GPS navigation traffic service pricing comparison
Three GPS personal navigation device (PND) vendors offer live traffic services in South Africa, with each offering a slightly different pricing structure.
TomTom
TomTom was first to market with their Live HD Traffic service in 2010 and bundles the service with their higher end “Live” devices, such as the Go Live or Via Live range.
Purchase of a TomTom device only provides a year’s subscription to the vendor’s traffic service, however. Annual subscriptions to TomTom live traffic currently sit at R499.
This makes TomTom’s traffic services the most expensive in SA, but users are able to try it out online through TomTom’s route planner before deciding to buy.
Garmin
Next in line was Garmin who now offer two types of subscription to their traffic services.
The new range of Garmin devices include “LT” models which have a lifetime subscription to Garmin’s Premium Live Traffic bundled with them.
According to Garmin, “lifetime” indicates the lifetime of the device or the information feed from the traffic service provider.
Garmin also offers annual traffic subscriptions for other supported devices at R299 per year.
Navigon
Navigon offers traffic services using the same information provider as Garmin: Altech Netstar.
All of Navigon’s traffic offerings are “lifetime” subscriptions and come bundled with their Premium devices.
The table below compares the various traffic services to one another.
| PND range | Initial purchase | Initial subscription | Annual subscription |
| Garmin LT PNDs | Bundled GPS | R0 | R0 |
| Garmin – other supported |
GTM Traffic Receiver | R0 | R299 |
| TomTom | Bundled GPS | R0 | R499 |
| Navigon Premium |
Bundled GPS | R0 | R0 |
| Navigon Easy | Navigon 40 Easy | $69 | R0 |
Reviews of the services
Review of TomTom HD Live Traffic
Review of Navigon Premium Traffic
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