{"id":7701,"date":"2009-04-17T01:12:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-04-17T01:12:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-16T23:12:00","slug":"mobile-broadband-pricing-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/7701-mobile-broadband-pricing-comparison.html","title":{"rendered":"Mobile broadband pricing comparison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom recently launched its Broadband Advanced service, offering clients equal in-bundle and out-of-bundle rates and maximum download speeds of 7.2Mbps. This service however comes at a higher price than the company’s Broadband Standard product, begging the question whether it provides a better value proposition.<\/p>\n

The new Broadband Advanced service is aimed at contract subscribers who do not want to actively monitor their monthly usage and avoid high bills for out-of-bundle usage. It however does not provide a compelling value proposition to all mobile broadband users apart from the higher download speeds.<\/p>\n

Coverage<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the biggest value propositions of the Vodacom broadband offering is its country-wide coverage. Vodacom currently has the most extensive broadband access network in the country, with 2 700 active 7.2Mbps 3G\/HSDPA towers.  <\/p>\n

In comparison MTN has 1 700 3G\/HSDPA towers of which 400 are 3.6Mbps-enabled and just over 100 are 7.2Mbps-enabled.  Telkom currently has a total of 103 live 3G\/HSDPA towers with another 130 in various stages of completion.<\/p>\n

Vodacom’s superior coverage provides frequent travelers to places other than the major metropoles with near-ubiquitous broadband coverage, but it comes at a price.  Vodacom is currently more expensive than Telkom and MTN when it comes to basic mobile broadband pricing.<\/p>\n

Pricing comparison<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following table provides a basic pricing comparison between the three HSDPA providers in South Africa. The pricing is given for 24-month contracts which include the necessary hardware to connect to the service. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
Mobile Broadband Pricing<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
1 GB Contract<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\nBundle Price<\/font><\/strong><\/td>\nOut-of-bundfle per MB<\/font><\/strong><\/td>\nBandwidth life span<\/font><\/strong><\/td>\nMaximum Speed<\/font><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom Advanced<\/td>\n389.00<\/td>\n0.38<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom Standard<\/td>\n349.00<\/td>\n1.20<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n3.6 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN <\/td>\n349.00<\/td>\n1.20<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n1.8 – 7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Telkom<\/td>\n312.83<\/td>\n0.30<\/td>\n30 days<\/td>\n7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n <\/td>\n <\/td>\n <\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
2 GB Contract<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom Advanced<\/td>\n599.00<\/td>\n0.29<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom Standard<\/td>\n449.00<\/td>\n1.20<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n3.6 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN <\/td>\n449.00<\/td>\n1.20<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n1.8 – 7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Telkom<\/td>\n442.83<\/td>\n0.30<\/td>\n30 days<\/td>\n7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n <\/td>\n <\/td>\n <\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
3 GB Contract<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom Advanced<\/td>\n799.00<\/td>\n0.26<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom Standard<\/td>\n649.00<\/td>\n1.00<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n3.6 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN <\/td>\n649.00<\/td>\n1.20<\/td>\n60 days<\/td>\n1.8 – 7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Telkom<\/td>\n582.83<\/td>\n0.30<\/td>\n30 days<\/td>\n7.2 Mbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Mobile broadband pricing comparison discussion<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom recently launched its Broadband Advanced service. Here is how it stacks up against other offerings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"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_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadband"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701"}],"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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}