Vodafone forces capped broadband services on subscribers

Chief executive officer for Vodafone Ghana, Kyle Whitehill, said all the existing subscribers would join the capped fixed broadband services on 16 December 2012.

He said the latest commencement services of capped fixed broadband implied that all new customers who signed on to Vodafone's browser, streamer or downloader fixed broadband packages from 28 November would have respective caps at the increased prices.

Contrast to the current situation where with just US$25, subscribers enjoy unlimited data, the subsidiary of the British Telecom Plc says it introduces capped packages beginning from 15 Gigabyte valid for 30 days at $36.

Also, Vodafone added that all categories of subscribers would pay US$10 as installation fee.

But subscribers have constantly raised questions and outraged about the moves to cap the fixed broadband services at such an exorbitant price of US$36.

Ghana subscribers for Vodafone have since opened a dedicated Facebook page "Stop Vodafone from Capping Broadband" to join the protest and the formal petition to the regulator and government.

"We have gotten rid of the entry level package because I couldn't afford to offer the service at GHC45 - I just can't afford to do that - I can't make any money from that - I can't invest more into the network do give a better service and I need to invest more to give customers a better service," Whitehill said.

He said the cap was also to manage the service efficiently and prevent the 1% of customers who consume huge data capacity for only US$25 a month, from making the data experience bad for the 99% who consume less.