By Ashleigh Brown, journalist, Justmoney
Mobile users are shifting from voice to data more now than ever before. Due to high data costs in South Africa, this has left many with exorbitant cell phone bills at the end of the month.
Mobile operators have seen massive growth in data consumption as consumers turn to services like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, and other applications for instant communication at lower costs compared to traditional voice services.
However, many operators are now making voice calling and SMSing cheaper, in order to still get revenue from those services.
Even though voice calls and SMS’ are cheaper than they were, many smartphone users prefer to use data based communication platforms.
In a press release Vodacom said that they had attracted 1.81 million new data users to grow their data customers to 17.01 million and increased total data usage by 70%.
“Our strategy is to provide customers, particularly those on tight budgets, with exactly what they need, when they need it, and at a price they can afford. Much has been said about bringing down prices for those consuming large amounts of voice and data, but this bundle strategy is the key to driving internet penetration for all South Africans,” said Phil Patel, Vodacom’s Chief Commercial officer.
WI-Fi
With an increasing need to stay connected, government has started ambitious projects to help keep South Africans online.
Helen Zille, premier of the Western Cape, promised in her State of the Province Address that the province would see universal internet coverage in a deal signed with Neotel.
"Neotel has therefore generously committed to funding the infrastructure rollout of 384 Wi-Fi hotspots, using Western Cape Government buildings, which will cover almost every ward in the province. Our government will be subsidising the free portion of citizens' internet access," said Zille.
Another such project is Project Isizwe. This project aims to provide free internet to the City of Tshwane.
The South African National Taxi Association (Santaco) started rolling out a free service on 12 June 2014, with an intension to equip 1500 taxis in 50 taxi ranks across the country with WI-FI access points, reported IOL.
Adding to this, many other taxi services, such as Uber and African Eagle, partnered with Orange, are bringing free WI-FI to their customers.
Data costs
Below is a table comparing data costs across major service providers, as on 6 August 2014.
Vodacom | CellC | MTN | Telkom Mobile | ||||
Data Bundle | Price | Data Bundle | Price | Data Bundle | Price | Data Bundle | Price |
10MB | R9 | 50MB | R7.50 | 5MB | R3 | 250MB | R38 |
30MB | R25 | 100MB | R15 | 20MB | R10 | 500MB | R69 |
100MB | R49 | 300MB | R45 | 50MB | R19 | 1GB | R119 |
250MB | R99 | 500MB | R75 | 100MB | R29 | 5GB | R349 |
500MB | R159 | 1GB | R149 | 300MB | R79 | 2GB+1GB* | R149 |
1.024GB | R279 | 2GB | R199 | 500MB | R99 | 25GB+25GB* | R999 |
2.048GB | R369 | 3GB | R299 | 1GB | R149 | 60GB+60GB* | R1800 |
3.072GB | R499 | 5GB | R399 | 2GB | R245 |
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5.120GB | R829 | 10GB | R699 | 3GB | R299 |
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10.240GB | R1629 | 20GB | R1199 | 5GB | R399 |
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20.480GB | R3199 |
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| 10GB | R599 |
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Source: Vodacom, CellC, MTN, Telkom Mobile, prices correct as of 6 August 2014. *= Extra data with Telkom Mobile is active between 12am and 5am.