Reviews About Anything » Internet

Cell C data package pricing.

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:39:09 +0000

So Cell C have added another product to their whoosh collection, this time in the form of 3GB of data valid for 365 days.

This offer is probably one of the best internet offers in the country; for someone that doesn’t require a lot of internet connectivity and doesn’t want to have the monthly payments associated with pretty much all the other providers.

The 3GB package, which is now also being advertised heavily on TV and Radio, will cost you R749 once-off and will give you a 3G modem (Speed Stick) which is capable of running at a maximum of 7.2Mbps. The package will also come with 3GB of data that you can use anytime you want within a 365 day window period.

If we work this out on an average per month; this gives you an average of 256 MB for R63.25 per month. Yes, I know it’s not a month to month contract, but this just illustrates the effective monthly costs with this package.

The closest offering that I’ve managed to find from anywhere else is Vodacom’s Internet Starter Pack. A pre-warning… the packages are VERY different, but you will see why I associate them in later in this review. This pack costs R399 once off and gives you 100MB of data per month for a full year. The package is very different from the new package from Cell C since Vodacom only allocates you 100MB per month whereas the Cell C offer gives you 3GB upfront to use how and when you want during the year. Vodacom’s Internet Starter Pack works out to R33.25 per month for 100MB per month, which still makes the Cell C deal cheaper per MB if you average the two packages out on a month to month basis. Granted if you only need 100MB of data per month, the Vodacom deal looks attractive.

Here is what I find quite interesting about the new offer from Cell C. You can get this offer in two flavours.
1/ R749 which gives you 3GB of data AND the modem
2/ R399 which just gives you the data, NO modem.

This means that they are putting a price tag on the modem of R350.

Hang on a second….. if we look at Cell C’s other package, one of the original whoosh packages (24GB package), here is what we see
1/ R1499 once-off gives you 2GB of data every month for a year AND a modem
2/ R999 once-off for just the 2GB per month without the modem.

This now means they are putting a price tag on the modem of R500 – it doesn’t say if the modem is the exact same model, but the maximum speeds are identical (7.2Mbps).

So Cell C… How about dropping the price of the 24GB whoosh package to R1349 once-off which would make the modem price effectively the same as your new offer, or would you prefer it if we go to Vodacom to get the Internet Starter pack for R399 and buy your 24GB package (data only) for R999 and slap your sim card in the Vodacom modem? Something tells me that your marketing department won’t be pleased if we all walk around with Vodacom modems instead of yours?

This would not only save us R101 on your current offer, but it would also give us a second sim card with 100MB of data per month that we could use in something else… like our iPad’s.

If anyone from Cell C is actually reading this… and you would like me to put my Cell C sim card in a Cell C Speed Stick, drop me a mail info[at]reviewsaboutanything[dot]com and I’ll send you my address where you can send me a free modem. Until then, I guess I’ll just keep the Cell C sim in my Vodacom Starter pack modem.

City: ALL

Country: South Africa

8ta Internet 5 deal

Jay — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:46:26 +0000

Wow the mobile market in South Africa is certainly seeing some competition this year.

8ta has just announced their ‘Internet 5′ deal which is now the cheapest 3G deal in South Africa.

For R199 per month on a 2 year contract, the new 8ta deal will give you 10GB of data PER MONTH! This not only makes them the new cheapest provider in the country, but also the biggest in terms of the amount of data being offered per month.

What’s the catch?

Well the bad news is that 8ta is still currently using MTN for a large portion of their network coverage while they implement their own infrastructure, so the “Internet 5″ deal only applies if you are connected to a 8ta tower and NOT when you are connected to a MTN tower. It’s highly recommended that you check out their network coverage to make sure you will be covered before rushing out to buy this deal.

What’s next?

Well this year certainly has been an interesting one from the cell providers on the data front. Cell C brought in their Whoosh last year which set them apart from the others as the fastest and cheapest provider in the country. Not to be outdone, Vodacom retaliated in May with their “Red is Mafaya” deal which gives you 2GB + 2GB (you can read more about it here) and further retaliated by upgrading their network to 43.3Mb/s just 3 days before Cell C rolled out their network in Port Elizabeth. This put Vodacom in the lead although there was a lot of debate about the fine print of Vodacom’s T&C with their Red is Mafaya deal, also discussed here.

Now 8ta, the baby of the group, has turned around and offered a 10GB data package at R199 with their “Internet 5″ deal.

