The RTI SMS service will notify customers on arrival at their international destination that they are in the coverage area of a foreign network; and it will specify the exact roaming rates customers are going to pay on a particular foreign network.

Commenting on this new offering, Portia Maurice, Chief Officer, Corporate Affairs at Vodacom says, “This service augments our ongoing consumer educational campaign on how to help prevent roaming bill shocks. By proactively informing customers about the roaming rates, this will enable customers to manage their roaming use carefully.”

Customers should take note of the rates in the RTI SMS, and be aware that roaming is more expensive than using the same services back home.

When travelling internationally, Vodacom suggests the following tips to help customers manage their roaming bill.

Data Roaming tips:

§  If a customer uses a smartphone or a tablet, they must ensure that only essential data related activities on their device are enabled to avoid using large volumes of data. Receiving email, browsing the web, using instant messaging services and other applications should only be activated when necessary to avoid using large volumes of data and accumulating a high bill.

§  It is also important to note that using a handset to check email, browse the web, use instant messaging or other applications, is not free when roaming regardless of whether these are available for free in South Africa; and will be billed at the applicable Vodafone world rate for data roaming.

§  Accessing Vodafone Live! is also not free when roaming as it is in South Africa and will also be billed at the applicable Vodafone World rate for data roaming.

§  Customers should set up their email client to download the header of new emails only. Once they receive the headers of new emails, they can then manually select which emails should be downloaded in full to prevent large downloads. Try to avoid downloading emails with large attachments to prevent high bills.

§  Streaming video, person to person file sharing or any other type of file download is extremely data intensive and can result in extremely high bills.

§  When using data roaming on the laptop abroad, customers must remember to disable all automatic download activity which happens in the background, like operating system updates or software/app updates.

§  Customers should disable their smartphone or tablet from performing automatic app refreshes or automatic software updates when abroad to prevent large data downloads.

§  When using data roaming, where possible customers must always roam on selected partner networks to qualify for the Super Saver data rate which is lower than the standard data roaming rates in a specific country. Devices should be manually set to only roam on networks which qualify for the Super Saver data rate.

§  If customers do not want to use data roaming at all, they must turn Data Roaming off on their device: select ‘Settings’ > ’General’ > ’Network’ > ’Data Roaming’ or consult your device manual for more information.

Voice roaming tips:

§  Contract customers, who make calls of long duration, can activate Vodafone Passport to save costs. Vodafone Passport allows customers to use their home rate, allowing them to talk longer for less. For example, a customer who is roaming on the Vodafone UK network with Vodafone Passport activated on a Talk 130 tariff plan can save up to 83% of what he or she would have had to pay normally without Passport.

§  Retrieving voicemail messages, by dialling 121 and calling Vodacom’s dedicated Customer Contact Centre on 111 from a Vodacom cellphone attracts the applicable roaming rate as a call back to South Africa based on the roaming option a customer has chosen (either Vodafone World or Vodafone Passport).

§  Receiving a call while travelling internationally is not free – customers will be charged at the applicable roaming rate based on the roaming option they have chosen either Vodafone World or Vodafone Passport.

§  Divert incoming calls unconditionally to voicemail prior to leaving South Africa to control costs. All incoming calls are diverted to customer’s voicemail service, but they will still be able to make calls. To activate unconditional diverts: Dial **21*08214 and the last nine digits of their cellphone number, followed by the # key and press the send / dial button.

NOTE: If you are abroad and wish to activate your unconditional diverts, then the number to dial is **21*+278214. Since Vodacom customers can have cellphone numbers with prefixes 082, 072, 076, 079 and 071, should your cellphone number have a prefix other than 082, please ensure that the appropriate prefix is used.

Customer must remember to cancel call diverts on their return to South Africa by dialling ##002# from their cellphone to receive calls again when they are home

SMS roaming tips

• SMS Roamer is the most cost effective way to stay in touch. SMS Roamer disables customer’s voice and data capabilities and only allows them to send and receive SMSs only. It is available to all Vodacom Contract, Top Up and Prepaid customers.

