Afrihost Air Mobile and Capitec Connect cheaper than FNB and Mr Price Mobile

Afrihost Air Mobile and Capitec Connect offer the lowest data prices in a MyBroadband analysis of eight mobile virtual network operators.

Various retailers, Internet service providers, and retailers in South Africa offer mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services.

An MVNO is a wireless communications service provider that does not own mobile network infrastructure and relies on another operator to provide services to customers.

Cell C is the most dominant provider to MVNOs in South Africa, with five of the virtual operators in this comparison using its network.

The remaining three operators listed use MTN’s network infrastructure.

MyBroadband compared data prices from several prominent MVNOs in South Africa to determine which provides customers with the best value for money.

The MVNOs compared include Afrihost Air Mobile, Capitec Connect, FNB Connect, Mr Price Mobile, and Standard Bank Mobile.

We considered four data bundle sizes for the analysis: 100MB, 500MB, 1GB, and 2GB.

It is essential to consider that these MVNOs offer different validity periods for their data bundles. They are summarized below:

• Afrihost Air Mobile — bundles valid for 60 days (two months).
• Capitec Connect — bundles never expire.
• FNB Connect — bundles valid for 30 days (one month).
• Mr Price Mobile — bundles valid for 30 days (one month).
• PnP Mobile — bundle valid for 30 days (one month).
• Shoprite K’Nect — bundles valid for 60 days (two months).
• Standard Bank Mobile — bundles valid for 30 days (one month).
• TFG Connect — bundles valid for 30 days (one month).

Before looking at data bundle prices, we compared the out-of-bundle rates for each MVNO and found that Capitec Connect is the cheapest across the board.

Capitec Connect charges a flat rate of R0.045 per megabyte (MB), R0.90 per minute during voice calls, and R0.25 per SMS.

PnP Mobile has the highest out-of-bundle rate for voice calls at R1.49. Together with Standard Bank Mobile, it also has the highest rate for SMS at R0.60 per message.

Mr Price Mobile has the highest out-of-bundle rate for data at R0.50 per MB. Standard Bank Mobile isn’t far off at R0.49 per MB.

Capitec Connect’s flat data rate of R0.045 per MB makes it the cheapest option for the lower data allocations, with its 100MB and 500MB bundles costing R4.50 and R22.50, respectively.

However, as the data allocation increases, Capitect Connect’s prices are trumped by Afrihost Air Mobile. Notably, Capitec Connect was the second cheapest option for the 1GB and 2GB data allocations.

Afrihost’s 1GB data bundle costs R30.00, and its customers can get a data allocation of 2GB for R60.00

The most expensive MVNOs regarding data bundle prices are Mr Price Mobile and PnP Mobile, with the latter being the most expensive for three of the four data bundles.

PnP Mobile charges the highest fees for 500MB, 1GB, and 2GB bundles at R75, R99, and R189, respectively.

Mr Price Mobile’s 100MB data bundle is the most expensive at R30, and the retailer is on par with PnP Mobile for its 1GB data allocation.

The following table provides a price comparison of prepaid data bundles offered by the MVNOs considered in this analysis.

We highlighted the lowest price for a specific bundle size in green, and the highest price in red.

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