SIM card activation enema!

[tec0]

Have you tried to register a “pay-as-you-go” SIM card for internet at Vodacom lately? I don’t see the use of selling SIM cards anymore because you cannot get them activated over the phone anymore.

At this point after you spend your humble R5 on a starter-pack you end up with a lot more then what you hoped. I was told that you have to go to a mobile or a “Vodacare” shop to register your SIM? So it is pointless to buy one at a petrol station. Then you need your ID book, proof of residence and a few other things. The point is you might as well go for a contract at this stage.

In the end I have to give a complete stranger ALL my information just to get a “pay-as-you-go” SIM card activated. I can really see a problem with this...

So I took the Vodacom SIM and put it away. I have a contract phone it is just Virgin gave me connection problems as always and I thought just get a Vodacom SIM to send your e-mails. But NO sorry you can’t do that anymore apparently it will take them up to 2 days to activate the SIM for internet use.

[Dave A]

RICA strikes!

Will this be the end of SIM card packs at till outlets?

[tec0]

One may think that it just might be the case. After all how useful can a SIM card be if you can’t use it right away? Also I can’t help but wonder how this will affect the mobile phone industry. All these little “independent” phone shops you get, I wonder if they are able to activate SIM cards. If not one can see how this can cripple them.

[tec0]

I know everybody is basically sick of all the mobile complaints. Yet I cannot begin to tell you how bad our internet has become. It worse than standard landline! Yet we continue to pay a premium price for this service and it is NOT worth it. Basically all the people I know that have 3G connections is complaining right now. YES there were upgrades being done but I cannot blame them for complaining because you are not experiencing any benefit from these upgrades.

Also I noticed that a lot of companies have a basic modem connections now running on a standard land line. Now connecting to it is not cheap and it is not fast but it shows you how bad our 3G networks are getting.

Does anybody have the real story behind this phenomenon?

[Dave A]

Early Saturday morning was unbelievable. I could access no international and very few local websites. And yet email was running just fine.

And I agree with tec0 - not much evidence of an improvement as a result of the upgrades - at least not yet.

When will we see the effect of Seacom?
Or is the bottleneck the last local leg when it comes to mobile connections?

[tec0]

If anything bottlenecks is as old as the first network. But I don’t get it. Vodacom is big, they are most probably the biggest mobile network we have and even with a massif clientele they cannot provide. Virgin on the other hand is low cost “I stand to be corrected but standard rates is 0.65 +” But it is still cheaper then R2 per megabyte. And face it a bundle from both MTN and Vodacom is expensive. And then there are the contracts I will not even go into right now. Still if Telkom is ever to release a pre-paid internet service with proper connection speeds then you will see something else. I am telling you a lot of companies will rather go for a physical line on pre-paid with no contract obligation then 3G on pre-paid. The reason will be “reliability” a strange fictional word for the mobile communications industry...

[skatingsparks]

Back to land of stupidity SIM cards!!

Just got back after 4 month in the UK where I had to go to get more education because my qualifications are not good enough for SAQA. My number has been stopped because i hadn't used it for 4 months so I go to get another and have to prove I have a residency. I don't have this because I am a guest, for the purpose of a postal address, at my girlfriends parents house and don't have my name on a tenancy agreement where I live with my girlfriend. The only thing that had any proof of address was my bank account which I am now no longer allowed to use as I am unemployed. I got the bank account when I was working here on a Skills Quota Visa. Now I have just come back from the UK the bank guessed I wasn't working and couldn't prove otherwise so not only can I not put money IN to my account they won't give me a bankstatement with my address on it because I can't use a bank account which I got with a Skills Quota Visa if I don't meet the requirements of the visa, i.e. I am working.

I had to laugh when reading the news headlines in the bank when its say that South Africa will suffer more in the recession because of the lack of skills in certain sectors.

