# Shared data proposal (how it'll work, pricing, questions?)

Shared account data is work-in-progress that we’ll release next month. Nothing has changed in-app yet.

Hello!

As you may know, we’re working on shared-data plans. We don’t like the mess that is multi-SIM management at the moment, so we’re going to offer account-wide data plans that all your SIM cards can draw from and make the Zevvle ~experience~ that much simpler.

There’re a few things to cover and hopefully everything makes sense. Any feedback or thoughts we’d love to hear.

We don’t have any screenshots or anything to share yet, but here’s a fancy graph:

# How will it work?

Right now data allowances are done on the SIM card level — the monthly plan, what happens when you run out, add-ons — but we’re lifting that up to the account level, meaning fewer options in-app and less of the current navigation hell.

Your monthly bill will also simplify to just 1 or 2 lines — the data allowance with the number of SIMs, and how many SIMs with unlimited calls & texts. We’ve decided to still separate the calling & messaging for ~reasons~; bundling everything together would mean higher costs for the data-only options.

For accounts with 1 SIM card the pricing is exactly the same. For accounts with 2+ SIMs there are savings depending on your usage profile (examples below). Because the pricing is either the same or better, we’re going to completely discontinue the single-SIM bundle plans and move everyone to this new setup; we’ll contact you individually before making any changes to make sure you’re happy.

# Pricing

When choosing a plan, you’ll select 1) the allowance, 2) the number of SIMs and 3) how many unlimited calling & messaging SIMs. We’ll show you 1 price instead of the below mess of numbers, but in the interest of transparency here’s how we calculate everything…

Behind the scenes, the price is made up of a base data rate, the costs per SIM and the optional unlimited calling & messaging bundle.

Firstly, the base data rates:

1 GB 3 GB 10 GB 30 GB 60 GB
£2 £5 £7 £15 £27

Anything above that is a multiple of the 60 GB rate, e.g. a 180 GB allowance is £81 (3 * £27). The maximum usage per SIM is still 60 GB, so higher allowances only apply for multiple SIMs.

Secondly, we add £3 per SIM sharing the allowance (including the first SIM).

Finally, we add £5 per SIM with unlimited calls & texts.

## Some examples

3 SIMs sharing 10 GB, 1 with unlimited calls and texts: £21

Breakdown:

• £7 for the 10 GB allowance
• £9 for the 3 SIMs
• £5 for the 1 SIM voice & SMS.

Current equivalent: £29 for 2 * 3 GB data-only SIMs and a normal 3 GB SIM.

6 SIMs sharing 60 GB, no calls or texts: £45

Breakdown:

• £27 for the data
• £18 for the SIMs
• Total per month: £45

Current equivalent: £60 for 6 * 10 GB data-only SIMs.

2 SIMs sharing 60 GB, both with calls & texts: £43

Breakdown:

• £27 for the data
• £6 for the 2 SIMs
• £10 for the unlimited calls & texts

Current equivalent: £46 for 2 SIMs with 30 GB allowances.

4 SIMs sharing 1 GB with unlimited calls & texts: £34

Breakdown:

• £2 for the data
• £12 for the 4 SIMs
• £20 for the unlimited calls & texts

Current equivalent: £40 for 4 * 1 GB SIMs with calls & texts.

5 SIMs sharing 3 GB, 2 with unlimited calls & texts: £30

Breakdown:

• £5 for the data
• £15 for the 5 SIMs
• £10 for the unlimited calls & texts

Current equivalent: £35 for 3 * 1 GB data-only SIMs and 2 * 1 GB normal SIMs.

Again, we won’t show the individual breakdown on our website or in-app; this is just to give some insight into how things will work behind the scenes.

We’re keeping the current add-ons — £5 for an extra 1 GB, £8 for 3 GB — at the moment. If this doesn’t work for you, let us know and we may offer different options in the future.

# Questions

When is this coming?

Next month! No date yet.

Can I stay on the single bundle plan?

No; this change is either the same price or better, so we don’t see the benefit of maintaining the separate plans.

What happens if I run out of data?

It’ll be similar to what happens now — you decide whether we disconnect data or you purchase an add-on. The difference is that we’ll switch off data for all the SIMs because the allowance is shared, but we’ll make these options clearer and show them to you during setup.

Can I set individual limits per SIM?

Not at first, but we’ll add this later on.

Any questions, comments or general feedback we’d love to hear.

Nick

5 Likes

That is one sexy diagram.

This seems like a really cool change, nice one.

