Smartphone owners are using more mobile data than ever before, however.<\/p>\n
MyBroadband therefore spoke to Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, and Telkom about how customers could get the most value for their money on their respective networks.<\/p>\n
\n
Vodacom<\/h3>\n
Vodacom spokesperson Lexi Ball said the recent launch of the network’s specialised data bundles offer great value compared to standard data bundles.<\/p>\n
“Our recently-launched Vodacom Ticket gives customers the ability to save up to 50% on data for social media, video, music, and gaming,” said Ball.<\/p>\n
“Ticket bundles offer up to four-times the amount of data compared to standard bundles.”<\/p>\n
“Vodacom customers can also benefit from special deals on airtime, data, and SMSs through Vodacom\u2019s Just 4 You personalised offers,” she added.<\/p>\n
Ball added that customers need to know their devices to save money on data.<\/p>\n
“Customers who have recently upgraded to a new phone might notice that their data management hasn\u2019t been tailored to suit their usage habits,” she said.<\/p>\n
“This could be due to unchanged phone settings. Apps like Facebook and Instagram use background data to update posts and notifications.”<\/p>\n
To limit the amount of background data used by these apps, users can navigate to data usage under device settings and activate the \u201crestrict background data\u201d option.<\/p>\n
MTN said LTE handsets benefit from much better Internet speeds than previous-generation devices, but consume more data quicker.<\/p>\n “Many modern smartphones are configured for heavy data usage and are compliant with new generation networks such as LTE or 4G,” said MTN.<\/p>\n “To benefit from these speeds comes at a cost. Because of high-speed configurations, many smartphone users who use LTE\u00a0 handsets utilise a lot of data when accessing applications,” it said.<\/p>\n It also said that automatic updates for devices can quickly consume mobile data, advising users to set their smartphone to automatically update over Wi-Fi only.<\/p>\n “Instant messaging platforms have become the preferred mode of communication and sharing content, such as photos and video content,” added MTN.<\/p>\n “While this might appear to be cost effective, many users are unaware that sending videos and pictures consumes data bundles.”<\/p>\n Depending on the media sent, this can lead to messages over 10MB in size.<\/p>\n MTN also encouraged its customers to download the MyMTNApp. “By downloading the app, customers can buy a 1GB data bundle for only R49 a week,” said MTN.<\/p>\n Telkom stated that customers should examine the app usage on their device and determine which of their applications use the most data.<\/p>\n “Assess whether you really need these apps or whether they can be set to download over Wi-Fi only,” said Telkom.<\/p>\n The mobile operator also outlined a number of measures users can take to easily cut down on their mobile data usage.<\/p>\n “Disable auto-updates for apps or computer software updates, as many apps automatically update themselves in the background when the Internet connection becomes active without the user\u2019s knowledge,” said Telkom.<\/p>\n “Choose the option to auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only whenever possible or conduct your updates using our Night Surfer data.”<\/p>\n Telkom said all of its packages offer great value for money, but the best package for an individual consumer would depend on their needs.<\/p>\n Cell C advised subscribers to use data monitoring applications to track their data usage per app.<\/p>\n “This is always the best place to start when trying to figure out how to save on data,” said Cell C.<\/p>\n It said that applications and phone software must be updated periodically, and while this should ideally be done over Wi-Fi, customers could also purchase a daily bundle to update applications.<\/p>\n “On Cell C for instance you can buy a 20MB daily bundle at only R4 to use for an urgent application update.”<\/p>\n “Videos use a lot of data. They are fun to watch, but consume megabytes in no time,” added Cell C.<\/p>\n “Setting your applications like Facebook and Instagram to not auto-play videos can save you quite a chunk of data, because even if you scroll over them, they still load in the background.”<\/p>\n Cell C also advised prepaid customers to switch to Cell C’s UltraBonus package to receive triple the value on every recharge.<\/p>\n Additionally, all customers have access to a selection of specialised and time-limited data bundles to get the most data possible depending on their needs.<\/p>\n MyBroadband spoke to Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, and Telkom about how customers get the most value for their money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":200194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,52879,35,3610,42,689,41],"class_list":["post-270669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-data-saving","tag-headline","tag-mobile-data","tag-mtn","tag-telkom-mobile","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270669"}],"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\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272395,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270669\/revisions\/272395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Vodacom](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Vodacom-logo-red.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMTN<\/h3>\n
![\"MTN](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/MTN-logo-yellow.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTelkom<\/h3>\n
![\"Telkom](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Telkom-office-mockup-logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCell C<\/h3>\n
![\"Cell](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Cell-C-logo-on-iPhone.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNow read:\u00a0The big problem with switching off 2G in Sandton<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"