I don’t think it will be too long before someone offers the full speed of 43.3Mb/s with 10GB per month for R149, but who? MTN? Where are they in all this power play???

Best small user Mobile Internet Package

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:05:16 +0000

Currently the best Mobile internet package available on the market in South Africa for small bandwidth users has to be the Internet Starter Pack from Vodacom.
The package certainly won’t be a good option for users needing lots of time on Facebook and Youtube or for heavy downloader’s but for e-mail and regular browsing you can’t go wrong with this package.

The Internet Starter Pack from Vodacom costs R399 as a once off payment and will give you 100MB of data per month for 12 months and includes a K3580-Z USB modem.
This is the perfect package for anyone needing access to the internet occasionally and for people that have mobile devices that require internet access like the Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy.
Since this is a prepaid sim card from Vodacom, if the 100MB of data is not enough for you more data bundles can always be purchased and added to your account.

Why this is such a good deal?
If you already have a prepaid sim card from Vodacom and wish to buy a 100MB data bundle each month for 12 months, at the current pricing structure it would cost you R1056 and would NOT include the modem.

P.S – Make sure to take your RICA documents with you when you go to get one

City: All

Country: South Africa

Vodacom’s newest ‘Red is Mofaya’ offering outshines Cell C Whoosh!

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:42:52 +0000

On the 1st May 2011 Vodacom will be releasing their newest ‘special deal’ on broadband called Red is Mofaya.
For R149 per month you will receive 2GB of data per month (unused bandwidth rolls over to the next month), plus an additional 2GB of data for usage between midnight and 5am (Night Owl data)
The package also includes a 7.2Mbps modem as well as a free premium e-mail account with 5GB storage space and 5 aliases.

Looks like competition in the mobile broadband market is starting to heat up, since Cell C launched its Whoosh service late last year all the providers have been improving their network speeds and dropping their costing for broadband internet. Cell C were the first provider to offer speeds of 21.6 Mbps breaking their rivals max speeds of 7.2, Vodacom not to be outdone released their 43.2Mbps network on the 16th of April followed shortly by Cell C releasing their 43.3Mbps network on the 19th April (only 3 days later, although only in Port Elizabeth for now).

Cell C have been the recent leaders in mobile internet, been the fastest and cheapest since late last year, although this now seems to all be changing. With the new Red is Mofaya offer from Vodacom, this now places them in the same price bracket as Cell C with their 2GB Whoosh offering at R149, and with their extra Night Owl data bundle adding another 2GB of data to the package, not only does this now make Vodacom the cheapest, but with their new network upgrades, it makes them the fastest and hence the new leaders in the mobile internet market.

Comparison between Vodacom’s Red is Mofaya vs. Cell C Whoosh

Vodacom

Cost: R149

Modem: 7.2Mbps

Data: 2GB+2GB

Cell C

Cost: R149

Modem: 7.2Mbps

Data: 2GB

Cell C Whoosh – Is it as good as they say?

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:43:09 +0000

Having noticed really bad cell phone reception in my area with Cell C and hearing from friends and family similar stories of calls constantly been cut off etc, I was incredible sceptical about the performance of the new wireless internet from Cell C, also known as Whoosh.

To give you a little background, I have been a Telkom ADSL user for more than 4 years and generally very happy with their service. Sure my ADSL line goes down every 2 months or so, and I have to spend 20 – 30 minutes on the phone with a call centre operator asking them to do the hard line reset, but all in all their service is pretty good…until last year October.
My Telkom ADSL line dropped around 4 times in the months of October and November last year and I was growing tired of constantly having to have it reset, this ended in December when no matter how many times a technician was sent out to my house or how many times they reset the line, and no matter which of the 3 different types of ADSL routers I have were used, the line was in a permanent state of uselessness.

So this year in January I decided to give the Cell C Whoosh a try, the convincing factor for me was their 7 day money back guaranteed (minus a handling fee) so if I was not happy with the service I would be able to return the product and get my money back. I purchased the 5GB a month package for a couple reasons.

1/ Having 5GB a month is fantastic
2/ The modems that Cell C provides are different depending on the package. The white modem has a limited speed of 7.2 Mbps not to mention the 2GB per month cap where as the faster black modem (which comes with the 5GB package) runs at a maximum of 21.6Mbps.

I also opted to pay for it once off, which meant no contracts, no monthly fees, and the effective cost per month was less. Yes it cost R2,999 for it once off, but assuming it was as good as everyone was claiming I was happy to do it.

