The truth about mobile data prices in South Africa

[rpm]

I'm sorry I didn't make it clear I was comparing MTN to MTN...............

Still the same argument. If you are happy with MTN for large data packages, buy them from MTN. If you are unhappy with smaller data packages from MTN, buy them from another operator.

I want mobile operators - and all other companies in a competitive environment - to charge what they want for products. I also want them to develop any product they want (high quality, low quality, whatever).

The market will decide if there is demand for their products. Vodacom and MTN have proven that there is demand for their products even though there are cheaper options available.

What I don't want is for the government to get involved in telecoms. We have been down that road, and it left us with a decade-long monopoly which damaged the economy and left us without choice.

 

[cr@zydude]

Now I pay R1 for 1GB of MTN data, and I have 500 GBs (anytime) to use, it's great it is very fast and none of the hamstring BS that rain has.

But if mother , domestic worker . neighbor or anyone else I know wanted to go get 100GB of data to use this month they would have to pay R25 per gig.

So why should I be paying 4% of what someone else has to pay per gig?
Heaven forbid they only need 10GB because then I pay 2% of what they pay.

What? For packages of 10GB per month or more, Axxess starts at R10/GB on a month-to-month basis.

 

[rick9k]

What? For packages of 10GB per month or more, Axxess starts at R10/GB on a month-to-month basis.

These are the options I get when opening up the mtn app on the phone to buy data .
You wanna know what the best part is, I just tried this on another phone and get different prices for the same data

@rpm Tell me again how this isn't ripping users off?

 

[rpm]

These are the options I get when opening up the mtn app on the phone to buy data .
You wanna know what the best part is, I just tried this on another phone and get different prices for the same data

@rpm Tell me again how this isn't ripping users off?

I think there is a complete misunderstanding of my argument. I think MTN should be allowed to charge R10,000 per GB if they want. In fact, they can charge R10 million if they want.

If there is no demand for those products, people won't buy them. Telkom, Cell C, Rain, and Vodacom will gladly sign up subscribers if MTN's prices are too high.

Is R300 for a small piece of chicken at a restaurant acceptable? I have no idea. The only way to know is to see if people buy it or not. That is how a free market works.

 

[rick9k]

We can quite clearly see you are not interested in any of the actual real numbers
Another quality news article by MyBB

 

[cr@zydude]

These are the options I get when opening up the mtn app on the phone to buy data .
You wanna know what the best part is, I just tried this on another phone and get different prices for the same data

@rpm Tell me again how this isn't ripping users off?

Go here instead: https://www.axxess.co.za/mobile/telkom-lte

R999pm can get you 220gb anytime and 220gb night data on Telkom.

R199pm can get you 30+30.

 

[rick9k]

Go here instead: https://www.axxess.co.za/mobile/telkom-lte

R999pm can get you 220gb anytime and 220gb night data on Telkom.

R199pm can get you 30+30.

Oh for telkom.
Yes I have
3 x telkom 100 GB sims.
1 x telkom uncapped (350GB) full speed sim
1 x rain uncapped
1 x rain 330GB
1 x mtn 500GB
1 x vodacom 80GB(maybe 50GB) .. I can't remember.

All anytime data.
I use a lot of data on the move, in fact I wrote some software to bond all the connections together and it automatically adjusts the load per sim depending on the sims performance, this also shows me how well each network is performing.

I can tell you that in KZN, Rain has a lot more coverage than expected but still a trash network, telkom and vodacom are medium performers and MTN by far exceeds vodacom in just plain quality and perfomance.

Luckily I can afford all of this and I'm not the average south african that just "if you are unhappy , buy from another operator"

 

[Synaesthesia]

If you look at what ordinary South Africans spend on telecommunications, as a percentage of their budget, it's far too much.

I also interpret their pricing model as ripping off the poor and holding back development.

 

[rpm]

We can quite clearly see you are not interested in any of the actual real numbers
Another quality news article by MyBB

We are indeed interested in these numbers, which is why we provided it in the article. The numbers may not support what you want to see.

Can you provide a more comprehensive comparison which we can look at? Compare like-for-like products?

 

[rpm]

If you look at what ordinary South Africans spend on telecommunications, as a percentage of their budget, it's far too much.

I also interpret their pricing model as ripping off the poor and holding back development.

This is a challenging argument, because of the country's low average income. For example:

What is the ordinary South African's spend on cars? Or public transport? Or computing equipment?

 

[Mr Justice]

Why are comments disabled on this article?

 

[wizardofid]

Why are comments disabled on this article?

