True freedom will come the day the aphorism ‘talk is cheap” becomes literally true. With that in mind I checked out the various pre-paid cellphone packages to see who offers the best deal.
Virgin Mobile is a recent addition to the cellphone family. It shook up the market last year when it based all its offerings on per-second billing. It has what is called the V0, a package in which you do not make any monthly commitment at all. It costs R2,35 to make a call to a number on any network for the first five minutes, with a drop down rate of R1,55 for further calls.
The principle the company uses for messages is: the first five messages cost R0,60 and, thereafter, an SMS costs R0,35, while an international SMS costs R1,20.
MTN is slightly more expensive on its Pay As You Go Classic package. The company says this package is ‘ideal if you receive more calls than you make and make most of your calls in the evening or on weekends”.
Calls made between two phones on the network cost R2,50 a minute and the off-peak rate is R1,40, the same rate for calls made to Telkom numbers.
Calls to the other cellphone networks are R2,85 a minute on peak and R1,60 off peak. 3G-video call rates are R3 a minute. An SMS will set you back R0,75, while an international SMS costs R1,60.
On the Big Bonus Voucher Vodacom package, a call to a MTN/Cell C at peak costs R2,75 during the day and R1,15 during off-peak hours.
A Vodacom to Telkom call during peak hours costs R2,70. The cheapest rates are for those in the Vodacom family, with rates during peak hours pegged at R1,99 and R1,08 during off-peak hours. An SMS costs R0,80 during peak hours and R0,35 at other times. The Vodacom international SMS is the most expensive at R1,74.
Cell C EasyChat Standard calls made on the network and to Telkom during the day will cost R2,50 a minute, while to other networks the call will be charged at R2,85. An off-peak call between people on the network will cost R1,40 and R1,60 to other networks, while an SMS will cost R0,34.
Talk is still not cheap. Look closely at what’s on offer and compare packages to secure the best deal.
Ringing the changes
University of Cape Town graduates Lungisa Matshoba, Rapelang Rabana and Wilter du Toit’s firm, Yeigo, might revolutionise the way we communicate.
It makes use of voice-over internet protocol technology to make calls using cellphones, much like Skype. This technology works out even cheaper if your friends have phones that also are enabled. In real terms a minute-long call to a Yeigo-enabled phone costs about 16c a minute. Making a call to the UK for an hour costs less than R10, much cheaper than the R450 on Vodacom.
The only catch is that the software used to enable this works only on high-end phones, now an investment worth making.