{"id":55623,"date":"2012-07-24T14:04:26","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T12:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=55623"},"modified":"2012-07-24T14:06:02","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T12:06:02","slug":"cheap-blackberry-plans-compared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/55623-cheap-blackberry-plans-compared.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheap BlackBerry plans compared"},"content":{"rendered":"

8ta, Cell C, and MTN have all recently launched BlackBerry data plans with fewer features at lower prices, with Vodacom saying that they will soon launch cheaper packages of their own.<\/p>\n

BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) affords South African BlackBerry users unlimited on-device browsing, e-mail, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), and downloads from BlackBerry App World.<\/p>\n

Many third-party apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Talk, and WhatsApp, are reported to also make use of BIS for their data connection.<\/p>\n

BIS is available on contracts and pre-paid, with typical prepaid pricing of R59 for 30 days of service.<\/p>\n

Virgin Mobile first launched BIS bundles cheaper than this in February 2012 by using a model that offered full BIS for shorter periods. The virtual mobile network operator introduced a 7-day bundle for R19, while 14 days of BIS would cost you R29.<\/p>\n

8ta was first to launch a \u201cBlackBerry Social & E-Mail\u201d plan during June 2012 at R30\/month. This offered the same benefits as BIS, with a limit of one web-based e-mail account.<\/p>\n

Cell C and MTN soon followed suit, launching their own cheaper BlackBerry data services with reduced feature-sets.<\/p>\n

The table below shows how the bundles compare:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Feature-specific BlackBerry plans<\/td>\n8ta<\/td>\nCell C<\/td>\nMTN<\/td>\nVodacom<\/td>\nVirgin Mobile<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
BlackBerry Messaging<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nR14.95*<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BlackBerry Social<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nR27<\/td>\nR19.95*<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BlackBerry Social & E-Mail<\/td>\nR30<\/td>\nR37<\/td>\nR29.95**<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BlackBerry Internet Service<\/td>\nR59<\/td>\nR57<\/td>\nR59<\/td>\nR59<\/td>\nR59<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n
* 10MB, out-of-bundle rate is R1\/MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
** 25MB, out-of-bundle rate is R1\/MB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

The BlackBerry Social plan available from Cell C offers access to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and BBM, and one BlackBerry e-mail account, but no general web access, and no additional e-mail accounts.<\/p>\n

MTN offers a similar bundle, but instead of limiting web access it instead imposes a data usage limit of 10MB.<\/p>\n

Similarly, MTN\u2019s Messaging plan caps users at 10MB, but also only allows access to BBM and one web-based e-mail account.<\/p>\n

Although BlackBerry boasts being the most bandwidth efficient smartphone<\/a>, MTN\u2019s caps take away one of the most attractive features of BIS: not worrying about usage.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

Cheaper BlackBerry Internet packages from Virgin Mobile<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

R30 BlackBerry Internet Service deal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

R27\/month BlackBerry Internet Service launched<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cheaper BlackBerry Service plans from MTN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cheaper BlackBerry Internet Service from Vodacom coming<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mobile network operators have launched BlackBerry services with reduced feature-sets. How do they compare?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":53315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[473,101,3978,97,4212,3106,355,35,42,1119,41],"class_list":["post-55623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-8ta","tag-bbm","tag-bis","tag-blackberry","tag-blackberry-internet-service","tag-blackberry-messenger","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-virgin-mobile","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55623"}],"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=55623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55625,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55623\/revisions\/55625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}