David Le Page
What network to choose? It’s a question that should probably tax us a little more when going on air, even though there are only two choices at present: Vodacom or MTN.
The range of different billing plans offered by the two networks tends to make choosing between the two networks seem more complicated than it need be. But there are some significant differences. We’ve compared basic packages, in an effort to provide some point of comparision (see graph).
It’s practically a law of nature that your usage of a cellphone will exceed your expectations, and it’s difficult to know exactly how beforehand. Bear in mind though, that it’s usually a lot cheaper to upgrade to a more expensive contract, than to downgrade to a cheaper contract.
The two cellphone networks currently offer roughly comparable pricing. The biggest differences lie in the cost of the SMS, or short message service, where MTN is significantly more expensive, and in the rounding off of time for billing purposes. If you’re an MTN pay-as-you-go user, you’ll be billed in 30-second units after the first minute of your call. Vodacom, however, would charge you for two minutes for a 62-second call.
Perhaps the cheapest way to receive calls is the Vodacom Incomer pack, which costs R120 for a year. Additional minutes for outgoing calls can be purchased on top of the Incomer, and will be valid for as long as they last, rather than being restricted to say, a month or 90 days. There is no MTN equivalent at present.
Neither of the networks was prepared to supply any information about service reliability or call quality. But before acquiring a cellphone, especially if it’s a stopgap while Telkom takes its sweet time to give you a fixed line, try and check call quality on both networks in the area where you’re likely to be making most of your calls.
Considerable anecdotal evidence suggests that the Vodacom network is increasingly unreliable, with dropped calls and poor call quality being frequent occurrences.