Best month-to-month mobile data deals in South Africa

If you don’t fancy signing up for a long-term contract, there are multiple mobile data packages available in South Africa on a month-to-month basis.

Best month-to-month mobile data deals in South Africa

While fibre is the ideal option for Internet users with big data requirements, it’s not readily available to most South African households yet.

Mobile broadband is available more widely but is also more expensive. The data speeds on mobile networks can also vary greatly based on your location and the time of day.

The most attractive mobile data prices are often offered on long-term contracts, but this locks you into a single provider for 12 to 36 months.

Cancelling your contract before its terms expire will incur a penalty.

Opting for prepaid gives you the freedom to jump between providers without any penalty fees, but prepaid data packages are typically more expensive compared to contracts.

Month-to-month products strike a balance between both prepaid and longer-term contract packages.

Although payments recur on a monthly basis, like on a contract, you can cancel your package at any time without incurring penalty fees.

This is because payments are made upfront instead of on a postpaid basis, so there is no financial risk to mobile network operators of delinquency from the subscriber.

The table below shows the capped month-to-month LTE packages available on MTN and Telkom’s networks.

Capped LTE packages
Data  Service provider(s) MTN Telkom
30GB anytime data
30GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess R199 R199
50GB anytime data
50GB night data
Axxess R299
60GB anytime data
60GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess R349
70GB anytime data
70GB night data
Axxess / Telkom R399
75GB anytime data
75GB night data
MTN R399
90GB anytime data
90GB night data
Axxess / Telkom R499
100GB anytime data
100GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess R549
110GB anytime data
110GB night data
MTN R499
120GB anytime data
120GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess / Telkom R699
150GB anytime data
150GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess R749
200GB anytime data
200GB night data
MTN R699
200GB anytime data
200GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess R949
220GB anytime data
220GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess R999
300GB anytime data
300GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess R1,349
500GB anytime data
500GB night data
Afrihost / Axxess R1,949
1TB anytime data Telkom R999

Uncapped packages

If you don’t want to concern yourself with monitoring your data usage, there are also uncapped mobile data packages on month-to-month deals.

Rain’s uncapped 4G and 5G deals are the cheapest of their kind in the country, starting at just R250 for an Unlimited Off-Peak 4G package.

For those requiring greater speed, it also offers two 5G packages, both of which are currently available at discounted prices.

Supersonic also provides an uncapped fixed LTE service at R999 per month.

The table below shows all the uncapped mobile data packages available on a month-to-month basis.

Uncapped packages
Data  Download speeds and other limits Price
Rain Unlimited 4G for phones Only for phones
No hotspot support
360p video streaming
R299
Rain Unlimited 4G Off-peak Best effort speeds
23:00-18:00 – Uncapped
18:00-23:00 – R50 per GB
R250
Rain Unlimited 4G 24/7 Up to 10Mbps
360p video streaming
R479
Rain Unlimited 5G Home Standard Up to 30Mbps
720p video streaming
R699 (R479 on promo)
Rain Unlimited 5G Home Premium “Ultra-fast 5G download speeds”
1080p video streaming
R999 (R699 on promo)
Supersonic Up to 70Mbps download
Up to 25Mbps upload
R999 
Afrihost Pure Uncapped LTE Up to 150Mbps
1TB FUP
R2,949

Prepaid is catching up

There are still many more month-to-month options than prepaid when it comes to mobile data products with big data allocations.

However, Cell C has also started to offer attractive prices with large amounts of data with its Home Connecta Flexi packages.

Starting at a once-off price of R59, subscribers can get a 10GB bundle with 5GB of anytime data and 5GB night-time data.

Cell C charges the same price for a 50GB + 50GB package as Axxess and Afrihost do on a 30GB + 30GB plan.

For heavier data users, the Home Connecta Flexi packages top out at a 1TB anytime bundle for R899 per month.

Cell C Home Connecta Flexi
Data allocation Network Price
5GB anytime data
5GB night data
Cell C / MTN R59
10GB anytime data
10GB night data
Cell C / MTN R139
25GB anytime data
25GB night data
Cell C / MTN R179
50GB anytime data
50GB night data
Cell C / MTN R199
100GB anytime data
100GB night data
Cell C / MTN R389
200GB anytime data
200GB night data
Cell C / MTN R699
1TB anytime data Cell C / MTN R899

Source Link