!

[3GScottishUser]

Yes the new tariffs are not as generous with on-net/landline pricing as its now 10p/min off peak. However when you factor in the reduction from 35p to 30p daytime on X/Net calls and the massive cut from 35p to 10p for off peak calls X/net, overall most customers should be onto a winner with the new deals.

Oh and of course there's Stop The Clock, Free Weekends, Discounts on top-ups over £15 and Passport.

A 60 minute call X/Net off peak for 30p!!

Pre Pay customers have never had it so cheap!!

[crowfield99]

I remember when it used to cost 2p on Vodafone at Weekends! :confused:

[Hands0n]

Well ......................... if you work out the Weekend STC rate, 60 minutes, pay for the first 3 (thats 30p @ 10ppm) the 60-minute rate works out at .5p per minute . Bargain!

[crowfield99]

With the min. call charge being 10p also I guess thats fair enough even if it used to be 5p a min. So yes see why now... :D

[Hands0n]

I have a Vodafone PAYT on SmartPlus and am considering switching to AnyNet but before I do ... I checked the online tariffs.

True to Vodafone (and no doubt the rest) which tariff you choose will depend entirely on how you use your airtime. Smartplus is cheaper by 5p per minute at evenings and weekends. Anynet is twice as expensive at 10p per minute at the same times. But then again, taken with Stop The Clock (STC) its only 15p more for that one-hour phone call! Hardly breaks the bank.

Then again, if you're an avid texter the Anynet pays off at 10p per text vs Smartplus' 12p each.

Anytime takes some thinking about. Given its daily sliding tariff it all rather depends on how you use your airtime. If you spend more than £5 in a week you get the entire weekend (Friday 7.30pm to 00.00 Monday) free text and voice calls! STC is not available on Anytime, so your weekly spend will include your evening weekday calls which will help towards qualifying that week for the Free Weekends.

The nice thing is that you can change tariff online or via your phone as your usage patterns change - I think that you can only do this

The original 30p tariff (not available anymore, but remains until changed for existing subscribers)


Smartplus
Calls to Standard UK landlines and Vodafone mobiles:

* 30p per minute day time
* 5p per minute evening and weekend (Daytime is 7:30am to 7:30pm)
* Calls to other networks 35p per minute

Text Message

* 12p per text

You can add Vodafone Stop The Clock for free



The replacement for Smartplus


Anynet
Calls to Standard UK landlines and Vodafone mobiles:

* 30p per minute day time
* 10p per minute evening and weekend (Daytime is 7:30am to 7:30pm)

Text Message

* 10p per text

You can add Free Weekends, Vodafone Passport and Vodafone Stop The Clock to this plan


And the bad news - but its not really, the same was for its predecessor



Anytime
Calls to Standard UK landlines and Vodafone mobiles:

* 30p per minute for the first 3 minutes each day
* 10p per minute after that

Text Message

* 10p per text

You can add Free Weekends and Vodafone Passport to this plan. Vodafone Stop The Clock is not available on this plan

[getti]

Data is still too £££££ on PAYG i think. Free on net but once you go off-net its £7.50 per MB.

I did physicaly switch from 3 to Vodafone for 3 days but i was soon drawn back with 512mb free data access

[Hands0n]

Yes, Vodafone still have not got the message regarding data. It could be that they think their corporate successes with data are good enough. Or that to reduce the data tariff will be the ruination of the corporate data ARPU. For sure, I have not read anything encouraging from Vodafone with regard to data tariffs.

These PAYT tariffs are, though, very keenly priced for voice and text - under suitable circumstances.

I don't believe that there is a one-size-fits-all PAYT/PAYG tariff - it really is a case of you have to do the sums and see if it fits your usage profile.

[getti]

I would be with vodafone if they had a data bundle for off-net access and were going to do HSDPA on PAYG

[Hands0n]

I think you'll find that once they're over to HSDPA there will be no discrimination between PAYT or Contract - it'll just be down to the handset capability. They didn't discriminate with 3G. But for sure, all this will be for now't if they don't slash the data tariff or make some kind of interesting bundle to compete with the likes of T-Mobile's Web N Walk. I won't mention 3 as I don't think they are really setting any milestones at the moment.

[getti]

hmmm good point. Although HSDPA on T-Mobile needs turning on by CS to get the higher speeds i heard.

If it does infact come out on PAYG i will be back on vodafone!. HSDPA is usefull for me as i download a lot of content on-net so its gonna be MUCH MUCH faster!.

I gues email i can use Vodafone Mail if needed

[Hands0n]

I do rather fancy that as and when Vodafone release HSDPA for general consumption that there will be a data tariff review and announcement. It is pointless them spending a fortune upgrading their 3G network (even if it is only software) only to have the customer staying away in droves due to the ridiculous pricing currently apparent.

Vodafone are not reknowned for being quite so stupid! Lets hope they keep up their reputation. Steady as she goes :D

[Ben]

Mhm, we've been dreaming about data tariffs for quite a while now and the only network that has gone and shifted policy is the one renowned for having naff coverage outside of London!

Networks like Vodafone charge more for data because they can and because their ageing network, while providing superior coverage and, often in my experience, reliability, probably needs significant investment to support these massive data throughputs that it was never designed for.

I think we're going to see most networks 'holding out for a miracle' for a while yet, that illusive 3G killer application that will utilise the extra bandwidth available and add ~£10-£20/mo to ARPU, before prices get slashed and newly built infrastructure is allowed to be flooded by cheap, dumb data.

Maybe this time next year we'll see reasonable data rates on Vodafone PAYG. I'll cross my fingers for sure, but I wont hold my breath.

[Hands0n]

The danger of playing "the waiting game" is that someone else will steal a march on you. In this instance I'm thinking of what people like BT are getting upto with their killer WiMax network rollout. They are spending a fortune on their MPLS backbone and WiMax delivery. Not something that conservative organisation would do unless it had a fair degree of certainty in its business plan.

I think that, given BT's traditional strength as a network provider, it may well have seen a huge mobile data loophole that they can plug effectively with something that will not match, but better 3G in terms of speed and performance. My only thoughts are of truly mobile roaming [actually moving, in transit] across the country - does WiMax do this effectively. The answer is "Yes", according to someone I know on the inside. I'm told that BT's intention is to take the MNOs head on - that means all that they do now, and more, but faster and with a common infrastructure - the entire business being done on IP. In such terms, this could make BT the UK's largest "All Play" provider - Voice, Data, Video, Broadcast TV, TV On Demand, you name it they can deliver it!

That being the case, this is the entirely wrong time for complacency from the established mobile data folk. The first one to blink will lose!

[Ben]

You know I think you might be right about BT. By the end of the year they'll be so regulated, with Openreach (the network) being run as an entirely separate company, that they'll have to expand into unregulated territory in order to remain competitive. I can only hope.