Most affordable data bundles that never expire

While South Africa’s biggest mobile network operators impose set validity periods on all their bundles, one smaller player and several mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) offer never-expiring data bundles.

Many South Africans have complained about data bundles expiring, arguing that an unspoilable product they paid for should not have its validity capped.

The three big mobile networks — Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom — offer data bundles with validity periods ranging from an hour to multiple months.

They have explained that putting an expiry date on bundles was necessary to manage network traffic, maintain quality of services, and offer price points across South Africa’s affordability spectrum.

A Vodacom spokesperson previously told MyBroadband that the network’s research and assessments of customer purchasing behaviour showed there would be little demand for never-expiring bundles.

“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.”

MTN South Africa explained that a network would have to be “dimensioned” to cater for carried-over traffic volumes.

Dimensioning refers to the practice of ensuring there is sufficient network capacity to serve customers in a particular area.

“If all bundles could not expire, it would remove the consumer’s ability to choose products at price points which best suit their needs,” MTN said.

“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.”

One type of mobile data that technically never expires is airtime consumed out-of-bundle.

However, out-of-bundle data rates are generally more expensive than in-bundle rates, except when using certain tariff plans.

Customers on Cell C’s 4EVA prepaid plan, for example, pay a flat rate of R0.06 per MB of out-of-bundle consumption, working out to R60 per GB.

MVNO Capitec Connect also charges all its prepaid customers 4.5 cents per MB or R45 per GB, the most affordable out-of-bundle data rate in the country.

The downside to these plans is that they do not offer lower effective data costs as usage increases, whereas validity-limited data bundles get cheaper with higher allocations.

Rain and three MVNOs bucking the trend

South Africa’s newest mobile network — Rain — is the only major operator that has never-expiring data bundles.

Rain recently relaunched standalone 4G mobile products, priced at R165 per month with 2GB data, 60 minutes, and 60 SMSs.

These all expire after a month, but any allocations from top-up bundles will not expire.

In terms of non-expiring data bundles, Rain’s pricing starts from R10 for 100MB and goes up to R250 for 5GB.

In addition to Rain, at least three MVNOs offer never-expiring data bundles.

These are FNB Connect, MegsApp, and Standard Bank Mobile.

Afrihost Air Mobile and Melon Mobile previously sold non-expiring data bundles, but this is no longer the case.

All of Air Mobile’s data bundles now expire after 60 days, while Melon Mobile’s personal plans limit data validity to 30 days.

Only Melon Mobile’s business customers get access to never-expiring data on the company’s customisable plans.

MyBroadband compared the prices of the never-expiring data bundles on Rain and the three MVNOs to see which offered the best pricing.

A like-for-like comparison was difficult because of the greatly varying data allocations from each provider.

Where more than one operator offered the same bundle size, we found that MegsApp tended to be the cheapest.

The table below compares the prices of data bundles that never expire in South Africa.