Mobile broadband pricing comparison
Towards the end of 2008 Telkom launched their first mobile broadband offering, Telkom Do 3G. Telkom’s mobile data bundles are priced more aggressively than the cellular providers and their out-of-bundle rates are not too shabby either at a competitive 30c per MB.
Vodacom, MTN and Cell C are taking note of Telkom’s entrance into the mobile market, but the fixed line provider is not their only concern. The big guns will also have to keep a beady eye on competition from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) now that they are in possession of Individual ECNS licenses which were granted earlier this year.
East London based ISP, Sainet, was one of the first to leap into the mobile data space with the launch of their own 3G/HSDPA offering. Apart from aggressively priced data bundles they are also offering subscribers bandwidth rollover, something which HSDPA users have been hankering after for a long time.
With the advent of these new players in the 3G/HSDPA market it begs the question as to who provides the best in-bundle and out-of-bundle rates. The following table provides insight into the pricing from the various mobile data providers.
It should be noted that Telkom provides 7.2 Mbps download speeds, higher than the 3.6 Mbps speeds from Vodacom, 3.6 Mbps and 1.8 Mbps from MTN & Sainet and 240 Kbps speeds from Cell C. These are however maximum theoretical speeds and the real life performance can differ significantly.
|
500 MB |
||
| Service | Cost | Out-of-bundle Cost |
| Telkom | 149.00 | 0.30 |
| Sainet | 149.00 | 0.50 |
| Cell C | 185.00 | 1.35 |
| MTN | 189.00 | 1.20 |
| Vodacom | 189.00 | 1.20 |
|
1 GB |
||
| Telkom | 219.00 | 0.30 |
| Sainet | 249.00 | 0.50 |
| Cell C | 285.00 | 1.20 |
| Vodacom | 289.00 | 1.20 |
| MTN | 289.00 | 1.20 |
|
2 GB |
||
| Telkom | 349.00 | 0.30 |
| Sainet | 369.00 | 0.50 |
| Vodacom | 389.00 | 1.20 |
| MTN | 389.00 | 1.20 |
|
3 GB |
||
| Telkom | 489.00 | 0.30 |
| Vodacom | 589.00 | 1.00 |
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