Cheapest and best cellphone contract in South Africa

Tariffic, a South African company that offers cellphone bill optimising services, has launched an index for mobile contracts from local operators that it calls the Perfect Package Tracker.

“Between Vodacom, Cell C, MTN, and Telkom there are over 10,000 different combinations of cellphone contracts and add-on bundles. It is almost impossible for ordinary cellphone users to choose the contracts and bundles that suit their needs… and their pockets,” said Tariffic.

In an effort to analyse and rank these options, Tariffic said it created four hypothetical users, each with their own unique usage patterns.

The usage patterns of these generic users were then put through Tariffic’s analysis software, which determined the best contract package for them.

“We show the best options for each user on each network, with the first column indicating the most cost effective package and bundle for each user – also known as the Tariffic Pick!”

The users

Tariffic gave each of its hypothetical users a name. The names and usage patterns of the four users are as follows:

Chris

Calls a few times per day.
Inconsistent data user, some months using almost nothing and other months using up to 600MB.

Susanne

Always on the phone with her clients and friends.
Uses quite a lot of data, especially when travelling around the country to meet clients.
Pretty good at keeping usage in-bundle.

Tshepo

Doesn’t make many calls.
Uses a lot of data.

Maleek

Relies on his tablet and data SIM contract for his Internet access.

Tariffic said it plans to optimise these users every quarter using the same parameters.

“This tracker will thereby function as a gauge of the South African cellular landscape, identifying how the cellular market is improving or deteriorating for consumers over time,” Tariffic said.

The following table and infographic summarises the outcome of Tariffic’s analysis of the best contracts during Q1 2015 for these users.

Tariffic’s Perfect Package Tracker: Q1 2015
User/usage	Tariffic Pick	2^nd	3^rd	4^th
Chris	Telkom	Cell C	Vodacom	MTN
	Smart One-Rate	ChatMore 200	Smart L	My MTNChoice 350
	(Add) Out of bundle spend	(Add) 100MB SmartData Bundle (Add) Out of bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy	(Add) Out of bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy	300MB My MTNChoice data bundle (Add) Out of bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy
	Total: R125 p/m	Total: R222 p/m	Total: R250 p/m	Total: R291 p/m
Susanne	Cell C	Telkom	MTN	Vodacom
	Straight-Up 800	Smart One-Rate	My MTNChoice 500	Red Business
	(Add) 300MB SmartData bundle (Add) Out-of-bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy	(Add) Out of bundle spend	(Add) 30 My MTNChoice SMS bundle (Add) 2GB My MTNChoice data bundle (Add) 200 minute on-net voice bundle (Add) Out of bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy	(Add) Out of bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy
	Total: R808 p/m	Total: R1,046 p/m	Total: R1,061 p/m	Total: R1,152 p/m
Tshepo	Cell C	MTN	Vodacom	Telkom
	SmartChat 6GB	My MTNChoice 100	Smart S	Smart One-Rate
	(Add) Out of bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy	(Add) 3GB My MTNChoice data bundle (Add) Out of bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy	(Add) 2GB data bundle (Add) Out of bundle spend (Less) Handset subsidy	(Add) Out of bundle spend
	Total: R330 p/m	Total: R393 p/m	Total: R426 p/m	Total: R457 p/m
Maleek	Cell C	Vodacom	MTN	Telkom
	SmartData 3GB	My Gig 3GB	My MTNChoice 3GB	SmartInternet 5GB
			(Less) Handset subsidy
	Total: R167 p/m	Total: R169 p/m	Total: R182 p/m	Total: R199 p/m