How much WhatsApp calling really costs in SA

Bradley Prior

Bradley Prior

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How much WhatsApp calling really costs in SA
It is over 95% cheaper to make voice calls on WhatsApp with 1GB monthly data than using regular calls with prepaid voice minute bundles or out-of-bundle rates in South Africa, MyBroadband calculations show.
 
Thought the R35 Whatsapp bundle for 30 days on Vodacom was the cheapest.
 
With network calls also being digitised why is the quality so poor? With whatsapp it's consistent and either works or doesn't. One would think voice calls should be better with receiving priority.
 
Swa said:
With network calls also being digitised why is the quality so poor? With whatsapp it's consistent and either works or doesn't. One would think voice calls should be better with receiving priority.
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It depends, since you can still get CDMA on 4G LTE, you need both parties to have VoLTE equivalent.
 
Johnatan56 said:
It depends, since you can still get CDMA on 4G LTE, you need both parties to have VoLTE equivalent.
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Not sure what you're saying but digital is digital. I don't get how someone on the other end can't hear me or that it's barely audible when it's the same phone and same speaker.
 
Johnatan56 said:
It depends, since you can still get CDMA on 4G LTE, you need both parties to have VoLTE equivalent.
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Also, depending on coverage and handset you might have different technologies in use on either side/intermediaries requiring transcoding whereas with WhatsApp being an app it generally only has to cater for jitter and latency and everything else is pretty much static.
 
Swa said:
With network calls also being digitised why is the quality so poor? With whatsapp it's consistent and either works or doesn't. One would think voice calls should be better with receiving priority.
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Absolutely! I've almost given up on traditional cell phone voice calls, I can almost never have a conversation where both parties can understand everything said. With whatsapp calls it almost always works perfectly.
 
Bradley Prior said:
How much WhatsApp calling really costs in SA
It is over 95% cheaper to make voice calls on WhatsApp with 1GB monthly data than using regular calls with prepaid voice minute bundles or out-of-bundle rates in South Africa, MyBroadband calculations show.
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It should be noted that WhatsApp call prices can be even cheaper when using discounted WhatsApp-only bundles.
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From my experience (on Vodacom), WhatsApp-only bundles doesn't work for WhatsApp voice calls: The call will ring, but cannot connect. So the bundles seem to be "useful" only for WhatsApp text and images.
 
princeradebe said:
Now compare WhatApp with international calls
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Quality or data usage? Find latency becomes an issue there, depends on how lucky you are with where the servers are.

Personally always use Google duo / meet for international, best latency and video calling (latency barely noticeable vs telegram and whatsapp always an issue, talking 180-200 ping). If younger crowd, discord is good for just voice.
 
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