{"id":8458,"date":"2012-03-27T15:06:27","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T13:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=8458"},"modified":"2012-03-27T15:08:16","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T13:08:16","slug":"flat-rated-smartphone-data-bundles-more-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/8458\/flat-rated-smartphone-data-bundles-more-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Flat-rated smartphone data bundles – more to come"},"content":{"rendered":"

The success of BlackBerry<\/a> in South Africa is partly attributed to its affordable flat-rated data model, and many companies are trying to replicate this model for other mobile platforms to attract new subscribers.<\/p>\n

MTN<\/a> launched their smartphone data bundles in February, offering subscribers a variety of options – priced between R29 per month and R49 per month. However, these products were slated by consumers because of the 75MB fair-use limit and out-of-bundle rates which accompany these offerings.<\/p>\n

MTN is rumoured to also be planning new, cheaper BlackBerry packages aimed at specific market segments (like social networking and mobile chat).<\/p>\n

Nashua Mobile<\/a>, in partnership with Nokia<\/a>, launched their own smartphone data packages, but avoided the backlash which MTN endured, by offering true flat-rated data bundles without any out-of-bundle charges.<\/p>\n

Nashua Mobile’s “Xtreme Data Service” (XDS) deal launched for certain Nokia devices on 7 March 2012, and offers contract users a flat-rated bundle at R59 per month. Speeds are throttled after certain fair-use limits are reached, but subscribers never run the risk of any out-of-bundle bills.<\/p>\n

Nashua Mobile is currently researching usage patterns on other Nokia devices (including the Nokia Lumia 800), with the aim of launching more flat-rated offerings.<\/p>\n

It is no secret that Vodacom<\/a> is also planning a range of flat-rated smartphone data packages, but the details remain sketchy.<\/p>\n

Virgin Mobile<\/a> recently launched cheaper BlackBerry data packages. The company introduced 7-day and 14-day options, to complement the usual 30-day BlackBerry Internet Service plan – priced at R19 and R29 respectively.<\/p>\n

Virgin Mobile is not looking at launching their own flat-rated smartphone data bundles (outside of BlackBerry packages) at this time, however.<\/p>\n

8ta<\/a> is tight-lipped on their plans in the smartphone market. “8ta is constantly reviewing data solutions that are aimed at enhancing the data experience for smartphone users; however, 8ta is not in a position to comment further on a planned strategy with regards to the Smartphone data market,” said Amith Maharaj<\/a>, senior managing executive at Telkom<\/a> Mobile.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flat-rated XDS smartphone data packages enjoy support<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cheaper BlackBerry packages from Virgin Mobile<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many mobile operators and other cellular players are developing and launching flat-rated smartphone data packages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[407,409,161,26,28,551,27],"class_list":["post-8458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-8ta","tag-amith-maharaj","tag-blackberry","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-nashua-mobile","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8458"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8481,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8458\/revisions\/8481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}