Some interesting news which was just found tonight and is sending shockwaves through gadget fans in the UK is that from 1st June 2010, Vodafone will change the conditions on charging for data use on mobile phones.
At present all phones with exception to the iPhone and Nexus One can have a data package of 500MB Fair Use added for £5 a month but until now you could go over that mark without fear of running up a bill. This will change from June with Vodafone charging another £5 for 500MB of internet use which has had people on Moneysaving Expert & Vodafone eForum fuming.
To compare, T-Mobile offer 3GB data with ALL Android phones as a free part of your package, the same 3GB on Vodafone will now cost you £30!
This is something which will effect a LOT of people from here, especially with the big push on Android over on the Vodafone site. For the full information on the change click for more.
Edit – We should point out (thanks David Chapman) that the first 500MB
is FREE for monthly plans over £25 (Link)
Over on the Vodafone official eForum, Tom who is a Moderator posted the following information
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for being patient whilst we got the right information for you.
We are planning to introduce Out Of Bundle charging for Pay Monthly customers from 1st June 2010. The reason we’re introducing these charges is to make it fairer for everyone, and to protect our network from data abuse. We’re introducing a real-time notifications service to be completely transparent about these charges and keep customers in control of their spend. No Out Of Bundle charges will happen this month but they will take effect from 1st June. The messages you’ve received this month were sent in error and no more will be sent out from today.
The charging will be as follows:
Monthly bundle customers will pay £5 for every 500MB after the first 500MB
Customers without a monthly bundle will pay 50p for every 10MB after the first 25MB
Whilst you’ve all previously been used to there not being any Out Of Bundle charging, the current information available online is clear in explaining that we could introduce such charging at any time. The Vodafone Mobile Internet costs page does state:
We’ll keep an eye on things and let you know your options if it looks like you’ll go over your 500MB Flexi or Value Pack limit.
Our Pay Monthly Terms and Conditions already state that we reserve the right to charge for any usage beyond the Fair Usage limit:
27. All Vodafone services offered free or under unlimited subscription are subject to our Fair Use Policy. If, in the reasonable opinion of Vodafone, your use is excessive, we may ask you to moderate your usage. If, after we have asked you to moderate your usage, you fail to do so, we reserve the right to:
(a) charge you for the excessive element of your usage at your price plan’s standard rate;
(b) throttle your usage; or
© suspend or terminate your service in accordance with your airtime terms and conditions.
So you can ignore the messages which have been sent so far, but there’s the information we have on this subject.
Thanks,
Tom
eForum Team