Vodacom, Mtn or Virgin

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floomby

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Not sure if this is the correct place but...

I'm currently on Cell C and want to change to a different network because of reliability issues and bad service:

My question is what network do you think offers the best in terms of value for money, reliability and service levels. I will be going onto prepaid.

Thanks
 
floomby said:
Not sure if this is the correct place but...

I'm currently on Cell C and want to change to a different network because of reliability issues and bad service:

My question is what network do you think offers the best in terms of value for money, reliability and service levels. I will be going onto prepaid.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I can comment on vodacom and mtn only.

I ported from vodacom to mtn purely cause of value for money.
My upgrade was due, and the pay in on MTN's phones was less then vodacoms. Also i see some of the call charges are less. Do your own comparison of all three, just get the info from their websites.

Mtns network seems a more reliable to me. Less dropped calls, and am able to connect to the net all the time. Also the network does not go down as often as vodacom. But the occurance of this was negligable.

I think both the networks service levels are a bit dodgy, dont see much difference in service between mtn helpdesk and vodacoms helpdesk.

From the above i would say mtn and vodacom are similar. For the phone i wanted, the cheaper payin was what moved me to mtn.
 
Really depends on what you want to do mainly, voice or data.

If data, then neither Cell C nor Virgin are really ideal. You know about Cell C already as a customer; Virgin offers super-cheap data for low-usage data customers (50c/MB) but still a very patchy service with plenty of outages and no high-speed connections, only GPRS.

Once you get to higher usage on prepaid, data bundles make the two main providers cheaper per megabyte (e.g. Voda and MTN offer 500MB bundles which work out at around 35c/MB -- even cheaper if you buy your airtime from a discounter like Pick&Pay, Jet, Pep etc. who knock a few percent off the price).

If I interpret the consensus from this forum correctly, Vodacom has a more universal high-speed coverage (3G/HSDPA) but MTN tends to score in areas without high-speed coverage, where they often have more EDGE than the plain-vanilla GPRS which Voda invariably offers.

If you're a high-end user, and putting aside the coverage above, Voda is probably the way to go if cost is a factor: unlike MTN, Voda offers discounts on bulk-buying prepaid airtime (a standard R1000 voucher actually loads R1100 of airtime), so it's effectively about 10% cheaper. Many users also say that MTN support is better, though that's not been my experience. In the end, you pays yer money and you takes yer choice!
 
Ok thanks for the replies :) ... I'll give it some more thought
 
On the data side, it is best to test before committing to a particular network to save yourself trouble afterwards.

Edit: If itemised billing is important to you MTN can't get it right [yet]:sick:
 
Last edited:
Saule said:
On the data side, it is best to test before committing to a particular network to save yourself trouble afterwards.

Edit: If itemised billing is important to you MTN can't get it right [yet]:sick:
Click to expand...

How so?

I get Itemised Billing from MTN each month with my Statement, and its detailed enough for me to see whats going on.
 
If you can afford to be down for a few days, go CellC / Virgin...
If it is acceptable to have limited coverage and some issues every week, go MTN

And if you are 100% dependent on Real BroadBand like myself, go VodaCom...Has always been reliable and fast with superb service....
 
And yes, Vodacom offers much more than all the other together.
- I'm sharing my bundle between 3x sim cards
- Unrestricted access
- Reliable and constant internet access
- My VPN has never ever dropped on my VodaCom line... Happens quite regularly on all the others..

Hope this really help some guys out there - Trust me, I've tried & tested everything.
 
datasim

MobileAllOver said:
DataSim1 and DataSim2 (named BlackBerry, but works as normal DataSim as well)
Click to expand...

Hi MobileAllOver.
Can you confirm that the 2nd datasim also works in a datacard and you get 3g/hsdpa speed. I have been considering/trying to get this set up but the service provider says the second one can only be used for blackberry ? I am unsure if there is a difference in the sim ? or setup of the sim.
thanks
 
I think you allowed only one data sim... one for your modem or one for Blackberry.
If you are allowed 2, that means someone can have 4 sims?
Main number, twincall, data sim 1 and 2....? is that possible?
Maybe I should try that.
 
datasim blackberry sim

JK8 said:
I think you allowed only one data sim... one for your modem or one for Blackberry.
If you are allowed 2, that means someone can have 4 sims?
Main number, twincall, data sim 1 and 2....? is that possible?
Maybe I should try that.
Click to expand...

according to vodacom website you are allowed 2 datasims beside your normal voice sim that can also be used for data on one contract.
I am just not quite clear what the sim for blackberry is capable of ? gprs, edge 3g hsdpa ?
I contacted vodacom 115 and the person who helped me confirmed with someone senior that the third simcard (ie second datasim) will work with a 3g datacard all concurrently. the local supplier however is not sure of this and I would not want to buy one of these if it only gives gprs speeds or does not work with a datacard or phone modem.
 
rory said:
according to vodacom website you are allowed 2 datasims beside your normal voice sim that can also be used for data on one contract.
I am just not quite clear what the sim for blackberry is capable of ? gprs, edge 3g hsdpa ?
I contacted vodacom 115 and the person who helped me confirmed with someone senior that the third simcard (ie second datasim) will work with a 3g datacard all concurrently. the local supplier however is not sure of this and I would not want to buy one of these if it only gives gprs speeds or does not work with a datacard or phone modem.
Click to expand...

They should all be capable with HSDPA.
Just found out, you are allowed all of them. Main number voice, Twincall for your car or whatever, data sim1 Blackberry and data sim 2 for your laptop/modem. Pretty cool!:)
 
Last edited:
rory said:
Hi MobileAllOver.
Can you confirm that the 2nd datasim also works in a datacard and you get 3g/hsdpa speed. I have been considering/trying to get this set up but the service provider says the second one can only be used for blackberry ? I am unsure if there is a difference in the sim ? or setup of the sim.
thanks
Click to expand...

HI MobileAllOver I have just received my 2 datasims.
The datasim 1 works fine in my datacard and phone for data
The datasim 2 does not connect if I use the standard internet APN.
I then tried the blackberry.net apn and it does connect and authenticate but it does not connect to the internet.
Vodacom say that cannot put the internet apn on this sim card so it will not work in a datacard or ones blackberry will not be able to work as a modem etc. ?
Can you confirm that you have 2 datasims besides your main datasim that have the internet apn on it or is there another way around this issue.
Thanks.
 
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