iBurst prepaid pricing comparison
iBurst yesterday announced that it has launched a Wireless Prepaid Internet service trial, offering participants in the trial 500 Megabytes of free data.
“The iBurst Prepaid product is set to launch commercially in mid September and iBurst has extended an invitation to anyone who may have an old iBurst modem that is currently not in use to help test the service before it is officially launched,” the company announced in a press statement.
iBurst has also announced the pricing for its prepaid wireless Internet service. Vouchers, similar to mobile top-up vouchers are available in a range of denominations, from 50MB to 2 Gigabytes, with a price per megabyte ranging from R1 to 25 cents depending on the bundle.
These prices were criticized by consumers for being too high and out of line with market related costs. “This is from R1024 to R256 per GB. 3G/HSDPA is in the same price range. Why take iBurst? Most 3G cellphones can be used as modems anyway,” one consumer asked.
iBurst’s prepaid pricing is also significantly higher than their current month-to-month offerings where a 500 MB package costs R 149 – lower than the R 200 for a 400 MB prepaid bundle. iBurst’s standard 3 GB data bundle priced at R 449 is also more affordable than a 2 GB iBurst prepaid bundle which costs R 500.
Vodacom and MTN – both able to offer country-wide coverage and speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps – are also more affordable on prepaid bandwidth. The cellular providers charge R 389 for a 2 GB data bundle, cheaper than iBurst’s R 500.
And then there are innovative offerings like GConnect’s one-account broadband service where non-expiring prepaid bandwidth costs between R 0.45 and R 0.62 per MB, depending on the technology used (3G, Wi-Fi or ADSL).
iBurst was not immediately available for comment on its new Wireless Internet prepaid tariffs.
The following table gives a basic comparison of similar prepaid data offerings in the market:
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iBurst Prepaid Pricing Comparison
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| Service | Advertised Speed | Data Bundle | Price | Cost/MB |
| G-Connect | 3.6 Mbps | R 25 | R 0.62 | |
| MTN HSDPA | 3.6 Mbps | 10 MB | R 10 | R 1.00 |
| iBurst Wireless Prepaid | 1 Mbps | 50 MB | R 50 | R 1.00 |
| iBurst Wireless Month-to-month | 1 Mbps | 40 MB | R 49 | R 1.23 |
| G-Connect | 3.6 Mbps | R 100 | R 0.62 | |
| iBurst Wireless Prepaid | 1 Mbps | 140 MB | R 100 | R 0.71 |
| Vodacom MyMeg 150 | 3.6 Mbps | 150 MB | R 119 | R 0.79 |
| MTN | 3.6 Mbps | 100 MB | R 80 | R 0.80 |
| iBurst Wireless Month-to-month | 1 Mbps | 500 MB | R 149 | R 0.30 |
| MTN | 3.6 Mbps | 500 MB | R 189 | R 0.38 |
| Vodacom MyMeg 500 | 3.6 Mbps | 500 MB | R 189 | R 0.38 |
| iBurst Wireless Prepaid | 1 Mbps | 400 MB | R 200 | R 0.50 |
| iBurst Wireless Month-to-month | 1 Mbps | 3 GB | R 449 | R 0.15 |
| Vodacom MyGig Two | 3.6 Mbps | 2 GB | R 389 | R 0.19 |
| MTN HSDPA | 3.6 Mbps | 2 GB | R 389 | R 0.19 |
| iBurst Wireless | 1 Mbps | 2 GB | R 500 | R 0.25 |
iBurst Wireless Prepaid pricing – comments and views
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