• Activate SMS Roamer and only pay R2.75 per SMS sent.

The Roaming Tariff Information SMS message service will apply to Vodacom Contract, Top Up and Prepaid customers.

“To introduce solutions that enhance the protection of our customers, is a critical priority for Vodacom and we believe this new offering will not only offer incredible added value, but more convenience and information too,” concluded Maurice.

This will be an ongoing post, and I will update it as time goes on.

In South Africa we have a tendency to not really care about bad customer service, which really only makes us even more deserving of it. Worldwide the launch of a new iPhone is typically followed by a bit of a frenzy by loyal Apple fans. In South Africa, Vodacom and MTN are the only providers of the iPhone, so users need to use their “pre-order” channels in order to secure an iPhone.

Vodacom’s handling of this launch has been nothing short of shocking. I have been a Vodacom customer for more than 10 years, and every year I have had to deal with poor service trying to get an iPhone on launch day. I have been up for an upgrade for a few months, because I was holding out for an iPhone 4S.

This year is no different: After multiple calls with their call center, Twitter agents, multiple uninformed stores (“I think you mean the iPhone 4 sir!”) etc, I decided I would share my experience with the readers of this site. At this time I have still not gotten hold of an iPhone 4S, and Vodacom has not yet reached me to inform me when I will receive one. And the strange thing is, I doubt I am the only one in this boat.

Here is a timeline of my experience with Vodacom and the iPhone 4S launch:

Thursday, 1 December 2011 – Vodacom Pre-Registration Form goes live. I register within the first hour of the page being available. I also register with Cellucity’s pre-registration page. That set my mind at ease.

Friday, 2 December 2011 – Got an SMS from Vodacom: “Thank you for pre-registering for the iPhone 4S. A sales agent will contact you within 7 days to obtain Credit Vetting/Upgrade information.

Almost two weeks pass, no phone call from Vodacom.

Wednesday, 14 December 2011: Send tweet at 9:30 to @vodacom to request when I can expect a phone call regarding my pre-registration, seeing as it is 48 hours before launch. @vodacom requests my details, and tells me they will call me back. At 14:00 tweet @vodacom again, no reply. Get reply from @vodacom – they will be in touch soon. Apologies for the frustration.

Thursday, 15 December 2011: At 9:00 no call yet. Phone 082 1959, no answer after 10 minutes.

MyBroadBand runs article to say which Vodacom stores will take part in the iPhone 4S launch. I phone the 3 closest stores to me, not one of them know anything about the phone’s launch. I phone Cellucity in Waterfront – normally a store that gets iPhones on launch day – they cannot promise me stock, even though I am number 23 on their countrywide pre-registration list.

After this I decide to call Vodacom’s upgrade department – it has to be less frustrating than dealing with stores that do not know if or how much stock they will be getting, or any pricing details, right?

At 15:00 I call 111, and then I get put through to the upgrade department. Talk to “consultant”. Finally get told about the iPhone contract pricing for the first time. Get told that the iPhone 120 contract will only include 100MB of data. I ask her to double check (that is a big decrease from previous iPhone contracts) – after a few minutes she comes back to me to tell me yes, it comes with 500MB.  I confirm that I want the iPhone 120 contract, which she then emails to me. I sign the document immediately, and fax it back. (Vodacom – it is not that great if a customer knows more about your offerings than the salesperson.)

Got confirmation SMS that my contract upgrade request has been processed. “Your order is currently on back order, and an update will follow shortly.”

Get SMS that my contract has been successfully renewed – so Vodacom must at this point be happy to have me locked in for another 2 years.

The “consultant” confirms that I will receive my iPhone on Monday the 19^th. I ask her to repeat that – after all, the call is being recorded right? Yes, I will most definitely receive the phone on Monday, even if I live in Cape Town. Great – so after the weekend I should have my new phone.