Because they made a mess out of the article.Insanely one sided and truely backward thinking, and then trying to defend that stance. I mean I pointed out the article is ''mobile data'' , and keeps on defending rain, which isn't technically ''mobile data'' in the conventional sense at least.Didn't even bother replying on that. lol

pointed out what networks there is in Africa and what tech is used surprisingly, there is only about two networks in Africa that should be able to supply fixed LTE or some thing similar to what rain offers, and rain still gets peddled, only about six countries with coverage above 50%.

literally only two countries in Africa, Senegal and Morocco that you can compare like for like, with regards to coverage and network tech, rest have a lot smaller infrastructure and expenditure to really compare with the rest.

So the question is why is rain being peddled, when no one else have even remotely close to a similar network, and why is it under the ''mobile data'' umbrella ? Makes zero sense ?

 

[Swa]

Can you find a comparable African operation (coverage, Capex, network quality, 4G, etc) to Vodacom and MTN in South Africa. That will really help to get a like-for-like comparison.

No but why should you? You are simply comparing the price here. Yes Vodacom has larger capex, as it should, because it most likely has more customers. That also means higher income. Yes you have one network with 33% coverage vs 96% (claimed) but that also means they can only make a profit from 33% of the population. Really these issues are mentioned with every article like this but somehow they never make it into the next and just continue the narrative.

South Africa has some of the cheapest mobile data in the world.
Rain charges R299 for an unlimited mobile data connection. That's actually brilliant...

No it doesn't. That's a limited connection first of all and it's only a BF special for 3 months. You should know this as it was in one of your articles.

That is definitely not suitable for them. Great news is that South Africa has many different operators and MVNOs. They can just pick another one.

And that is the beauty of a free market system. If you are not happy with one provider, use another one. If you are not happy with them, you can jump ship again.

I love choice and would not like the government to take my choice away.

Not everyone can pick. Data should not cost more than R3/GB and you shouldn't have to buy hundreds to get that price either. R30 for a 10GB bundle. R100 for 100GB. These mickey mouse MB bundles shouldn't have been a thing for years already but still the networks push them.

 

[rpm]

Not everyone can pick. Data should not cost more than R3/GB and you shouldn't have to buy hundreds to get that price either. R30 for a 10GB bundle. R100 for 100GB. These mickey mouse MB bundles shouldn't have been a thing for years already but still the networks push them.

Can you show where in Africa I can buy 100GB for R100?

 

[rpm]

Because they made a mess out of the article. Insanely one sided and truly backward thinking, and then trying to defend that stance. I mean I pointed out the article is ''mobile data'' , and keeps on defending rain, which isn't technically ''mobile data'' in the conventional sense at least. Didn't even bother replying on that.

Rain is indeed mobile. In fact, it is a "mobile only" deal because you may only use it on a mobile phone.

I still do not understand what you want to happen. Should the government start to regulate prices in a free market? I assume you do not trust the free market?

 

[Swa]

Can you show where in Africa I can buy 100GB for R100?

Have you looked at some of the uncapped options people have been mentioning in these threads since forever?

Rain is indeed mobile. In fact, it is a "mobile only" deal because you may only use it on a mobile phone.

I still do not understand what you want to happen. Should the government start to regulate prices in a free market? I assume you do not trust the free market?

How about regulate the market like is supposed to be their job. That is what has happened in all countries with cheap data. Cell C and Telkom never had the opportunity to become proper competitors. It's one thing to claim you get what you pay for but why is that the case?

 

[supersunbird]

Have you looked at some of the uncapped options people have been mentioning in these threads since forever?


How about regulate the market like is supposed to be their job. That is what has happened in all countries with cheap data. Cell C and Telkom never had the opportunity to become proper competitors. It's one thing to claim you get what you pay for but why is that the case?

You know why that is? Because said government regulators (they are the best right?) let them get away with a killer Call Termination Rates for many years before data was such a thing.

 

[rpm]

Have you looked at some of the uncapped options people have been mentioning in these threads since forever?

So you are saying South Africa has great pricing, but South Africa is very expensive? Remember, Vodacom and MTN are not equal to South Africa.

 

[rpm]

How about regulate the market like is supposed to be their job. That is what has happened in all countries with cheap data. Cell C and Telkom never had the opportunity to become proper competitors. It's one thing to claim you get what you pay for but why is that the case?

So you are suggesting more regulation and therefore more government involvement in the telecoms market?

 

[Hemi300c]

Simple target to reach as per usual it'll be for the low income people so
Just say current is 1gig @ R100
Anything more than a gig R250

target 50%

1gig R50
Anything over R350

Didn't read article as I was enjoying dinner and didn't want to spoil it by reading about a POS