Vodacom on Tuesday announced new prices across its Red and Smart contract tariff plans, but the new deals, especially on the cheaper “Smart” plans, don’t do much to satisfy the ever-growing demand among consumers for data.
That’s the view of Tariffic, the company that analyses cellphone bills to help companies and individuals move to networks and packages that make most sense to them financially.
“Vodacom has increased the prices of all its Smart+ packages, in return for some additional voice minutes. Data, however, is the ‘man of the hour’, and it seems that Vodacom, for the most part, hasn’t done anything to quench the thirst of the data-hungry masses,” Tariffic said in a statement.
“What Vodacom is offering them, though, is a heavily discounted Red More Data package. Although not cheap, at R749/month (down from R999/month), this package comes with 150 minutes and a whopping 10GB of data, and is definitely worth considering if you’re a heavy data user.”
Tariffic said Vodacom’s other Red packages are being offered at the same price as before, but now come with a lot more data (the Red Classic+ comes with 500 more minutes and 2GB more data for an extra R200/month, the Red Premium+ comes with 10GB rather than 4GB, and the Red VIP+ comes with double the initial 10GB on offer). The Red Premium+ also now has unlimited calls included.
There is an additional package that has been added to the Red range — the Red Select+, which costs R999/month and comes with 800 minutes and 2GB of data, and slots in between the Smart+ and the Red packages.
“While the more innovative mobile network operators are offering data-centric packages, such as Telkom’s FreeMe contracts, Vodacom is still lagging behind and not bothering to add much flavour to its vanilla packages,” Tariffic said.
“Although high-end Red subscribers are now being blessed with more inclusive data, the Smart users — with contracts under R589/month — will have to make do with under 1GB of data included in their packages.
“While cheaper deals can be found across all networks, Vodacom has shown a reluctance to compete when it comes to price, rather touting their allegedly superior network quality as a reason for the higher prices.
“So, for South Africans looking to tighten their belts, especially considering the tough economic times we find ourselves in, we recommend MTN’s My MTNChoice+ packages, Telkom’s FreeMe packages, or Cell C’s Pinnacle contracts.” — © 2017 NewsCentral Media