We compared Vodacom Plus and Telkom FreeMe – and the winner is clear

Vodacom launched its Smart+ and Red+ contract plans on 1 August, following Telkom unveiling its new FreeMe packages.

The Plus plans from Vodacom follow the structure of its Smart and Red plans – with minutes, SMS messages, and data included.

Vodacom tweaked the existing plans to offer more data and fewer SMS messages, and adjusted the prices accordingly.

We took Vodacom’s Plus plans and compared them to Telkom’s FreeMe packages, as detailed below.

Post-paid vs prepaid and roll-over

First, we must note that Telkom Free packages are available as Boost Bundles to contract and prepaid subscribers at the same price.

Prepaid subscribers who buy a boost bundle will receive all the package benefits a contract subscriber gets.

Vodacom’s deals are only available if you sign a 24-month contract.

While a FreeMe boost bundle of 500MB is available, Telkom has no 500MB FreeMe contract listed on its website, so it is excluded from this comparison.

Basic package value

The tables below summarise the basic package value included in each of the contracts.

Added value

Certain features of the deals are more difficult to compare.

Counting in Vodacom’s favour, for example, is that its Plus plans offer a 60-day roll-over on minutes, data, and SMS messages, whereas FreeMe has no roll-over.

In Telkom FreeMe’s favour is 10GB of free Wi-Fi data, unlimited free calls to Telkom numbers, and free access to WhatsApp, BBM, and Viber with a 2GB fair use policy.

Extra bundles and out-of-bundle rates

To balance the value of included package benefits in the plans, we used the bolt-on bundles and out-of-bundle prices summarised in the tables below.

Deals compared

The Telkom FreeMe and Vodacom Plus deals are compared head-to-head below.

Vodacom Smart S+ vs Telkom FreeMe 1GB — Winner: FreeMe