Why does airtime/date expire?

NeonNinja

NeonNinja

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Why does airtime/data expire?

Why does airtime/data expire?

Legality of it?
 
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Has been brought up with the NCC. They claim it's not against the CPA. Nothing came of it.
 
So the networks can extort more money from you. There are also different expiry dates depending on how the airtime/data was obtained. Some only last a week, others years and it could be the difference of R1 in the cost.

I feel "sorry" for the prepaid customers. They spend a massive R12 and get 1440 minutes and 500Gb data free for 24 hours. They never get to use their R12 they spent and it expires.
 
Dairyfarmer said:
So the networks can extort more money from you. There are also different expiry dates depending on how the airtime/data was obtained. Some only last a week, others years and it could be the difference of R1 in the cost.

I feel "sorry" for the prepaid customers. They spend a massive R12 and get 1440 minutes and 500Gb data free for 24 hours. They never get to use their R12 they spent and it expires.
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I feel sorry for contract customers.

Also don't get your example, except if the prepaid customer is buying some special thing, like "uncapped for a day" or whatever, but that is their choice.
 
Whenever in SA, I buy 3 or 5 gb data for my Ipad..... I only use it for ten days or so, and then leave...... one guy in a store told me , that If my card was not active in three weeks, I would lose the remainder....another salesman said it was 3 months, not three weeks..... these days, the night before I leave SA, I just download a ton of stuff till I empty out the balance.....
 
I was being a bit sarcastic but seems to have gone over some heads.

On prepaid, every time you recharge they give you some ridiculous amount of free data, sms's or airtime. Granted its limited for the day, week, network, etc.

As far as contracts vs prepaid there is a lot in it. Vodacom for example doubles the airtime/data/sms if you take a sim only contract (sans rollover). You also can save 1000's on the device by buying it outright. MTN charge only a small amount extra for the handset over what the cash price is, but airtime/data/sms are not doubled. MTN customers can buy their data from Axxess cheaper than MTN and it has a 3 month rollover. Afrihost offers MTN customer voice and data with a 12 month expiry?

Prepaid has longer expiry than contracts. Contracts may roll 3 months, where as prepaid is valid for year +. Also look at how you use your phone for voice. If you recharge strategically you can just about get 50% free calls during the day. Example is if you recharge Vodacom with R50, you get R25 free any network airtime for that day. Also look at the advertised per minute charges. Some networks offer discounts on those rates depending on where you are (low traffic on tower) and what time of the day it is or day of the week.

Advantage of contracts (so the networks say) is that they have priority on busy networks. Disadvantage of prepaid is all the spam sms's the networks send you.

Then there is the cost of a sim swap should you need it. prepaid is very easy, go buy a 50c sim almost anywhere and do it over the phone. Contract customers need to go to a network store and pay R80+ for the same sim card.
 
I'm on MTN and prepaid works best for me. They give a criminal amount of data on their contracts so I buy 1 GB per month and get another 1 GB free, both expire after a month. I was planning on getting data from one of the 3rd party service providers but you can't call and sms, I still call a few times a month, without using their data & voice services. I don't have a credit card so that's not an option.

The 2 GB is enough since I just use it when I'm away from home or uni.

Regarding OP's post: Probably to make more money.
 
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Axxess 2Gb = R98 with a 3 month rollover of unused data
Afrihost 2Gb = R99 no rollover
MTN 1Gb+1Gb once off = R160
Axxess and Afrihost work with MTN sim card only (both pre and post pay)
Voice still cheaper with MTN
 
genetic said:
You don't have to take a phone you know.
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Perhaps in the past, but this is no longer the case.
Lets take for example Vodacom, their contract voice rates are R1.90 a minute, while their prepaid rate is R0.79, yes data is the same.
Lets look at MTN, it's R1.20 to MTN and R1.60 to others, for prepaid it's R0.79
Telkom Mobile, it's any from R0.29 to R0.99 for prepaid, I cannot find their contract prices, but if I remember it's R1.20 to R1.90 methinks

And so on, so where is contract cheaper?
 
Lupus said:
And so on, so where is contract cheaper?
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Vodacom SmartS SIM only: R209 150/400/400
Yes its R1.40/min if you used the voice only, but you also get 400mb data worth about R25 and 400 SMS's (if you use them)

You don't get all the free stuff you get when recharging, but you don't get all those annoying sms's telling you what you can get if you recharge now.
 
Dairyfarmer said:
Vodacom SmartS SIM only: R209 150/400/400
Yes its R1.40/min if you used the voice only, but you also get 400mb data worth about R25 and 400 SMS's (if you use them)

You don't get all the free stuff you get when recharging, but you don't get all those annoying sms's telling you what you can get if you recharge now.
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Okay so 150 minutes at 0.79 works out to R118 + R25 for data, Okay you don't get the sms but yeah not sure who would actually use them all, so prepaid still works out cheaper.
 
Lupus said:
Okay so 150 minutes at 0.79 works out to R118 + R25 for data, Okay you don't get the sms but yeah not sure who would actually use them all, so prepaid still works out cheaper.
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That 0.79 on some networks is only to the same network.

Minutes don't care so you can't compare them outright or you should use the any network call rate.

150*1.20 ~ 180
On the sim only deal you get double the minutes. So just on calls you have 360. Looks like a saving to me?
 
Emelio10 said:
I'm on MTN and prepaid works best for me. They give a criminal amount of data on their contracts so I buy 1 GB per month and get another 1 GB free, both expire after a month. I was planning on getting data from one of the 3rd party service providers but you can't call and sms, I still call a few times a month, without using their data & voice services. I don't have a credit card so that's not an option.

The 2 GB is enough since I just use it when I'm away from home or uni.

Regarding OP's post: Probably to make more money.
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This applies exactly to me, I could have written it.

But just read from 1 July they only giving back 500mb if you buy 1 gb instead of giving back 1 gb :(
 
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