One of the services that the red operator launched in 2017 so as not to spend data from our rate when using social networks or listening to music, say goodbye forever. Today, this is one of those services that Vodafone has that has ceased to make sense. More than anything, even though it was very successful at the time, since it allowed users not to consume mobile data from their rates, right now, it is no longer so necessary.
Over the years, mobile rates they have been improving. Therefore, the volume of mobile gigabytes that are included in the rates of operators, including Vodafone, has increased. And not only this, but, in many cases, customers already choose to contract rates with unlimited data so they don’t have to worry at any time.
Farewell to Vodafone Pass
In this case, we mean VodafonePass. A service that the red operator launched in Spain in July 2017. At the time, Vodafone customers could see a great advantage in this type of service. More than anything, because it allowed you to enjoy music apps or social networks on your mobile without any kind of restrictions with unlimited data. Basically, because the megabytes of the contracted rate were not consumed.
Within Vodafone, you could choose between 5 available Passes: Music, Social, Maps, Video and chat. Although, there is also super pass (the latter is the joint contracting of Music, Maps and Video). Within each of these tariffs, we find a series of applications that, when used from the mobile, do not consume a single mobile data of the tariff. Even, you always navigate at maximum speed, or at least, that was the case at first. However, outside of these apps, the data of the contracted rate would be spent.
In January 2021, a change arrived in this type of Vodafone rates. Once the rate data was consumed, navigation speed Vodafone Pass was no longer at maximum speed, but was reduced to 16 Kbps. And all in order to comply with net neutrality that we will see in more detail below. In any case, users of the operator will have to say goodbye to Vodafone Pass from April 15which is when this service will be disabled.
All the problems of this service
To understand its closure we have to take a look at the past. In January 2021, the changes began. Basically, because the Court of Justice of the European Union, in September 2020, ruled against these types of rates that the Hungarian operator Telenor was already offering. Therefore, in the case of Vodafone with its ‘Pass’ fares, he was also forced to do something about it. Since from the EU they understood that it violated the neutrality of the Internet. Therefore, that was the first straw that has led Vodafone to decide to permanently deactivate this service.
And that was not all, since, in September 2021, a new sentence that was handed down in Germany also charged against this type of rates as it went against the community regulation on network neutrality and roaming. Therefore, all this has been leading to the Vodafone Pass closure.