Prepaid SIM for iPhone

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DavidMjps

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Hi
I'm traveling to South Africa soon and would like to get a prepaid sim for my iPhone. I'd appreciate any advice on the best price / plan.

I'll be in Johannesburg and Durban for about a month and would only need about 100mb of data allowance.

Thanks in advance
David M.
 
Prepaid sims here range from R1 to R3 .. peanuts :p

Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Virgin Mobile are the main carriers.

Your best best would probably be to get one of these with a data bundle. Not sure if you already know, but data here in SA is damn expensive!

Vodacom - http://www.vodacom.co.za/services/vodacom_broadband/cost.jsp

Can get a "MyMeg 150" with 150MB of data allowance for R 119.00 a month. Pretty expensive but that's the only one I know of as i'm on Vodacom myself.

There may be cheaper alternatives which I am not aware of.
 
Firstly ... don't also forget to check if your phone is unlocked to work on other networks except from your home network.
Regarding the data - I agree with the comments fxit_man posted. Cell C & Virgin Mobile only have GPRS/EDGE so if you have a 3G iPhone you won't benefit from the added speed. Virgin Mobile charges 60c/MB but is a little unreliable at times. The pay-as-you-go rates without the data bundles mentioned is R2/mb
 
Aah thanks Mike, forgot about that...

Not sure which country you are coming from. If you bought your iPhone from USA it will be network locked meaning you cannot use any other SIM card in it unless you have the SIM card adapter which tricks the phone or have software unlocked it. Is it a 2G or 3G iPhone?

If you need any help with that, lemme know ;)
 
Yeah, it's only in some places (SA being one of them) that the iPhone3G is sold completely unlocked!

As a last resort you can JailBreak/Unlock your phone - dunno if the 3G can be yet - that's how I got my iPhone 2G to work in SA...
 
fxit_man said:
Prepaid sims here range from R1 to R3 .. peanuts :p

Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Virgin Mobile are the main carriers.

Your best best would probably be to get one of these with a data bundle. Not sure if you already know, but data here in SA is damn expensive!

Can get a "MyMeg 150" with 150MB of data allowance for R 119.00 a month. Pretty expensive but that's the only one I know of as i'm on Vodacom myself.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies!.

My iPhone is the current 3G model and has been unlocked by my service provider here in Australia.

I looked at the Vodacom site and it looks like the best deal would be:

4U Prepaid Pack - R 199 (inc R25 of calls)
MyMeg 150 data pack - R 119

The data cost doesn't seem to bad - I pay A$10/mo for 300mb here.

BTW - Are there any places (coffee shops, malls, etc) that have free wi-fi ?

Thanks again for the advice.

Regards
David
 
DavidMjps said:
Thanks for the replies!.

My iPhone is the current 3G model and has been unlocked by my service provider here in Australia.

I looked at the Vodacom site and it looks like the best deal would be:

4U Prepaid Pack - R 199 (inc R25 of calls)
MyMeg 150 data pack - R 119

The data cost doesn't seem to bad - I pay A$10/mo for 300mb here.

BTW - Are there any places (coffee shops, malls, etc) that have free wi-fi ?

Thanks again for the advice.

Regards
David
Click to expand...

Don't fall for the 4u Prepaid pack rubbish for R199.

You can walk into a local Pick 'n Pay or any other supermarket and buy a Vodacom 4U Prepaid SIM card for R1 or R2 .. With no preloaded air time obviously. You can also buy airtime from them as well.

I don't know what the additional benefits (if any) are of buying the more expensive one, but for your purposes, i'd say the cheaper ones are fine.

You'd be lucky to find any free Wi-Fi hotspots here but the odd Mugg and Bean (a coffee shop) has free Wi-Fi.
 
On the Vodacom site it says:

Whether you're a Contract, Top Up or Prepaid customer, we've got a bundle for you!
<snip>
If you're a Prepaid customer dial *111# (free) and press 'call' to buy a data bundle. You can also visit your nearest participating Vodacom outlet for the latest Internet deals.
 
There is no difference in voice airtime and data airtime when purchasing airtime, it just deducts the amount from your current phone balance which ever you use. Regarding loading the airtime, when you purchase it - it will tell you on the slip what to type to do that.
Some wifi hotspots are free to access but I have found those to be few and far between, I think I have maybe found 1 or 2 ever so not really worth trying, far too much effort. The ones like Mugg & Bean Coffee shop generally (not all of course) sometimes require you to be a subscriber to one of the other ISPs then they give you access.
You can maybe download an app (off the Appstore) called Wi-Fi Finder by a company called JiWire and it may help you get some info on hotspots.
 
MikeCTZA said:
There is no difference in voice airtime and data airtime when purchasing airtime, it just deducts the amount from your current phone balance which ever you use.
Click to expand...

Does that mean, for prepaid, that the data charges are based on time - rather than volume?
 
DavidMjps said:
Does that mean, for prepaid, that the data charges are based on time - rather than volume?
Click to expand...

no, unless you aere connecting via WAP ( not even sure if it still exists here)

GPRS/3G etc is charged per MB of usage (R2/MB) unless you are on a data plan which works out cheaper.

What he was saying is that airtime can be used for both voice calls and data usage (I.e Internet). No need to buy seperate airtime for each. With the data plan, the airtime is deducted from your balance up
front
 
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