TechCentral wanted to find out which of South Africa’s 20 mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) is the best, but deciding what metric to use to determine supremacy in this burgeoning sector is difficult, especially since differentiation is a defining characteristic of the MVNO market.

Compared to traditional mobile network operators, whose infrastructure enables virtual operators like FNB Connect and Capitec Connect to provide differentiated mobile services to specific consumer segments, MVNOs thrive on the promise they will deliver superior value.

In today’s data-driven society, data prices – and not so much call or SMS charges – are a key metric for the determination of value in consumers’ minds, so this is the metric we used in our analysis.

Finding pricing on barebones data packages is not always straightforward since MVNOs and network operators tend to offer an assortment of packages where voice minutes, data and SMSes are bundled together. But voice services and SMS have been commoditised and, barring specific business use cases, have been replaced by chat apps and voice-over-IP services like WhatsApp calls – data is king!

TechCentral compared data prices for 1GB, 5GB and 10GB bundles across all MVNOs in South Africa with at least 30-day expiry. It is important to note that there are instances where a like-for-like comparison is not possible because some providers don’t, for example, have a 1GB or 5GB bundle, but they might offer a 1.5GB or 6GB alternative. Similarly, a 12GB bundle may exist where a 10GB bundle does not. Each such instance has been noted in the charts below.

In some cases, data from an MVNO’s website or other advertising material did not include certain size bundles, in which case it was assumed that they were not offered at all. Mr Price Mobile, for example, has 1GB as the largest denomination bundle listed on its website.

AirMobile

TechCentral found Afrihost AirMobile to have the most affordable data bundles across all three sizes in its research. At R30 for 1GB, R100 for 5GB and R150 for 10GB, the data bundles offered by Afrihost, one of South Africa’s largest internet service providers, are cheapest, and in some instances, by some distance. Notice, for example that purchasing three lots of 10GB bundles from Afrihost AirMobile, totalling 30GB for R450, is still R49 cheaper than the most expensive 10GB bundle by FNB Connect (R499).

Four of South Africa’s MVNOs offer 1GB data bundle for less than R50: Afrihost AirMobile (R30), Shoprite K’nect Mobile (R39), Old Mutual Connect (R45) and uConnect Mobile (R49). The most expensive 1GB bundle is from Trace Mobile, which was launched in 2015 and runs on Cell C’s infrastructure, at R160. This is also the only 1GB bundle costing more than R100.

Read: Vodacom signs its first MVNO customer

Hello Mobile and C-Connect, both pure-play MVNOs – as opposed to the branded MVNOs that are spin-offs of existing brands – have the most expensive 5GB bundles at R299. Other than these two, three other MVNOs offer their 5GB bundles at prices higher than the R200 average: Old Mutual Connect (R225), Clientele Mobile (R262) and FNB Connect (R279).

As mentioned, most expensive 10GB bundle is by FNB Connect at R499. This is also the only other 10GB bundle other than Boxercom’s (R469) that cost more than R400. After Afrihost AirMobile, Spot Mobile, Me&You and Capitec Connect jointly provide the next best value at R199 for 10GB. The average price for a 10GB bundle from South Africa’s MVNOs is R292.

While a purely price-based comparison is useful when putting pure-play MVNOs up against traditional network operators, branded MVNOs compete on factors other than pricing. The banking MVNOs, for example, offer their customers rewards in the form of airtime, minutes and data based on certain transactions like card swipes.

Similarly, branded MVNOs whose parent companies are in retail offer rewards based on in-store spend. So, other than pricing, aligning personal behavioural characteristics to an MVNOs rewards structure is likely to yield the greatest value for customers. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media

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