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Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March 2016
18
Contract
price increase
We announced that after
ten years of decreasing our service costs,
we increased voice and data contract prices
from 1 May 2015, applicable to existing and new
customers. The increase was as a result of the overall
increase in mobile network operating costs. Although every
effort was made to avoid increasing prices to our customers,
including through our ‘Fit for growth’ programme, increasing
costs – associated, for example, with higher-than-inflation
energy costs, and foreign exchange deviations – may
necessitate us to increase contract prices. We will, however,
make every effort to hold/decrease pricing.
This borne out by the fact that we only increased
pricing after ten years. It is our belief that
future spectrum allocation will allow us
to alleviate and counter some of
these future costs.
Depleting data
During the year, we managed perceptions
that customers’ mobile data was depleting faster
than it should. This provided us the opportunity to inform
customers of the contributing factors to increased data use
and provide tips for improved data usage. We have explained that
investments in faster networks, the uptake of the latest
smartphones with better resolution, and routine software updates of
applications, have resulted in many customers using more data, much
faster. The data space is changing incrementally faster than most people
anticipated, devices are doing more in the background when customers
are unaware of data downloads, and customers do not always
appreciate the changes in their behaviours (such as sending videos
rather than photos). As a responsible service provider we realise that
we need to do more both to inform our customers, and to give
themmore tools to avoid unpredictable charges. We have
launched specific campaigns driving data education, and
we are planning to bring additional tools and
greater transparency to further empower
customers to manage their
data usage.
Vodacom low
cost
devices and
network investment
We are doing more to educate and inform our
customers through various engagement
channels, connecting customers through the
provision of high quality affordable
smartphones and tablets. Throughout the
year, we engaged with media to highlight
our investments in the network to
cater for increased data traffic
and speed.
Stakeholder ‘hot topics’
in
2016
Our key relationships
continued