The Citizen (KZN)

Vodacom benefits have a hefty price tag

- Hilton Tarrant

Vodacom’s “overhaul” of its Smart and Red integrated contract plans has increased bundled minutes, SMSs and data across the board. It has also lifted prices by up to 47%.

Its mid-level Smart M+ plan is now R469 a month (excluding a device subsidy), from R349 in the promotiona­l period (August to March), and R319 prior to that. In that time, customers would’ve gone from a bundled allocation of 120 minutes, 300 SMSs and 300MB of data per month; to 120 minutes, 120 SMSs and 750MB of data; to 400 minutes, 400 SMSs and 750MB of data.

Customers are getting significan­tly more but, in this case, the monthly subscripti­on has increased by 47%. Changes apply only to new contracts.

To be fair, the world looks very different today when compared to March 2013, when Vodacom first released the Smart and Red price plans. Vodacom will argue it had to alter allocation­s within these plans, as habits and usage has changed. It might also say the price increases in the Smart plans are justified, because customers now receive more “value”.

Smart M (M+) went from 254MB a month in December 2013, to 667MB in December 2016, an increase of 163%. The bundled data would’ve been sufficient in 2013 (at 300MB) and now (750MB).

Vodacom recently disclosed “high-end smartphone” usage is up 31% in the past year to an average of 1.7GB per month.

Its higher-end Red plans have gone from three prior to March 31, to six, extending all the way from R749 to R2 099 per month and are far more apt for 2017.

The Red Select+ plan makes little sense when compared with Smart L. An additional 1GB data bundle (to bring the two plans to parity on that basis) would cost R149, meaning a monthly total of R848 (versus R999 for Red Select+). Expecting customers to pay an extra R100 for the top-up version of Red Select+ is outlandish.

Hilton Tarrant works at immedia. He owns shares in Vodacom.

 ?? Bloomberg Picture: ?? IN THE RED Vodacom clients may be delighted with the new bundle offerings available, but they might blanche at a 47% hike in costs.
Bloomberg Picture: IN THE RED Vodacom clients may be delighted with the new bundle offerings available, but they might blanche at a 47% hike in costs.

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