Telkom Mobi pricing
Telkom has quietly launched its new Mobi service, offering cellular services similar to Vodacom, MTN and Cell C using their W-CDMA network. Subscribers can use their Telkom SIM card with any 3G-enabled mobile phone to make voice calls, send SMSes or use data services.
The Telkom Mobi service complements Telkom’s "Do 3G on the move" data service which offers clients competitive mobile data bundle prices and an out-of-bundle rate of 30c per MB.
Telkom Mobi pricing
The Telkom Mobi service comes in five different flavours: prepaid, everyday off-peak, mobile 200, mobi 300 and mobi 500.
The Telkom Mobi Prepaid service carries no monthly usage charge and comes with 15 free voice minutes and 30 free SMSes included in the starter pack. The cost for calls to the Telkom network is R1.99 per minute during peak times and R0.89 during off-peak times. The peak time rate for calls to cellular networks is R2.29 while off peak calls cost R1.39 per minute.
The Telkom Mobi Everyday Off-Peak service carries a monthly subscription fee of R109.00 per month and provides subscribers with 150 off-peak minutes, 30 Free SMS’s per month and 25MB of free data. Voice rates are similar to the prepaid service, but peak time Telkom calls will be slightly lower at R1.89 per minute while off-peak calls to other cellular network will cost R1.35 per minute.
ON the high end of the scale users can purchase a Mobi 500 package which includes 500 voice minutes, 100 free SMSes and 100MB of data for R545.00 per month. On this package Telkom Mobi to Telkom calls are priced at R1.15 per minute during peak time and this price drops to79c per minute during off-peak times. Calls to cellular networks will cost R1.94 and R1.29 during peak and off-peak times respectively.
All SMSes will be charged at 50c per SMS while casual data usage costs 99c per MB. The out-of-bundle rate of 99c per MB is significantly lower than R2.00 per MB associated with MTN, Vodacom and Cell C, but higher than Virgin Mobile’s 60c per MB.
Coverage and roaming agreements
Telkom is aggressively extending is current coverage in Gauteng, Cape Town, Durban and the Eastern Cape. The company currently has a total of 103 live 3G/HSDPA towers with another 130 in various stages of completion. While Telkom missed its earlier target of 200 base stations by the end of March 2009, the company is confident that it will exceed the 200 base station mark soon.
Telkom CEO Reuben September said that the company was carefully selecting suitable sites to place their base stations, and that it would not only be to provide mobile services but also serve their customers in areas of high cable theft.
Telkom is already using a W-CDMA wireless voice services – effectively a fixed line lookalike service – to serve clients affected by cable theft. The pricing of this service is similar to the company’s fixed line voice offering despite using a cellular technology.
The Telkom Mobi service is currently a "nomadic" service where no tower handover is possible. This is however an artificial restriction necessitated by Telkom’s current shareholding agreement with Vodacom/Vodafone, something which will change shortly. After the shareholding agreement is no longer in force Telkom will switch on full mobility on its cellular network.
September made it clear that Telkom was not interested in building a full national mobile network, and that it would partner with a cellular operator to serve its clients in areas which are not covered by their own network. This roaming agreement will most likely involve MTN and Vodacom since they are the only two providers with a 3G network.
While the Telkom Mobi nomadic voice and data service is already available, Telkom’s full mobile drive will most likely only take place in the last quarter of 2009 after country-wide roaming is in place. Telkom said that users can expect a very good value proposition from them, especially when it comes to converged fixed line and mobile products.
Telkom mobile pricing – give your view
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