Despite Vodacom’s six-month head start, MTN says it is happy it delayed its third-generation (3G) offering because it was waiting for the right handsets and user experience.
During the launch this week, MTN was at pains to defend its much publicised choice of a 2,5G data service called Edge, which was rolled out to most of its network and covers about one million square kilometres.
Ashraff Paruk, general manager for products and innovation at MTN South Africa, says there will be more Edge phones available than 3G phones until at least 2008 and that the pricing on these is more aggressive. He adds that the move to Edge involves a software switch only and that, unlike 3G, expensive new networks will not need to be built.
Vodacom’s 3G users can only use a data service called General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), which is much slower than Edge, when they are out of 3G range. MTN’s Bernice Samuels says, “The reality is that 3G is not as pervasive a technology as Edge.”
Vodacom skipped Edge in the conventional roadmap by building a 3G network, which was launched in December, and has just announced a differentiation in its data packages by offering sub-one gigabyte options.
Aside from fast data speeds, 3G is renowned for video calling, which MTN has decided to charge for. Vodacom charges the same for a video call as it does a voice call. MTN’s video calls will cost R2 a minutes for contract subscribers and R3 for pre-paid users. An inter connect agreement stills needs to be reached between MTN and Vodacom to allow for video calls across the networks.