Monday, 19 December 2011: Phoned at 10 am to request when delivery of my phone will happen. Told that the phone has not yet been dispatched, and they ask me to phone back at 1 to check again. Phone at 1, then told the phone is currently out of stock, and has not been dispatched yet.

I ask the “consultant” when I can expect stock of the iPhone 4S. She has no idea. I ask her if the previous “consultant” was not telling the truth on Thursday about my delivery time. She says she cannot answer.

I send another DM to @vodacom, telling them I was promised a phone by Monday. No reply.

Phone Vodacom Upgrade Department, get informed that my handset has not been invoiced yet, and has not been dispatched. Get told even if the phone gets “dispatched”,  I can only expect delivery to the Cape Town area in 4 working days. I ask once again if the first promise of Monday delivery was truthful. Get told there was no way I could have gotten delivery on Monday already, and I “was given inaccurate information”.

At 18:00 get a tweet from @vodacom111 telling me they are referring me to the social media department. Not really the issue, but oh well.

Tuesday, 20 December: No call yet from @vodacom111, so I decide to call again. Just got told I would receive the phone within the week.

At 10:30 get an SMS to say I can expect delivery soon. Phone 0821959 to find out when I can expect delivery – get told 3 January 2012.

14:00 – Get an sms that states my account has been invoiced, so I phone upgrade department again. I get given a tracking number to give to RAM. Phone RAM, RAM says the number is not yet available.

Wednesday, 21 December:  08:00 I check my waybill number with RAM. It says the phone is out for delivery in CPT area! I phone RAM, they say I should expect delivery in 1 hour.

At 09:00 I get the phone delivered to me, finally.

_________________________________________________________

OK, so I only got my phone a few days late. But the fact remains – Vodacom recognizes the fact that iPhone users are typically quite vocal fans of the device, and they know it will be a high demand. Low stock levels can be understood, after all, they are at the mercy of Apple. Still, all understandable.

But Vodacom’s lack of transparency with regard to pre-registration really needs to be fixed. Simply telling users to pre-register is not enough – we have no idea whether we will indeed be called back, or what we can expect once we have registered. In this day and age a simple order number type system cannot be that difficult to do right? Be upfront with us – tell us whether we can expect stock or not. If I was too late with my pre-registration, I can handle it. Instead, Vodacom just keeps quiet, and makes you believe you can get the iPhone 4S as soon as it becomes available.

After getting no word from Vodacom, I phoned in, and I signed up for the contract believing I will get an iPhone sooner than trying to get it through a store. The stores did not know anything – the lack of communication to Vodacom’s stores meant that none of the branches around me knew they were involved with the launch, and most stores informed me they will only get stock from the 20^th.

Vodacom’s pricing of the iPhone contracts is not bad at all. But really Vodacom – your customer care needs a serious look. If you cannot supply me with a phone at launch, you have to let me know. Then, if you promise me a date I can expect delivery, I expect the truth. Simply making a pre-registration page available is not enough – it is pretty clear it it was just a way to shut us pesky iPhone people up.

As @garymeyerza puts it: I don’t want to jump the queue. I do however want to be kept informed. Manage my expectations as a customer.

The iPhone 4S has finally been launched in SA this past weekend – but the networks kept their cards close to their chest in terms of deals. Pricing was only officially announced on Thursday, and not through very public channels. Pricing is definitely better than expected, but it is clear that networks are trying to limit the choices of contracts you can receive a free phone with.

