The best month-to-month mobile data deals in South Africa

There are several affordable capped and uncapped mobile data packages available in South Africa which don’t require a user to sign up to a long-term contract.

Mobile network operators tend to offer their most attractive data products on 12- or 24-month contracts, which locks the user into a major commitment.

While a contract can provide great value, you are usually required to pay a hefty cancellation fee should wish to terminate it early due to bad network or service experience.

This is why many users prefer month-to-month products.

Fortunately, there are a number of month-to-month LTE and 5G packages available that offer great value.

Capped packages

Fixed LTE packages on MTN and Telkom’s networks provide users with large amounts of anytime data as week as nighttime data.

Packages range from R199 to R1,949 per month, with data allocations ranging from 60GB to 1TB.

These are offered from numerous ISPs but are most affordable when purchased through Afrihost and Axxess, in most cases.

MTN recently also launched three of its own month-to-month Home Wi-Fi packages which offer great value.

Telkom offers the biggest and cheapest month-to-month mobile data package, however, with its recently-launched 1TB anytime data product priced at only R999.

The table below shows a comparison between the various capped month-to-month LTE packages available on Telkom and MTN’s networks.

Note that these prices do not include a router, which can either be purchased at a once-off fee or added on to the monthly price.

Uncapped packages

When it comes to uncapped month-to-month mobile data packages, you only have two networks to choose from.

Rain offers several uncapped LTE and 5G packages, which start at R250 for the Unlimited Off-Peak product.

It recently launched an uncapped 4G SIM specifically intended for use in smartphones, which is priced at R379 per month.

While its Unlimited 4G comes in cheap at only R479 per month, it is throttled at maximum speeds of 10Mbps and caps video streaming to a resolution of 360p.

For those seeking faster uncapped month-to-month connectivity with better streaming quality, Rain offers its 5G Home Standard and Premium packages.

Afrihost is the only other provider which offers a month-to-month uncapped data package, which runs on MTN’s network.

It is capable of reaching speeds of up to 150Mbps, but comes with a fair usage policy of 1TB, after which speeds will be throttled.

The table below shows the uncapped month-to-month 4G and 5G packages available from Rain and Afrihost.

Now read: Best-ever mobile data deals in South Africa – 120GB for R299