G-Connect today is launching a first in South Africa, In-Flight Internet access on certain domestic flights.

“The G-Connect In-Flight WiFi access solution will enable customers to connect to the Internet during flights” explains G-Connect on their company website.

The In-Flight WiFi service will initially only be available on Mango aircraft with plans to extend the service to other airlines in the near future.

The G-Connect’s In-Flight WiFi service makes use of satelite technology to serve the planes with broadband access of up to 4Mbps, with bandwidth provided by Vodacom.

G-Connect has also revealed pricing for their service, users will be able to buy vouchers that will allow them to access the internet on the planes. The In-Flight WiFi vouchers will be available in two options, an 3 hour voucher for R50 and a 20 hour voucher for R90.

G-Connect has also launched new uncapped ADSL packages which includes 100 free In-Flight WiFi or normal WiFi minutes, undercutting recent price reduction by MWeb.

Web Africa has taken the wraps off their all new Business Uncapped ADSL packages today, dropping prices dramatically and offering customers extra services at no additional cost.

Web African has reduced pricing of their Business Uncapped ADSL packages by leveraging the extra capacity they have built into their network, which increased by 8% in the last week alone.

The new Business Uncapped ADSL packages give businesses access to prioritised business-critical traffic at lower prices and also offer business a .co.za domain, a web hosting package with unlimited traffic and a R400 Google AdWords voucher at no additional price.

“South African business owners are becoming a lot more demanding of their service providers, and rightly so. Business is all happening real-time, whether it’s delivering voice over the network or taking part in real-time trading. Making sure your business can guarantee quality connectivity should be the first priority for the serious business owner,” explains Tim Wyatt-Gunning, CEO of Web Africa.

Business Uncapped subscriber also get access to expert support of the highest quality through only experienced call center agents in addition to the free added services.

Web Africa’s Business Uncapped ADSL packages start from R299 for the 384k package, R399 for the 512k package and R699 for the 1M package, all packages runs on Web Africa’s gold bandwidth.

For more information regarding the new Web Africa Business Uncapped packages see here.

In the wake of recent Telkom IP Connect (IPC) price reductions, MWEB has cut the price of some of their uncapped ADSL data accounts by up to 33%.

MWEB has cut the price of their 1Mbps uncapped ADSL data account by R100 from R299 to R199 per month, where as the business uncapped 1Mbps service has been reduced from R986 to R799 per month.

MWEB has also reduced the pricing of they 384kpbs uncapped data accounts from R219 to R199 bringing it in line with the new 1Mbps service. The reason for this is because MWEB would like to make 1Mbps the new entry level uncapped product in South Africa. MWEB has further stated that they will offer free upgrades for current 384kbps customers to 1Mbps free of charge.

The new MWEB uncapped ADSL pricing is available with immediate effect to all new customers, and existing customers will be automatically upgraded from 1 June 2012.

New mobile service providers 8ta has announced the availability of BlackBerry Prepaid Blackberry Internet Services (BIS) vouchers.

The new prepaid BIS vouchers from 8ta will give you access to Blackberry Internet Services and free Airtime for the period of 6 months for only R600 once off.

BlackBerry Internet Services is a easy to use and low cost solutions for those wanting access to internet, email and social networking, making it ideal for the youth of today that needs to constantly connected. With the new prepaid BIS vouchers parents can be rest assured that their children will not run out of airtime while surfing the net and there is no need to take out a contract, ensuring no bill shocks at the end of each month.

The prepaid BlackBerry Internet Services vouchers from 8ta is valid for 6 months and will give you R600 worth of airtime, free BIS subscription valued at R59pm, 500mb of free YouTube streaming, and the ability to get 50 free sms message each day when you send 5 sms messages. You will also earn free minutes after the first 3 seconds of each received call.

The BlackBerry prepaid BIS vouchers is obtainable from any 8ta flagship stores, Telkom Direct stores, Edcon and Altech Autopage, and can be used in conjuction with a Prepaid tariff and any other active bundle, be it SMS, data or other. Once the voucher expire you’ll have the option to migrate to another Prepaid tariff plan and to keep your existing BIS.

Popular smartphone app WhatsApp, which allows you to message other users on different platforms running the same app at the fraction of the cost of an SMS, has denied sending out any messages stating that it is about to start charging users.