For example, last year you could get a free iPhone 4 with a Vodacom Top Up 275 contract, with 100meg of data at R379. This year, Top Up customers are not as lucky – I was quoted R3000+ pay in on the Top 315 contract. So if you want a iPhone 4S, you are pretty much forced to go for the more business orientated contracts. Luckily the pricing is not too bad, if you take the entire bundle into account. Here is Vodacom and MTN’s deals, with the iPhone 4S 16 GB deals. (Click to enlarge):

Overall the Vodacom iPhone contracts look like the better deal, especially considering that the iPhone is a device that needs a lot of data to be used effectively. If you want a 4S with a larger storage capacity, the pricing goes up quite a bit. You can of course also buy the phone cash:

iPhone 4S 16GB: R7699

iPhone 4S 32GB: R8999

iPhone 4S 64GB: R10299

Related: If you want to be able download Apps, Music, Movies, TV Series etc from the US iTunes store, even if you live in SA, here is how to do it.

Finally we have some idea when Apple’s iPhone 4S will be landing in SA. On Vodacom’s website their iPhone 4S registration page just went live. Luckily the wait is not too long – 16 December is only a couple of weeks away, and you can pre-register for it right now.

In the past these pre-registration forms are next to useless, so if you are desperate to get one, you might want to rather get your name on a few lists at stores close to you. There is also no news yet on what deals will be made available, but with MTN also getting the iPhone 4S, some competition might keep the prices reasonable.

The biggest new feature is the Siri personal assistant. It is perhaps the single biggest reason to get the iPhone 4S:

If you want to know what else to expect in iPhone 4s, see here.

Update: MTN is also getting iPhone 4S on 16 December, as reported by MyBroadBand

Vodacom today announced a promotion which will see data costs for Prepaid and Top Up customers reduced by 87%. This promotion introduces Vodacom’s lowest per megabyte Prepaid mobile data price of 2.4c.

This data promotion launches on 7 November 2011 and will continue until 9 January 2012.

The price reduction will apply to Broadband Advanced MyGig 20 Prepaid and Top Up once-off data bundles, now priced at R499. The normal retail price of the My Gig 20 Advanced bundle is R3620. The new promotional price gives a saving of R3121.

Chris Ross, Managing Executive: Commercial Development at Vodacom says, “Offering increased value to our customers is our top priority, which is why we’re excited to offer this significant data price reduction to our Prepaid and Top Up customers.  With this promotion, we are providing our customers great value for the festive season.”

All Broadband Advanced MyGig 20 Prepaid and Top Up once-off promotional bundles purchased will be valid until the last day of the next month; thus if a bundle is purchased in November 2011, the bundle will be valid until 31 December 2011 and if the bundle is purchased in December 2011, the bundle will be valid until 31 January 2012. Bundles purchased in January 2012 will be valid until 29 February 2012.

Customers interested in purchasing unlimited Broadband Advanced MyGig 20 promotional bundles can do so through the following Vodacom Prepaid sales channels:

• Dial *111#, free from a Vodacom cellphone and follow the prompts;
• SMS “MyGig 20 Advanced” to 100; or
• Go to vodacom.co.za, click on ‘Sign in to My Account’ to register/login and follow the menu structure to purchase the promotional bundle.
• Multiple bundles may be bought in one month.

The program will launch in Johannesburg on 7 October 2011 at the Protea Fire and Ice Hotel in Melrose Arch from 6-9pm, and in Cape Town on 10 October 2011 at Vodacom’s main auditorium in Century City from 6-9pm. This is free for those wishing to attend.

Prins Mhlanga, Managing Executive of Digital Media at Vodacom commented: “We see the Apps store as the embryo of an ecosystem. We’re looking forward to building a network of successful local developers, so they can help develop apps that help South Africans.

“With our apps initiative, we hope to complement and enhance this already vibrant community.”

The program promises to be a valuable knowledge sharing and learning exercise for the industry as a whole. Those attending will be provided with the opportunity to:

-       engage with the most renowned industry specialists in the mobile apps marketplace;

-       discuss tools to monetize apps

-       identify training opportunities in the mobile apps environment; and

-       gain insight into Vodacom’s innovation incentives and available technical and commercial support.

