MyBroadband recently compared the price difference between mobile data on prepaid and on contract.<\/p>\n
As expected, prepaid mobile data prices were higher than contract prices.<\/p>\n
A 20GB Vodacom prepaid bundle, for example,\u00a0was 204% more expensive<\/strong><\/a> than the equivalent contract.<\/p>\n MTN\u2019s closes prepaid package was 234% more expensive than its 20GB contract.<\/p>\n When asked about the price differences, the networks said the flexibility of prepaid comes at a premium.<\/p>\n 24-month contracts offer operators recurring revenue, which Vodacom said allows for more accurate forecasting. It also allows carriers to ensure network capacity is optimally allocated.<\/p>\n Prepaid usage is more difficult to predict, due to its flexible structure.<\/p>\n Curiously, none of the networks provided MyBroadband with the arguments they made before ICASA when explaining their pricing.<\/p>\n ICASA, which is reviewing the\u00a0End-User and Subscriber Service Charter<\/strong><\/a>, recently completed its public consultations on new draft regulations.<\/p>\n Its proposal includes that\u00a0prepaid data bundles last a minimum of three years<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n During public hearings on the matter, mobile networks said various factors make up the prices of data bundles. Validity periods and out-of-bundle tariffs are two of the variables networks tweak to compete on price.<\/p>\n When comparing contract data packages to prepaid bundles, it is therefore important to consider the underlying tariff plan.<\/p>\n Vodacom states in its terms and conditions that it only enables voice services on 12-month data price plans.<\/p>\n Where voice services are available on Vodacom\u2019s data contracts, it charges R1.63 per minute, billed per minute, to numbers on the Vodacom network.<\/p>\n Calls to other networks are R2.03 per minute.<\/p>\n Prepaid subscribers receive the flexibility to make much cheaper voice calls that are billed per second.<\/p>\n Telkom\u2019s SmartBroadband and SmartInternet contract plans are similar, offering voice calls at R2.75 per minute, billed per second.<\/p>\n On its SIM-Sonke prepaid tariff plans, calls to Telkom numbers are 29c per minute. Calls to other networks are 75c per minute.<\/p>\n Free calls to Telkom mobile numbers are also offered when you recharge.<\/p>\n The disparity on MTN\u2019s data contracts is less severe, as My MTNChoice allows you to bolt on voice and SMS bundles in addition to data bundles.<\/p>\n However, MTN\u2019s cheapest voice add-on bundle offers pricing of R1.15 per minute, provided you use the whole bundle.<\/p>\n Its cheapest voice bundle comes in at an effective rate of R1.41 per minute.<\/p>\n This is more expensive than the 79c-per-minute tariff MTN offers on its Pay Per Second price plan.<\/p>\n When comparing prepaid bundle prices to data contracts, it is also important to note the differences in features.<\/p>\n If you won\u2019t need voice services much and don\u2019t mind signing a fixed-term agreement, a data contract is a good choice.<\/p>\n Should you need to make voice calls, however, the data contract may end up costing you more every month.<\/p>\n Standard contract tariff plans or prepaid packages tend to offer cheaper voice and SMS services, but at the cost of more expensive mobile data.<\/p>\n MyBroadband recently compared the price difference between mobile data on prepaid and on contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":158315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[12393,35,42,1735,109,41],"class_list":["post-255169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-data-contract","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-prepaid-data","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256035,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255169\/revisions\/256035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Product design<\/h3>\n
Voice tariffs<\/h3>\n
Price of data contracts<\/h3>\n
Now read: The R21,729 difference between in-bundle and OOB data prices<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"