{"id":95901,"date":"2014-01-30T15:29:35","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T13:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=95901"},"modified":"2014-01-30T15:44:17","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T13:44:17","slug":"beware-bundled-mobile-data-tablet-deal-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/95901-beware-bundled-mobile-data-tablet-deal-prices.html","title":{"rendered":"Beware bundled mobile data, tablet deal prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mobile operators are aggressively promoting their mobile data products, and to encourage consumers to sign 24-month contracts they often bundle tablets with their data packages. It is often assumed that these bundles will save you money, but this is not always the case.<\/p>\n

To establish how much value these bundled deals truly offer consumers, MyBroadband looked at the total cost of the separate components of some of the deals from Vodacom<\/a>, MTN<\/a>, Cell C<\/a> and Telkom Mobile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The surprising result was that many of the bundled packages from the operators offer no value whatsoever, and will cost consumers more than buying the components separately.<\/p>\n

Cell C Galaxy Tab 3 7-inch and 1GB data<\/h3>\n

Cell C is offering consumers the Galaxy Tab 3 tablet PC (7-inch), 1GB of any-time data, and 2GB of “Midnight Data” for R259 per month.<\/p>\n

This is a really bad deal. The tablet can be purchased online for R3,549, and with a data bundle thrown in the total cost is R1,011 less than the bundled offer from Cell C.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7” + 1GB of data<\/strong><\/td>\nTablet cost<\/strong><\/td>\nData cost<\/strong><\/td>\nTotal<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Without bundle<\/td>\nR3,549<\/td>\nR1,656<\/td>\nR5,205<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cell C bundle<\/td>\nR259 per month<\/td>\nR6,216<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Loss<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nR1,011 loss<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Vodacom Lenovo IdeaTab S6000 and 500MB of data<\/h3>\n

Vodacom is offering the Lenovo IdeaTab S6000 and a 500MB data bundle for R199 per month on a 24-month contract.<\/p>\n

This is not a good deal. Purchasing the separate components from Lenovo and Vodacom means that you will save R441 over the 24-month period.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n
Lenovo IdeaTab S6000 + 500MB of data<\/strong><\/td>\nTablet cost<\/strong><\/td>\nData cost<\/strong><\/td>\nTotal<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Without bundle<\/td>\nR3,399<\/td>\nR936<\/td>\nR4,335<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom bundle<\/td>\nR199 per month<\/td>\nR4,776<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Loss<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nR441 loss<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

MTN Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 and 500MB of data<\/h3>\n

MTN is offering the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 and a 500MB data bundle for R169 per month on a 24-month contract.<\/p>\n

This bundled deal from MTN offers a R429 saving over purchasing the separate components.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7” + 500MB of data<\/strong><\/td>\nTablet cost<\/strong><\/td>\nData cost<\/strong><\/td>\nTotal<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Without bundle<\/td>\nR3,549<\/td>\nR936<\/td>\nR4,485<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MTN bundle<\/td>\nR169 per month<\/td>\nR4,056<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saving<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nR429 saving<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Telkom Mobile Lenovo IdeaTab and 500MB data<\/h3>\n

Telkom Mobile is offering consumers a Lenovo IdeaTab A3000, 500MB any-time data, and 1.5GB “Night Surfer” data for R99 per month on a 24-month contract.<\/p>\n

This deal makes a lot of sense. The tablet alone costs more from Lenovo than the total cost over 24-months paid to Telkom Mobile for the tablet and the monthly data.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n
Lenovo IdeaTab A3000 + 500MB of data<\/strong><\/td>\nTablet cost<\/strong><\/td>\nData cost<\/strong><\/td>\nTotal<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Without bundle<\/td>\nR2,429<\/td>\nR3,000<\/td>\nR5,429<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Telkom Mobile bundle<\/td>\nR99 per month<\/td>\nR2,376<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saving<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\nR3,053 saving<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Tablet deals image<\/h3>\n
\"Tablet<\/a>

Tablet deals<\/p><\/div>\n

More mobile data articles<\/h3>\n

SA\u2019s 3G world class, fixed broadband poor: Naspers CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cheapest ever prepaid mobile data prices in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mobile operators have tablet and data bundle packages at supposedly reduced rates, but the reality is that it can cost you more to bundle these products<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":95905,"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":[14],"tags":[355,35,1525,42,645,689,41],"class_list":["post-95901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-lenovo","tag-mtn","tag-samsung","tag-telkom-mobile","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95901"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95901"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95919,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95901\/revisions\/95919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}