The Vodacom Apps Store was launched on 1 September 2011, and features a catalogue of over 140 000 applications powered by Appia, one of the world’s largest open application marketplaces. All Vodacom customers who wish to access Vodacom apps can do so by visiting http://vodacom.mobi/apps on their cellphones or from the apps feature on Vodafone live.

“The opportunities for further development in the Vodacom Apps Store are significant considering it also supports all major platforms including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile,” Mhlanga concluded.

Developers and interested parties are invited to register for the Vodacom Developer Programme at www.vodacom.co.za/developer

Updated: Vodacom’s CEO, Pieter Uys, finally clarified this issue in a statement.

This one is short and sweet folks. You know that Blackberry you got because of uncapped data usage? This might make a few folks sour:

Vodacom studied usage patterns to better understand the causes of congestion at peak times and one surprising finding was that more than 95% of BlackBerry data usage was attributable to less than 5% of users.  Speaking about this, Delport said, “We need to ensure that all BlackBerry users are able to enjoy the service that they pay for.  When we realised that such a small minority was using the bulk of the capacity, we decided to implement measures that will ensure that Blackberry users will enjoy a better browsing experience overall.”

Steps have been taken to ensure that the 95% of the BlackBerry users who are currently using the service fairly are not impacted by those who are abusing the service.

Basically what Vodacom is proposing is that all users using more than 100MB in a month will have their service downgraded to much slower 2G speeds. That gives you 3.3 Megabytes of nice fast data per day…

Now 5% of users might not sound like much. But Twitter has been all abuzz about this announcement, and @garymeyerza put it into perspective:

One way around it – get your phone activated for Blackberry Enterprise Service. Apparently the usage cap is not yet active for it…

Maybe someone with a IT legal background can tell us if this is legal? Can Vodacom go back on its service level agreement with Blackberry users?

You can view the new amended rules of BIS service here.

PS: Some irony pointed out by @saulkza: R49 actually gets you 100MB of 3G data.

Updated: Keep in mind that BIS typically compresses data between 2 and 4 times, so it means actual monthly data might be between 200MB and 400MB before being throttled…

In the tablet market it is pretty tough going for anybody except Apple. What if you want a tablet that is not the same as everyone else’s? Sure you can go for Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, but I can guarantee you in a year from now you will see Android tabs everywhere. Or what if you are a Blackberry fan – and there are a lot of you out there… SA customers now have another choice.

Good news – Vodacom today announced that the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet is now available in South Africa from their stores.

The BlackBerry PlayBook does have some great features and is quite a bit smaller than the iPad – and it is made to work hand in hand with your Blackberry. Simply fire up Bluetooth, and all your mail and BIS related data services can be used on the Playbook.

The BlackBerry PlayBook will come in three Wi-Fi® models, featuring 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB of memory storage.

“We’re very excited to make the BlackBerry PlayBook available to customers.  It is available today at Vodacom World in Johannesburg and will be available from participating stores nationwide from 29 August 2011,” says Vodacom’s Managing Executive – Sales, Zunaid Dinath. “With its set of features, portability and power, the BlackBerry PlayBook is an ideal companion for busy people on the move.”

Says Craige Fleischer, Regional Director for Southern Africa at RIM: “We’re pleased to bring South African customers an innovative and truly portable tablet which delivers uncompromised performance and a fantastic mobile experience for both consumers and business users. With its exceptional multimedia and Web functionality, as well as its support for true multitasking, this is the tablet that discerning users have been waiting for.”

As a bonus Vodacom is bundling all Playbook’s with G-Connect vouchers so you can use them at Mugg and Bean’s countrywide. My advice – use the Bluetooth connection with your Blackberry instead.

Vodacom Apps will support major mobile platforms including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile, making it relevant for the vast majority of data capable cellphones and smartphones.  The store will feature a wide variety of apps in various categories such as games, travel and entertainment, business and professional, work and school, and phone tools.

