Right on schedule, Telkom has officially taken the wrapper off a bout of new hikes affecting most mobile prepaid and top-up plans (and even prepaid products), beginning as soon as 1 April 2026. Telkom cited all the usual excuses for passing its hikes off to the customers, blaming the economy for allowing it to make more money.
Hide your wallets, Telkom’s in a mood
Telkom’s statement doesn’t just feel cookie-cutter. It’s recycled the same response from last year’s contract price hikes, minus two words. “To continuously maintain quality service offerings to you, due to rising costs and broader economic factors, we have made adjustments to the pricing of some of our products and services.”
“We remain committed to delivering great value and appreciate your continued support,” it continued.
Up first on the list are the company’s Telkom More and Telkom Thola More prepaid plans. Those locked into the former will see their voice rate rise to R1.99/m, up from R1.91/m previously. The Thola More plan will leap from R0.80/m to R0.89/m. An R0.08 and R0.09 per-minute increase, then. It could be worse, we guess.
You could be one of the customers staring down a hike for the telecoms provider’s prepaid LTE data packages. The Unlimited Off-Peak LTE plan will rise to R279/m (up from R259/m). Next, the Unlimited All Hours 10Mbps, 20Mbps, and 1TB LTE packages are all due for an increase. The 10Mbps will now cost R649/m, up from R629. The 20Mbps offer rises to R789 from R739. Finally, the 1TB LTE also gets a R50 hike, taking it to R999/m.
It’s almost easy to lose count of how many postpaid plans will see adjustments (233, we counted), many of which will see an increase of 8% come 1 April 2026. Some customers will be luckier than others, with their plan’s hikes going as low as 2.6%. “An average price increase of 6.5% will be implemented across all mobile plans, although individual percentages between plans might differ,” Telkom said.
1 Comment
Telkom’s 4G LTE sucks. They promise 10Mbps reduced to 2Mbps once FUP cap is reached, which I never do (low data use).
But in reality their speed is around and often below 1Mbps, too slow – or stops completely – for satisfactory streaming and Netflix downloads. This for a major metro and line of site with multiple Telkom towers.Vodacom is three times as fast with no stoppage. “Maintaining quality” they say. No, it’s profiteering. Time to change providers.