Do you have a minimum charge per PDP session? I know some carriers charge a minimum (mine does and it’s 6kb) even if you end up using less. Does your upstream carrier also do it, and if so do you pass it on to the customer or do you eat the charge?
1 Like
Oooooh! This is all music to my ears!
1 Like
Nope 
if you only use 743 bytes that’s what we’ll charge you for. Anything else sounds like unnecessary work on our end… Caveat on the near-realtime though – data comes through either a) at 16MB intervals or b) every hour, whichever happens first.
4 Likes
Scam is a bit of a strong word. Please tell me how the above works with unlimited data plans? 
P. S. It’s called paying for peace of mind.
I pay for my TV licence. I don’t watch TV 24/7 365 days a year. Is that then a scam as I’m sure there is somebody out there that I am subsidising as they are watching far more TV then I am…
Yes you have no choice but to sign a contract which is unsuitable for your needs. It’s not like you have in some cases 14 days to change your mind.
Scam may be strong, but they do rely on lots of customers not using all they pay for.
If Zevvle is going to charge strictly for what you use, the pricing structure will have to be very different!
2 Likes
Sure the pricing will be different. For low to medium users it might be cheaper but for high users it will definitely be more expensive.
Sure mobile providers do rely on customers not using their data but whose fault is that? I blame the users themselves to be honest.
Can you quote me an unlimited data plans with no strings attached? Like no stupid restrictions on tethering (but them being totally fine with streaming 4K Netflix on an iPad 24/24)? I would be fine with quota-based plans if there was a way to buy unlimited data at a wholesale price from all carriers, then quota-based plans just become arbitrage from which you can opt-out of if you’re happy to buy wholesale.
The scam is that they’re selling “data” as a physical resource that apparently needs to be created and kept around, but somehow magically make it disappear when it’s convenient for them (why does Vodafone Pay&Go offer data rollover but only if I keep the same “bundle” again, and the data gets “lost” if I downgrade). That’s the part I don’t agree with. They could very well call it quota and cut the lies about it being a resource but they don’t. Not to mention, it’s a very unefficient way to control network usage (but it works against the customer so the carriers still like it despite that). If radio airtime is what’s limited then limit top speed (aka bandwidth usage), not amount of data transferred (and make it fair so limits only kick in when the cell is actually congested).
TV License is a bit different as at least they don’t sell “TV” as a physical resource that you can “run out” of. Not saying I fully agree with the idea of the TV License, but it’s miles behind the shenanigans that the carriers are pulling.
It’s not like you have in some cases 14 days to change your mind.
The average customer might need way more than 14 days to realize they’re being taken advantage of, at which point it’s too late. Not to mention the whole idea of a contract being stupid for something that has no upfront costs (handsets are a different issue, but it should still be possible to cancel the network plan while keeping the handset plan as a standard credit agreement). The whole point of contracts is to ensure you can screw the customer for at least the contract period even after they realize they’ve been conned (I remember working in store for a major carrier and we were incentivised to sell higher data plans, and one of the ways it was done is through fear mongering as you couldn’t upgrade to a higher plan during the contract period, so we “encouraged” them to take a higher plan from the start “just in case”).
1 Like
Try Three you will be surprised.
I used the TV licence as it, like line rental is a key to allow you to use a service.
Well I mean what more can they do? I have to say it’s more for signal issues then anything else.
O2 seems to offer something similar to what you’re talking about.
Sure that’s not a telecommunications issue that’s a issue of salespeople overselling for their own profit which is a whole other issue.
There is no gun pointed at their heads, customers have magic words that can be used which can defeat the bad salesperson. Wanna know what the magic words are? The magic words are “no thank you”. It really works. 
No scam just gullible people.
There is a mobile plan to suit every need. Low to medium users as well as high users. All customers have to do is look.
Try Three you will be surprised.
I have tried them for a few months in 2017. Personal hotspot was limited to 30GB at the time on unlimited plans. Of course this can be worked around (use the main APN and adjust the TTL of packets if using a router to hide that fact) but my point is that I shouldn’t have to do that.
O2 seems to offer something similar to what you’re talking about.
O2 Refresh still requires you to pay off the credit agreement if you want to cancel the network plan (or airtime plan as they call it). It seems pointless - why even confuse customers with the concept of two plans if they depend on each other anyway?
Sure that’s not a telecommunications issue that’s a issue of salespeople overselling for their own profit which is a whole other issue.
It becomes a telecommunication issue when the entire industry is like that. I would keep my mouth shut if the network infrastructure was state-owned and anyone could buy access at a wholesale rate (and then use whatever tactics they wanted to sell it - if some companies want to con customers then so be it, which opens the doors for competition to do it better). Sadly the whole infrastructure is owned by the scammers, and they know it so they keep pulling these dirty tricks without any risk of competition (MVNOs aren’t competition by any means, they’re only allowed to exist as long as they don’t become a nuisance to the big player at the top).
