These South African networks sell mobile data that never expires
Most mobile data bundles in South Africa expire to manage network traffic, maintain quality of service, and offer customer choice while keeping prices low.
Nevertheless, certain smaller mobile players now offer non-expiring bundles, provided customers are willing to live with less choice.
MyBroadband readers often ask why mobile data bundles can only be used for a certain period before expiring while airtime lasts indefinitely.
MTN South Africa’s chief for sustainability and corporate affairs, Jacqui O’Sullivan, told MyBroadband that data carryover was a complex issue.
“You would need to dimension the network to cater for the carried-over traffic volume and duration of carryover,” O’Sullivan said.
In this context, “dimension the network” is industry jargon for ensuring there is enough network capacity to serve all customers in an area who have bought data bundles.
“If all bundles could not expire, it would remove the consumer’s ability to choose products at price points which best suit their needs,” O’Sullivan added.
“The preferential pricing which may be enjoyed on shorter term validity bundles would be adversely affected, and subscribers would all be forced to purchase more expensive bundles valid for a longer period of time.”
O’Sullivan said this would negatively impact competition between operators and product innovation.
MTN’s data bundle expiry periods range from short-term to up to 12 months.
“This ultimately allows subscribers to choose products which best suit their requirements,” O’Sullivan said.
MTN chief of corporate affairs Jacqui O’Sullivan
A Vodacom spokesperson told MyBroadband that the operator’s research and assessment of current customer purchasing behaviour patterns showed that there would be limited demand for bundles that don’t expire.
“If all data bundles were offered without expiry, mobile operators would need to invest significantly in additional network capacity to maintain a high standard quality of service,” the spokesperson said.
“Naturally, this would come with associated costs, which would result in an increase in data prices.”
“They would come in at a price point higher than our recently-introduced 6-month validity bundles,” the spokesperson said.
Cell C also said that mobile services required network resources for operation, necessitating the implementation of expiry periods for minutes, data, and SMS.
“Customers pay for access to these limited resources, and the introduction of validity periods ensures equitable distribution of these services among all customers,” Cell C stated.
“This holds especially true for data, a resource-intensive, high-demand service.”
However, the operator does offer a plan with data that effectively does not expire but is charged at an affordable pay-as-you-go rate — dubbed the 4EVA tariff plan.
The downside is that consumers have less choice on this package, as it comes with flat rates and no bundles.
From MyBroadband’s perusal of these rates, the pricing seems to be very reasonable.
Cell C charges R0.06 per MB of data on this plan, which works out to R6 cents per 100MB or R60 per GB. For comparison, a monthly 1GB prepaid bundle on Cell C costs R65.
4EVA customers can set their spend limit and pay only for what they use.
The rates for data, SMSs, and voice minutes on Cell C 4EVA are summarised in the table below.
Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Capitec Connect takes a similar approach as Cell C, although its rates work out to an even cheaper R45 per GB.
Cell C said although the concept of “evergreen” data undoubtedly could enhance consumers’ daily lives, the innovation posed significant challenges for network management, capacity planning, and resource distribution.
“The substantial strain that would be placed on infrastructure to effectively handle this perpetual data flow, along with the increased capacity demands necessary to maintain optimal network performance, could potentially have a negative impact on the affordability of services,” Cell C said.
“Take, for instance, the affordability and accessibility of hourly data bundles priced as low as R3, which are designed to cater to a wide range of users.”
“Utilisation varies across the customer segments, and it also dependent on the frequency of purchases in a month cycle and on validity.”
A recent new market entrant — Calvin Collet’s mobile virtual network operator Melon Mobile — boasts never-expiring bundles as standard.
Collett told MyBroabdand that Melon Mobile was designed to disrupt, offering a simpler, less frustrating, and a little more rewarding service.
“Our data and voice pricing is highly competitive, but we wanted to offer something extra to differentiate ourselves from other mobile service providers — and that’s non-expiring services,” Collet said.
“We offer non-expiring data and voice to every customer, whether they use the top-up service to add voice and data whenever they need, or take out a month-to-month plan.”
The only condition is that users have one active payment event during a month using Melon Mobile services.
Calvin Collett, Melon Mobile CEO
Rain is another mobile network that provides never-expiring data, minutes and SMSs.
This is available exclusively to subscribers on one of its recently-launched Rain One packages.
The product pairs a fixed home 5G connection with 2GB of 4G mobile data and 60 voice minutes on two SIMs every month.
Customers can top up at any time with more data, minutes and SMSs that do not expire.
This data is charged at R50 per GB, while voice calls cost R1 per minute.
South Africa’s other major mobile network — Telkom — told MyBroadband it probably had the “most lenient”carryover policy among the major MNOs.
We also apply carryover rules on voice and sms, ranging from 61 days to 6 months,” Telkom said.
“There are no complex rules for customers to benefit from data carryover on Telkom packages.”
Although Telkom has considered the possibility of non-expiring data, it is of the view that there would most likely be an increase in the cost per MB of its data bundles if it decided to implement this.
Loading ...