Pieter Uys, Vodacom Chief Executive Officer said:

“The launch of this app store is just the beginning. We’re building an entire community that will supply home-grown apps relevant to the South African environment. With all the talent available in this country there’s no reason we can’t create our own application industry. The great part about this store is that it caters for so many users – in fact, more than 10 million cellphones on our network can run at least Java apps.”

Vodacom Apps users will be able to download free apps, for which standard data charges will apply. In the near future, Vodacom will introduce paid-for apps which customers can pay for using their airtime account.  This means that all Vodacom customers can use the store without the need for a credit or debit card.

All Vodacom customers who wish to access Vodacom Apps can do so from 1 September by simply visiting http://vodacom.mobi/apps on their cellphones or from the Apps feature on Vodafone live! – take note this will not replace existing app stores on devices.

“Vodacom’s commitment to supporting and further developing the South African apps market is being taken a step further today through an extensive Vodacom Developer Programme, launched in conjunction with the Vodacom Apps store,” Uys added.

The Vodacom Developer Programme will provide the developer community with technical and commercial support, including training, workshops and innovation incentives over the coming months. This will further stimulate the local development of apps by allowing developers to upload their own developed applications and generate revenue from this.

Isn’t competition a great thing?

Vodacom today revised its data services structure and pricing which will see contract data customers reap savings of up to 43% and get double their data for free with Night Owl, moving the effective savings to as high as 72%.

The move means that from 1 August customers will pay less for accessing the Internet. Customers will now pay as little as 7 cents per MB for data consumption.

“Vodacom’s change to red brought with it the promise of real changes to the network, customer service and value. We hope these price reductions will contribute to making the Internet more affordable and give our customers an enhanced connected experience,” says Pieter Uys, Chief Executive Officer at Vodacom.

In addition to the savings, all existing and new Vodacom contract customers will be given another allocation of the same size as the subscribed data bundle to use anytime between midnight and 5AM. This service, called Night Owl, previously only on promotion, is now available as standard to all Vodacom contract subscribers. (Update: Contract users do not include Top Up contract users)

Contract customers will receive more value from these revised Broadband Standard prices. To illustrate this additional value, Vodacom customers who previously bought a MyMeg 110 data bundle at R88 (80c per MB), will now only pay R49, for a MyMeg 100 (49c per MB) – a cost saving of 39% per MB. They will also get double their data for free resulting in a net saving of 69%.

Existing Vodacom contract subscribers will automatically benefit from the new tariffs and will be migrated to the next bigger bundle size while paying less. For example, current 300MB subscribers will be migrated to 500MB, at a lower overall tariff.

Over and above the Broadband Standard price reductions, Vodacom also provides the following services:

• All Vodacom Broadband Internet customers receive Vodacom’s free e-mail service with a storage capacity of 3GB; and
• Two hours of free technical support available for Broadband contract customers. Vodacom technicians come to customer’s homes to help them with installing the modem software for the first time, or trouble shooting an existing installation and setting up a free Vodacom email address, including up to 5 aliases. To access free technical support service customers should Call 082 155 during office hours.

“We are committed to finding ways to make our customers smile and we will continue in focusing all our efforts towards delivering on this promise.” Uys concluded.

Here is the full rundown of the new pricing structure. Click to enlarge:

Update: Turns out Vodacom neglected to mention that this is for normal contract customers only. The portion of the population that uses prepaid phones or Top Up CONTRACTS  will not be so lucky. This is strange, because once off purchases of data bundles always had the same price regardless of whether it is contract, prepaid or topup users. Many users of the Top Up contracts get them for better control over data bundles which are becoming more and more essential with modern smartphones. Top Up contracts always constituted better value for users who want to buy data when they need it.

Vodacom – many South Africans rely on their phones as their primary internet connections, and the vast majority of these users are Prepaid. You have never had a problem charging them the same price for Once Off bundles. Do not exploit the people who need lower rates on data the most. Do the right thing – and make these offers available to all your customers…