Uncapped mobile data prices in South Africa compared

South African residents in the market for a plug-and-play uncapped home data package have several options from which to choose, with some providing speeds of up to 25Mbps for less than R500 a month.

The cheapest uncapped mobile data package available is Rain’s 19-hours Unlimited off-peak product, which provides uncapped data between 23:00 and 18:00 for R250 per month.

Axxess’s MTN Uncapped LTE packages offer speeds of 10Mbps to 100Mbps, with prices ranging from R299 to R749 a month.

The Internet service provider (ISP) is also running a promotion on the MTN Uncapped LTE Pro package, with its price discounted from R949 to R779 per month.

Rain’s 5G and LTE products might appeal to some South Africans as they are not subjected to fair usage policies (FUPs).

Instead, Rain limits speeds and video streaming quality depending on the package selected. It also throttles virtual private network speeds.

FUPs are implemented to protect networks from overload as the spectrum bandwidth assigned to each mobile operator can only translate into a certain amount of data throughput.

Most of the uncapped mobile data packages listed below are subject to FUPs. Details for each are provided in the table below.

It is important to note that the products sold by MTN and Vodacom directly are not month-to-month and require customers to sign into a 24 or 36-month contract.

The table below summarises the pricing and features of uncapped LTE and 5G deals available in South Africa.

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