MTN has been named by independent researchers as the overall best network to use when travelling abroad.
Tariffic, a company that helps businesses and individuals manage their mobile bills by applying complex software to find the best packages to suit their needs, has released the latest version of its “perfect package tracker”, which this time focuses on the rates people pay when using their South African Sim cards overseas.
MTN has not only won the overall award in the tracker, but has also been identified by Tariffic as the best network for travel to the US, England and Mauritius. It is also the best network for receiving calls from South Africa while travelling abroad.
Vodacom comes out on top for those travelling to Thailand, while Cell C has been applauded for offering the cheapest international calls from South Africa.
The Tariffic tracker uses four fictional characters, each with different telecoms usage profiles, to determine which network makes most sense for each of them. It analyses Tshepo, Susanne, Chris and Howard “as they head off to the US, England, Mauritius and Thailand for their respective holidays”.
Tariffic selected the most popular local network in each country, or the local networks that were available across the South African providers, to analyse roaming rates. “Note that it may be possible for users to receive cheaper rates than those outlined … by connecting to other networks in the country,” the company said.
Also, the tracker has not taken into account special deals, which are “often very beneficial when roaming, such as Vodacom’s Travel Saver and MTN’s Roam Like Home”, it added.
For more detail about how the operators scored, see Tariffic’s package tracker graphic (PDF). — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media