It ends with me saying to the bank teller Its hard to get a job when you don't have a phone and I can't have a proof of address without having a job, what do you want me to do
"Eish I don't know"

I also asked about how all the visitors who will be coming here for the 2010 world cup who may want a SIM card. Will a bill from hotel do? If they are staying at friends houses how will that work?

MTN are sponsoring the world cup aren't they.

Currently using UK SIM, expensive but it works.

[Dave A]

For non-SA Citizens and non-permanent residents all you have to do is flash your passport (in your case British, I'd assume). All they need to record is your full names, surname and identity as per the passport.

A fascinating loophole in the fight against crime using cellphones, just be a foreigner - but there you go.

[tec0]

I find this interesting. If all SIM cards needs to be activated by places like MTN stores and Vodacom shops, it will be pointless to buy a SIM card at the local store because you cannot get it activated. Now come 2010 world cup and people will buy SIM cards where it is available! Thus those cards will be useless because you still need to activate them. Thus you will have a lot of confused 2010 world cup supporters on your hands.

[Frankincense]

......"Does anybody have the real story behind this phenomenon? "

Grabbing a SIM at the garage and surfing freely was a temporary illusional freedom to which much flesh becomes accustomed, and so eventually depend upon. Objective achieved!

When the fish bites, the hungered rabid reel in....

Reporting in the Flesh to be identified with paper documents & bar coded numbers as the spool turns....and the line tightens...

...naturally the next step is reporting for DNA sampling and Bio-chip re-verification....

...flesh will consent as they always do....

there is a Greater Phenomenon which protects those who stand in His Grace...

[tec0]

The real story. Right Phone registration needs to be done basically because right now you have endless stalkers and other such individuals that ARE abusing the mobile networks. The registration of mobile phones WILL practically eliminate anonymity thus you will be able to identify the stalker or abuser with a Court-Order. In all honesty after all my negative views on this I now realise it is actually a good thing. And registering your mobile is easy once you know what it is they want from you and stuff like that. It only takes about 10 minutes

[Frankincense]

@TecO...no, unfortunately that is not the real story, but one they would advertise and have many sheeple believe. The people are to believe it's to "reduce crime"...just like 9/11....it's sad!

All societies need an "enemy image" to consolidate against and have a common cause, so if their isn't one, one will be created/provided.

What's worse is that when they market the Bio-chip to you as the head of a family in the name of "crime prevention" to prevent kidnapping / fraud / etc etc....there will be more that would say "Oh, that's it!!!, this must be true...give my family members one now!"

...Service providers have for years already been able to do ANYTHING (track/trace/listen in etc etc.) with a court order. It's nothing new....it's all about control.

If you are part of many who don't "get it", you & everyone else soon will....FICA & RICA are mere precursors to fulfill a prohpesy concerning the numbering by the Beast...old news.......but hey, if you think it's about crime prevention....Your opinion is shared & respected by all those who may consent to what is still to come....

I know crime prevention is not at all the reason behind this...it's about the spirit of the times..when you see the green shoots start to show on the trees, know spring is near.

[tec0]

In all honesty I share your mistrust in this matter Francois. I am also aware of the many movements that are taking place as we speak. Yes there are scary people with scary minds and they are moving towards the end of the free and they are successful in blinding us to the many truths of both our history and our future.

However, they know that there is truth in there deception. See it comes down to argument. Yes they can trace and track every mobile phone that was stolen. Why then is it so difficult for the police to find these phones? In this scenario we may only speculate.

Still let them register and control the mobile industry. You can always just switch it off if you feel that your privacy is being violated.

[Frankincense]

mistrust?...if only it were that innocent an infant feeling!

Target Identified - approach with extreme caution! Destruction imminent - God Force TETRAGRAMMATON to initiate!!!

[tec0]

In the end Francois, it comes down to miracles. That is if you still belief in that sort of thing. Sad truth is I do and yes it can be misplaced or even stupid but what the hell right. In the end you can only live so long and do so much then you go into the unknown. So it comes down to a little known fact, and that is a world where the human mind is god, it will be a world not worth living in.