1 Like

If we’re showing off our graphing skills, I’d like to present my entry;

Source for completeness
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[->] (-5, 0) node[left] {$Cost$} -- (5, 0);
\draw[->] (0, -5) node[below] {$Simplicity$}  -- (0, 5);
\node [draw, align=center, circle] at (-3.5, 2.5)
{Individual data};
\node [draw, align=center, circle] at (3, -2.5)
{Shared data};
\draw[->, thick, dashed] (-2.5, 1.5) -- (2, -1.7);
\end{tikzpicture}

4 Likes

‍♂

What happens if you don’t have the unlimited calling and messaging bundle for the sim? Is it no calls and texts, or PAYG calls and texts?

1 Like

Answering my own question it looks as though it would be a data only sim without the unlimited calls and texts.

1 Like

Real programmers write PostScript by hand.

Source
%!PS
<< /PageSize [200 200] >> setpagedevice
/Times-Roman findfont
10 scalefont
setfont
1 setlinewidth

% Grid lines
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
newpath
100	10	moveto
0	180	rlineto
10	100	moveto
180	0	rlineto
stroke

newpath
3	111	moveto
gsave
-90 rotate
(Cost) show
grestore

newpath
81	3	moveto
(Simplicity) show

% Top-left circle
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
newpath
55 145 25 0 360 arc
stroke

newpath
35 144 moveto
(Individual) show
45 134 moveto
(data) show

% Bottom-right circle
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
newpath
145 55 25 0 360 arc
stroke

newpath
131 55 moveto
(Shared) show
136 45 moveto
(data) show

% Arrow
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
newpath
124	80	moveto
1	-5	rlineto
-5	1	rlineto
stroke

newpath
75	125	moveto
125	75	lineto
[3 3] 0 setdash
stroke

showpage

4 Likes

I have been beaten. I guess this is my excuse to finally learn postscript.

2 Likes

Yes, we’re not doing PAYG calls or texts for this I’m afraid.

Good lord

2 Likes

Based on my low call and text usage, I suspect I’ll be staying on the grandfathered PAYG tarriff for now until my usage is regularly above about 5-7GB, or I need extra SIMs, or there’s another price change. With venturing out a bit more my usage has increased a bit since the pandemic, however with work from home continuing until at least the end of the year, and relatively little travel, I can’t see my data usage increasing beyond that level regularly for at least a few months at the moment.

3 Likes

Please don’t repeat my mistake, whatever you do.

1 Like

I am a bit slow, I’m trying to follow but getting a bit lost.

Can you explain a hypothetical situation, that I figured Zevvle’s current sim management would work with;

1 my phone - mobile (1gb + unlmted calls & texts)
1 ipad - data only sim (10gb)

1 wife’s phone - mobile (30gb + unlmted calls & texts)
1 son’s data only sim - ipad (30gb data only)

All on my account, because I’m paying for it and managing it all.

In layman’s terms what do I in the new system. Do I have to share with sims on my account, or would we have an option?

future me take notes

2 Likes

Yes, so all the SIMs would draw from the same data allowance. We’ll add the option for individual data limits per SIM in the future; e.g. you could specify the iPad SIM to only have 10 GB available of that 60 GB.

In your scenario I’d recommend a 60 GB plan, which for 4 SIMs — 2 with calling & messaging bundles — comes to £49 (£27 for the data, £12 for the SIMs and £10 for the voice & SMS). That’s also £12 less than the £61 for the individual plans.

Does that make sense? If not I’ll try to clarify further — it’ll be a lot simpler when it’s in-app and on our website!

2 Likes

It makes sense, the way you have explained it.

I hope it is explained simply and doesnt pigeon hole users. But otherwise real useful!

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We don’t think it will! It’ll be simpler than our current plans and hopefully open up some more use-cases.

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This is a good move forward but unfortunately won’t work for me unless I start using a lot of data. The £5/month for unlimited calls and texts is the point where this really loses out for me compared to PAYG. I need to have occasional calls and texts on my phone, but I’m nowhere near that sort of spend. I understand you have to cover heavier call users, but it doesn’t add up for me and one of the downsides of an unlimited plan is that the low use users subsidise the heavy users. I understand why you’ve done it this way for simplicity though.

Maybe I’m just more suited to PAYG . Though I did have a SIM plan before with a capped amount of calls and texts which worked well for me.

2 Likes

Luckily if you are on an older PAYG plan, you can keep that pricing.

4 Likes

And, with crisis levels of data usage, it’s incredibly good value!

BTW, there’s a bug, at least for me, on this screen…

3 Likes

19 hours of calls! Making the best of that unlimited use

1 Like

Could be incoming calls. That chart doesn’t split incoming and outgoing.