Even after the data price cuts, Vodacom and MTN are still more expensive than other service providers

Despite all the fuss about Vodacom and MTN slashing their data prices — in accordance with the Competition Commission — by 30%, both companies are still far and away the most expensive service providers. It doesn’t take a genius to crunch those numbers. Knowing that, we tried our hand at it.

Plenty of folks cheered for joy (maybe quietly, it was a Tuesday in the middle of the work-day after all) when it was announced that Vodacom and MTN had agreed to slash data prices by 30% following allegations by the Competition Commission that both companies were abusing their power, dominating the market and engaging in “price discrimination strategies”.

Yet while the agreement is a win for consumers across the country, particularly those already using Vodacom and MTN services, the price cut hasn’t exactly made either of the two service providers more affordable. Sure, they’ll both be selling data at a much cheaper rate but in comparison with their competition Vodacom and MTN are still the worst options.

Let’s quickly break down how much 1GB of data costs across the five main mobile service providers in South Africa: Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom and newcomer Rain. While all of these companies do offer certain deals for varying degrees of data, 1GB is a decent benchmark as the amount is consistently offered over all operators. The list has been organised from most expensive to cheapest:

While Vodacom is cheaper than both Telkom and Cell C it’s only by a single rand which, in the case of Cell C users, nets them an extra 2GB of data to use during evenings. While Telkom…well, they’re Telkom. You can’t exactly expect to teach an old whale to jump through smaller hoops, can you? Perhaps most frustrating about this agreement is that despite the price drop, data bundles purchased through MTN and Vodacom expire a month after their purchase if you don’t use it…

Even with the 34% price cut, both MTN and Vodacom are still in the dirges of consumer value. While some might comment that Vodacom is now slightly cheaper than Telkom, it’s worth noting that Telkom hasn’t been forced to cut it’s data prices, meaning that Vodacom needed some kind of slash to be vaguely close to Telkom’s original deal.

MTN has yet to confirm what price-point their 1GB bundle will be sold at but we can assume it will be in the same range as Vodacom’s R99 considering both companies were initially selling at R150. It’s also worth noting that, according to Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub, the agreement with the Competition Commission will allow users to access job portals, Wikipedia, health and government services and Facebook Flex without using data.