No scam just gullible people.
By your definition, scams aren’t a thing and fraud isn’t a thing then, just “gullible people”? I believe there should be integrity in every business transaction and laws & regulators should step in when the market doesn’t do its job and an entire industry becomes corrupt.
There is a mobile plan to suit every need. Low to medium users as well as high users. All customers have to do is look.
Why should there be a concept of plans? Network access is a commodity and should be sold as a commodity. I don’t have to sign up to a contract and a plan for a certain amount of kWh for my home electricity - I just pay for what I use at a slightly market up wholesale rate. Furthermore I feel like my electricity provider actually respects me, I don’t get calls from their monkeys every year about “upgrading” (aka get into another 12-month contract) and I can always leave if I’m not happy.
But speaking of plans being available for everyone, find me a plan that provides unlimited UK data & tethering (without workarounds), fair call prices (unlike certain carriers who charge 15x their pay&go rate for out-of-bundle calls for pay monthly users), competent tech support (so no monkeys) and no spam or “offers” or anything. Max budget is 500/month. Even at that price you won’t find it.
2 Likes
Ah well if you’re taking what I’ve said in a vacuum. Look at what I had said directly above that and it will all start to make sense.
Try a 30 day SIM only contract or a pay as you go tariff from Zevvle or giffgaff, you’ll pay slightly more for the privilege but I’m sure you’ll love the freedom it offers.
You didn’t read my choice for you above? The same choice applies here.
1 Like
Ah well if you’re taking what I’ve said in a vacuum. Look at what I had said directly above that and it will all start to make sense.
So let’s go over it again, you’re saying that you’re happy with the current state of the major carriers, their pricing & sales model, etc? I mean I respect that but I disagree. I wouldn’t mind so much if it was one-off cons (you get conned once, you learn, next month you make a smarter decision) but when the con is about a year-long contract (or 2 years even) I feel like something should be done.
Try a 30 day SIM only contract or a pay as you go tariff from Zevvle or giffgaff, you’ll pay slightly more for the privilege but I’m sure you’ll love the freedom it offers.
This doesn’t change the issue regarding tethering (the limit is still there on Three’s 30-day unlimited data plan), and so far I haven’t seen any pay & go that would just auto top-up forever as long as there’s money on the credit card attached to it (that’s why I’m excited about Zevvle).
1 Like
What? I wasn’t even talking about that in the first place. It was about salespeople remember? If you can’t remember what you was talking about…
Anyway rant over. There was a plan that changed every month it was called Sainsbury’s One. It’s long expired now but it could of been the answer to your problems.
As for Three I think you are misinformed… As I said I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Let me know what you think.
1 Like
The O2 system works well for this, it’s how I bought my last iPhone. Phone (new) was at a significant discount from what I could get anywhere else as long as I signed up to an Airtime plan at the same time. However the contract was only tied to the phone and paying it off (which I did up front anyway), you can cancel the Airtime plan at any point and only pay for what you’ve used to date, pro-rata, even if you haven’t paid off the phone. So I kept Airtime for a week or so until I’d got my unlock code for the phone, then cancelled it. Great way to get a discounted phone.
Oh, that changes things. I thought we’d have to buy data in 1GB blocks. I use less than 500MB most months, so if I only pay for what I use, Zevvle might work for me sooner than I thought! 
2 Likes
That’s our fault, sorry it wasn’t clear. 
I’ve updated our pricing page to hopefully make that obvious. Also, credit never expires either.
4 Likes
Never? Surely you have to use your phone once every 6 months otherwise you get disconnected from the network.
It’s a sore point as I’ve had it happen to me. 
1 Like
You will be having £5 credit used every month, so what happens if you have no credit does service stop?
1 Like
Ah I forgot about the subscription part. In that case maybe the credit never expires which is a good thing.
1 Like
Could have a calculator to show the cost based on user entered amounts of data.
3 Likes
Referring to the subscription cost, that’s taken from the payment method (card, Android/Apple pay) each month, not the account balance.
And yes, when credit reaches £0 we’ll have to disconnect it. To help make sure that doesn’t happen, a) we can notify you when it goes below £2 or b) enable auto-top up, where we’ll automatically add £X (changeable in-app) when credit goes below £1. Hopefully that’s clear in the app settings; it’s not really mentioned elsewhere… yet.
At the moment, when disconnected you’ll need WiFi to enable it again, which is a royal pain. As soon as we can, I’d like to get *.zevvle.com zero-rated, meaning that you’ll always be able to access the app/website on our network whether data is on or off.
Regardless of the subscription cost, we’d never ‘expire’ credit – that’s basically legal theft. That others get away with it baffles me!
Without the subscription we’d definitely have to disable unused SIMs, and that felt super icky…
Agreed! It’s on my spare-moment-to-do list… 
4 Likes