{"id":529419,"date":"2024-03-22T16:41:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T14:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=529419"},"modified":"2024-03-22T16:44:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T14:44:18","slug":"vodacom-vs-mtn-uncapped-fixed-lte-speeds-and-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/529419-vodacom-vs-mtn-uncapped-fixed-lte-speeds-and-prices.html","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom vs MTN Uncapped fixed-LTE speeds and prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTN offers better speeds on most of its uncapped fixed-LTE packages, but Vodacom has less stringent fair usage policies (FUPs) for its comparable plans.<\/p>\n

Internet service provider (ISP) Axxess launched uncapped fixed-LTE packages<\/strong><\/a> running on the Vodacom network with prices ranging from R299 to R699 towards the end of February 2024.<\/p>\n

At the time these products became available, Vodacom did not offer any true uncapped packages directly.<\/p>\n

Since February 2023, Vodacom’s own Home Internet packages, some of which were previously uncapped, have all been “hard-locked” after a certain amount of data is consumed (i.e. capped).<\/p>\n

The operator kept calling the packages uncapped, arguing it was highly unlikely<\/strong><\/a> that customers would hit these hard-lock limits within a month of usage.<\/p>\n

Although soft-caps are not unusual for fixed-LTE or fixed-5G package, being necessary to manage limited network resources, they still allow uncapped consumption at a reduced speed.<\/p>\n

Following reports from consumer journalists Wendy Knowler and MyBroadband, Vodacom discontinued<\/strong><\/a> its uncapped fixed-LTE and fixed-5G products.<\/p>\n

That is, until Axxess launched uncapped fixed-LTE packages on Vodacom’s network.<\/p>\n

MyBroadband compared the products available from South Africa’s two biggest mobile networks to see how they stacked up.<\/p>\n

A bit of a tit-for-tat<\/h2>\n

The entry-level packages from both operators are identical in terms of speeds, fair usage policies (FUPs), and pricing.<\/p>\n

Both boast up to 20Mbps speeds, allow for 50GB of consumption in a month before throttling speeds down to 2Mbps, and are priced at R299 per month.<\/p>\n

MTN’s next most affordable package provides speeds of up to 50Mbps, throttled down to 2Mbps after the first 100GB of consumption, for R349 per month.<\/p>\n

Vodacom’s second-cheapest offer only boasts speeds of up to 30Mbps but has a slightly better FUP, allowing for 150GB of data consumption before speeds are throttled to 2Mbps. However, it is R50 more expensive than MTN’s 50Mbps package.<\/p>\n

To get the same 50Mbps speed on Vodacom, you have to pay R499 per month, R150 more than when using MTN.<\/p>\n

However, there is a big upside in terms of the FUP with a 300GB allowance before throttling down to 2Mbps.<\/p>\n

For those in need of more speed, MTN offers three faster packages, while Vodacom only boasts one additional top-end package.<\/p>\n

MTN has a 100Mbps package selling for R50 more than Vodacom’s 50Mbps offering. It allows customers to consume up to 400GB per month before being throttled down to 2Mbps.<\/p>\n

Doubling that to 200Mbps will cost R200 more, but provides a substantially less stringent FUP of 650GB before throttling.<\/p>\n

The remaining packages are best-effort services with no speed limiting, which means the maximum potential speed of the network, as determined by coverage strength and hardware, will apply.<\/p>\n

These “Pro” packages are priced at R699 from Vodacom and R779 from MTN.<\/p>\n

The former has an FUP of 600GB before throttling speeds to 1Mbps, while the latter allows 1TB of monthly consumption before dropping speeds to 1Mbps.<\/p>\n

Regarding what speeds to expect on these services,\u00a0Axxess says customers using one of its recommended routers can be “pretty sure” of speeds of up to 150Mbps.<\/p>\n

The table below compares the speeds, FUPs, and prices of Vodacom and MTN Fixed-LTE uncapped packages available from Axxess.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Axxess Fixed-LTE uncapped packages<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Network\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n“Up to” speeds<\/strong><\/td>\nFUP<\/strong><\/td>\nPrice<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN<\/td>\n20Mbps<\/td>\nAfter first 50GB: Throttled to 2Mbps<\/td>\nR299<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom<\/td>\n20Mbps<\/td>\nAfter first 50GB: Throttled to 2Mbps<\/td>\nR299<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN<\/td>\n50Mbps<\/td>\nAfter first 100GB: Throttled to 2Mbps<\/td>\nR349<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom<\/td>\n30Mbps<\/td>\nAfter first 150GB: Throttled to 2Mbps<\/td>\nR399<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom<\/td>\n50Mbps<\/td>\nAfter first 300GB: Throttled to 2Mbps<\/td>\nR499<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN<\/td>\n100Mbps<\/td>\nAfter first 400GB: Throttled to 2Mbps<\/td>\nR549<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom<\/td>\nNo speed limit (best-effort)<\/td>\nAfter first 600GB: Throttled to 1Mbps<\/td>\nR699<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN<\/td>\n200Mbps<\/td>\nAfter first 650GB: Throttled to 2Mbps<\/td>\nR749<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN<\/td>\nNo speed limit (best-effort)<\/td>\nAfter first 1TB: Throttled to 1 Mbps<\/td>\nR779<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom recently reintroduced uncapped fixed-LTE packages through Axxess. Here is how they compare with the ISP’s MTN offering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":529459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[48812,35,735,42,41],"class_list":["post-529419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-fixed-lte","tag-headline","tag-mobile-broadband","tag-mtn","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529419"}],"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\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}