Click table to see larger image. As of Tuesday morning, the new naked plans had yet to be posted to Vodafone's site but were expected to be online shortly. If a monthly data cap is exceeded, extra data packs can be bought - for example, $30 for another 30
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Click table to see larger image. As of Tuesday morning, the new naked plans had yet to be posted to Vodafone's site but were expected to be online shortly. If a monthly data cap is exceeded, extra data packs can be bought - for example, $30 for another 30GB on the Ultimate Naked plan.
[UPDATE: This morning Vodafone posted a message saying the Naked DSL launch had been delayed for a day "while we work on some back office system that’s not playing nicely".]
Vodafone has become the latest internet service provider to offer “naked DSL” - that is, landline broadband without the need to buy a home phone line, too.
But although you don’t have to shell out $44 for a fixed phone line, to get the cheapest Naked DSL rate, you do have to have your cellphone on-account with Vodafone (pre-pay and mobile data plans don’t count).
And to get the very, very cheapest deal, you also have to live in an area that Vodafone has local loop unbundled (LLU; that is, moved its own gear inside a Telecom exchange). Essentially, that means Auckland.
If you do live in Auckland, have a Vodafone mobile contract, and don’t mind ditching your landline number, the new deals are definitely worth investigating.
Otherwise, the pricing won’t motivate people to ditch their Telecom landline plus broadband plans.
If you are shopping around for DSL minus a home phone line, you note that among the other larger ISPs, you'll notice that Orcon's naked DSL option only kicks in when you buy a premium-priced fixed line broadband plan - $79.95 for 25GB a month.
Similarly, with Slingshot, naked DSL is only an option with an $80/month 20GB plan.
Cheaper clothed plans
Although it’s the exact opposite to Naked DSL, Vodafone is also promoting prices with a bundled home phone line (see table above), presumably to target Telecom’s Total Home bundle (which costs from $99 with 10GB of data, a home line and unlimited national calls).
Asked if Vodafone had any plans to launch an unlimited data plan - to match this week's move by Slingshot - a spokesman offered only that the company was focusing on its naked DSL launch.
