Data

This business of data with an expiry date. How can it have a sell by date? It is not something that goes off after a few weeks. Surely once you’ve paid for it, it belongs to you until you’ve used it. Another way to part you with as much money as possible?

Depends on what data you purchased. Contact list?

Data bundle from Vodacom. Is there another option from the same vendor that does not expire? Please tell. Why do they not make this clear in the options list?

One should check very carefully. I used to have a similar service from Cell C: buy a bundle of data and use it. One year, I bought a large amount, because the salesman assured me that it would not expire. And then, 11 months later I got an automated notice out of the blue that my data would expire within a month. I was less than amused, because I had so much left I couldn’t really use it in a month. I went to some lengths to download music and movies and stuff, but still did not manage to use nearly all of it.

Of course, by then the salesman that lied to me was no longer there anymore and the others just shrugged.

This was partly why I eventually left them: their service is hugely expensive and sucks.

Nowadays I use Telkom (yes, I know, I know, I’m dealing with the devil) and get a far more reliable connection at a fraction of what Cell C charged me.

This Telkom - is it for mobile use or fixed line? My ADSL at home is with Telkom but I move around a lot. In the past, I used my phone to get email and do the bank, but now the wife bought me a tablet and now I find all sort of excuses to go online. :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s a sort of WiFi thingy. I looked around on their website but can’t find it there, because typically of web service, there are new services and specials and stuff every two weeks. My contract has me pay R400/month for 20GB; it appears they are now even cheaper.

I don’t know if Helkom does uncapped, I sent them packing in the past as they automatically kept on charging me after I went over my limit.

I think the reason why your data expires has something to do with the bandwidth they must buy each month.

Using uncapped wifi and just paying telkom for the use of the line is much better, you can use someone like Afrihost, which is probably the cheapest, but horribly inconsistnt or pay MWEB that little extra and have a solid consistent line, the other option is to use one of those WISP? I think they’re called, where you buy a aerial and a router and don’t have to worry about telkom at all - then you have to worry about whether their aerials are maintained properly and how they manage more and more people on their network - I used ECC systems who broadcasted their signal from Bellville in the past, the down side is that they didn’t allow you to torrent.

At the moment I’m using Afrihot’s mobile data - they use MTN and I’m pretty happy with my monthly 4GB package for my needs.

Oh. Data. ;D

Being a newcomer to the world of smart phones and ridiculous little virtual keyboards, I was surprised to find that these gadgets are massively presumptuous. Unless you tell it not to, it appears that it just can’t stop itself from looking for novel crap that it secretly sucks from the web when no one is looking. The thing is a compulsive downloader. It seems to want new stuff the whole time: OS updates, skinnernuus, coordinates of where my friend is, the latest photo from the Cassini mission.

So on advice from a vodalady, I switched all of these cloak and dagger goings-on off. Now only viruses and malware get through, but they are comparatively lightweight data wise. 0:)

Rigil