Mobile

The most expensive smartphone contracts in South Africa

Staff Writer

 ·17 Jun 2018

South Africa’s four largest mobile operators all offer varying contracts to meet consumer’s needs – including a premium service that often bundles in unlimited SMS, call minutes and data.

These contracts when coupled with premium subsidised smartphone devices, which can now stretch beyond R20,000, can become quite costly.

Apple smartphones feature as the most expensive devices currently available through the operators, with the the group’s premium Apple iPhone X 256GB being the most expensive overall.

In terms of contract prices, MTN’s contracts are the most expensive overall, followed by Vodacom, Cell C and Telkom.

FNB Connect, which is one of the few MVNOs in South Africa to offer flexible premium smartphone contracts in the country, has also been included.

MTN

MTN’s most expensive contract package is the MTN Sky Supreme, which offers uncapped data (with a fair use of 25GB before throttling) and unlimited SMSes and call minutes.

Vodacom

Vodacom’s premium contract package is the Red VIP Plus, which offers 20GB of data every month, on top of ‘limitless’ SMSes and call minutes.

Cell C

Cell C’s costliest contract package is the Premium 25, which offers 25GB of data per month, on top of 3000 SMSes and 5000 call minutes.

Telkom

Telkom’s most expensive contract package is the FreeMe Unlimited, which offers uncapped data (with a fair use of 25GB before throttling) and free SMSes and call minutes. The SMSes are capped at 50 free per month, with 3,000 free minutes per month before being charged.

FNB Connect

While FNB Connect is an MVNO is South Africa, it is one of the few that offers long-term smartphone contracts on top of its month-to-month data contracts.

The smartphone products are limited, and come already tied to set top-up packages, but can also be coupled with the MVNO’s other data products. In the list below, we’ve selected the group’s smartphone packages, along with the Ultimate Connect voice package (R399 per month).

The key difference with the FNB Connect contracts is that the data and SMS packages are limited (100MB to 1.1GB and 50 to 350 SMSes, respectively) compared to the other operators.

Read: SA mobile share in 2018: Vodacom vs MTN vs Cell C vs Telkom