The moment of truth:
So I bought the card as the doors of Cell C store opened and went back to the office to give it a try, with full intention of returning it moments later if it was not as good as it claimed. The installation was quick and painless and within 10 minutes I was on the web. Although Cell C claims that the card can run at 21.6Mbps, I have never seen anything faster than 18Mbps…. hang on… what’s am I saying… 18Mbps!!! that’s RIDICULOUSLY fast!!!
It does make a difference where you are, and the signal quality varies from place to place, but as long as you are in the coverage area (located on Cell C’s website and deadly accurate) you should be getting anything from 3Mbps – 18Mbps (from my experience).

So what does this mean in human terms to those people that don’t understand Mbps….
In September I downloaded the new Operating System for my iPhone using my ADSL line.. It took just over 4 hours to download.
In mid January there was another version of the iPhone Operating System which I downloaded with the Cell C Whoosh… and Whoosh it was!!! The OS, which by the way was larger than the previous one downloaded in September, was downloaded in 19 minutes and 37 seconds!!!

It was only moments later that I confirmed that my ADSL line with Telkom was STILL not working and they received my cancellation phone call.
I have been running on the Whoosh now since Jan this year and don’t have a single complaint. I also bought their wireless station which allows you to plug the Modem directly into it and turns your house into a wireless hotspot allowing anyone in your house to use the internet with WIFI. Although highly recommended, I would suggest you get someone who knows a thing or two about wireless routers to set it up for you since the default configuration has NO security on it. So unless you want your neighbours to leech your internet for free, you may want to secure it more.

Update:

You may want to read my latest post on Cell C before you decide to buy their Whoosh
http://www.reviewsaboutanything.com/service_bad/cell-c-service-is-beyond-shocking/

City: ALL

Country: South Africa

Annoying emails!

Guitargirl — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:23:39 +0000

I’m sitting wondering if anyone besides me finds it totally annoying when an email is sent through – supposedly funny (hey, that’s fine with me) – but then at the bottom it’s spoiled by telling me that I have to send it to 20 people within 5 minutes of receiving it or else ….blah, blah…Maybe I have a problem with authority and being told what to do (!) but it really annoys me. Pretty much on principle, that email won’t get passed on because I don’t want to emotionally manipulate my friends to do what I want them to do. If it’s really funny, then I’ll delete the order and just pass it on as a normal email.
As a Christian, I am especially ticked off when I’m told that if I don’t send it on, then I’m ashamed of Jesus. No way! I’m just using my wisdom and discernment as to what to email to my friends and associates. And again with the emotional manipulation. Jesus certainly didn’t manipulate anyone and if that’s what is needed to make fellow believers, I don’t think that He would be into that.
So people, stop trying to manipulate me, when you’re supposed to be my friends, and just let me use my own judgement as to what I should be doing! I’m supposed to be old enough to decide where to drive, if I drink, if I vote, get married, etc…I should be old enough to decide about sending emails on!

City: Helensburgh

Country: UK

Vodafone Mobile Broadband

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:07:32 +0000

I travel a lot to the UK, and one of the biggest problems that I’ve had over the years is trying to get internet access. Granted every hotel I stay in usually has some sort of internet access available, but often at a really high cost. I looked into getting a mobile broadband card (3G card) last year, and the bad news was that you had to sign a 18 to 24 month contract, and you need to have a British bank account. Luckily for me, I do have a British bank account, but for millions of travellers, this is just not an option.

On arrival at Heathrow airport last week, I decided to go into the Vodafone shop to find out if there were any new service that I would be able to take advantage of for internet access. I already have a USB card for 3G access, so was hoping to just get a UK sim card that would work on my card and would give me the option for Pay as you Go (Top up and Go). I was sadly informed that my card was locked to only work the service provider that I’m using in South Africa, and the only option I had was to purchase a new USB Dongle. My first thought was… yeah that’s gonna cost a fortune!, but I asked the guy at the shop what the cost of getting one was.

To my surprise, finally!, Vodafone now offers a Top up and Go package for wireless broadband! It costs £39 (GBP) for a new USB Dongle, and it includes 1GB of data that NEVER EXPIRES! If you run out of data usage on the card, you can top up another 1GB for £15. No contracts, no bank account needed, just buy it over the counter and within minutes you are online.

So for any travellers that are heading out to the UK, and need internet access at an affordable price, I can highly recommend getting a Mobile Broadband card from Vodafone on your arrival at Heathrow… it’s what I’m using right now to write this review.

City: London

Country: UK