A study conducted by Research ICT Africa (RIA) indicates that South Africa is among the countries with the cheapest postpaid broadband packages in Africa compared to twelve other African nations.
South Africa has the cheapest deal of 1GB postpaid mobile broadband basket at an average price of USD 9.81 per month.
Second place was taken by East Africa’s Tanzania and Kenya gets third position. The countries offer 1GB postpaid broadband data packages at USD 10.17 and USD 10.81 respectively. West African countries scope fourth position in the list, having Ghana offering 1GB at USD 10.92
RIA executive director, Alison Gillwald, said that they conducted their study by analyzing postpaid, prepaid and fixed data packages telecom firms among the selected African countries. The executive director also added that in terms of studying these African countries’ postpaid data markets, the company took 24 month broadband contracts into consideration; as well as the likes of installation fees, modem or router costs, and the cost of a land-line are all included in the study.
The report said that due to a relatively high number of postpaid customers (in South Africa) compared to other African countries, even European countries can go and hide. These days the most important sales are cheap broadband deals that give you a fast connection. It’s something that we all want to have as comfort within our homes competitive forces in this market segment have pushed mobile operators (in South Africa) to reduce postpaid broadband prices.
It further stated that it was not in the 1GB postpaid broadband range that South Africa has competitive prices on the continent but also in the 5GB basket SA has the second cheapest offering after Nigeria. SA charges USD 21.80 monthly.
Tanzania takes number three in this broadband package range as it offers USD 28.94 monthly fee for a 5GB, while Ghana offers USD 30.97 for the same package monthly.
However, South Africa fails to compare well in the prepaid broadband space, as the study reveals that the country is ranked fourth in the 1GB prepaid broadband sub-index when it comes to the cheapest packages in this range among 12 African nations.
In South Africa a 1GB mobile prepaid option costs up to USD11.32 monthly whereas in Ghana the same package costs USD 3.72.
The report says that South Africa stands at number two rates in 5GB prepaid as they offer a monthly fee of USD 22.47 more than Tanzania who holds second position charge only USD 13.30 says RIA.
The research group adds that South African mobile operators are moving to grow their high data and bandwidth usage markets, which is resulting in prices being competitive especially in the 5GB range.
South Africa, however, holds the sixth position in fixed-line ADSL broadband pricing as they charge USD 42.15 monthly for 1GB.