The message reads as follows:

WhatsApp is going to cost us money soon. The only way that it will stay free is if you are a frequent user i.e. you have at least 10 people you are chatting with. To become a frequent user send this message to 10 people who receive it (2 ticks) and your WhatsApp logo should turn Red to indicate a frequent user.

WhatsApp has responded on their blog after they got numerous emails from users of the smartphone app about hoax message doing the round on the instant message application, stating that this is a hoax and there is no truth to it.

Another hoax message has now also started doing the rounds, this time stating that WhatsApp will be shutting down on 28 Jan and if you do not forward the message to your contacts you will be deemed inactive and your account will be deleted withing 48 hours.

WhatsApp will not be shutting down any time soon, nor will they start charging you if you do not forwards messages to your contacts, if they really wanted to contact other WhatsApp users don’t you think they can just simply message you directly?

Neotel has without much flair, launched what one can only describe as one of the best mobile data deals currently available, over the weekend.

The new NeoGo 24GB data deal was launched by Neotel over the weekend and give customers 24GB of data that is valid for 12 months for a mere R799 once-off fee. The new NeoGo 24GB deal also include a free USB modem.

Users have the choice of either getting the whole 24GB up front or has the ability to request that they receive 2GB every month for the period of 12 months. When users go over their either monthly 2GB or once-off 24GB threshold they will be billed pre paid data rates of R0.20 per MB.

The new NeoGo deal from Neotel comes in considerably cheaper then current deals offered by mobile operators, with the R149pm deal from MTN and the previous Cell C special not even coming close price wise.

Neotel also has a NeoGo 2GB deal for those not so data hungry people which costs R399 once off and also includes a free USB modem.

In South Africa mobile is big, just about everybody in the country owns a cellphone, most of these making use of prepaid, but why? Simply put they just can not afford contracts or like the idea of being tied into a 24 month contract, or have the credit scores that allows them to take out a contract.

Enter Flexicell, Flexicell has innovated the prepaid landscape in South Africa by introducing prepaid month to month contracts, it’s a contract but not really cause it runs from month to month. You decide the amount of airtime you require each month, pay Flexicell and come each new month your phone is credited with the amount of airtime.

With this month to month offer from Flexicell you get all the flexibility of being on prepaid, while still having the convenience that contract customers have, like being assured that come beginning of the month you will have you airtime loaded automatically with the added benefit of not having to sign a 24 month contract.

You get to choose whatever amount you feel comfortable with spending each month on airtime and Flexicell will simply deduct that amount from you account and load the airtime, once you feel you can not afford it anymore you simply need to give one month’s notice and your done.

With the iPhone 4S set to launch at midnight in South Africa, details have emerged about MTN’s pricing and packages for the iPhone 4S.

MTN will offer the iPhone 4S on three different packages that start from R499pm to R819pm, all packages will include a 250mb data bundle every month for the duration of the 24 month contract.

MTN are yet to announce at what stores the iPhone 4S will be available from tomorrow, but they have confirmed these pricing on their Facebook page. What I do find dissapointing is the fact that even though they opened up pre-registration of the iPhone 4S they are now requesting that you go into a store tomorrow to get the iPhone 4S.

Yesterday I spent most of the day phoning around in Cape Town to find a MTN store that will have the iPhone 4S on 16 Decemeber 2011, but I was told by every store I phoned that they will not have the phone on launch date, shocking considering I phoned most of the bigger stores.

Both Vodacom and MTN has however told MyBroadband that users should not be concerned and that there will be stock at certain stores where customers can go to on launch date to apply for iPhone 4S contracts. These customers going into stores to take out iPhone 4S contracts will be treated on a first come, first serve basis.

Vodacom has also revealed the stores where the iPhone 4S will be available on launch date, see table below.

With the news of the iPhone 4S launching in South Africa, MTN has now also opened up pre-orders for the device.

Vodacom was the first to officially announce that they will be launching the iPhone 4S in South Africa on 16 December 2011, with the news Vodacom also opened up pre-orders for the device on their website. MTN soon responded saying that they will also be launching the iPhone 4S in South Africa on the 16th of December but there were no word on pre-orders.

MTN has now also opened up pre-orders for the iPhone 4S. Users wanting to get they hands on Apple’s latest iPhone can pre-order their devices on the MTNSP site, the pre-orders are open to new or existing customers wanting to upgrade to the iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 4S features Apple’s lightning fast A5 dual core processor, an all new and impressive 8 Mega Pixel camera, iOS 5 and the much talked about digital personal assistant called Siri that responds to your voice commands.