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.

Vodacom has been planning a price reduction of their mobile broadband offerings for a while now, and they have finally announced it with savings of up to 43%.

Vodacom recently also launched a 2GB + 2GB for R149 per month special that competes head on with the Cell C special of 2GB for R149, but this is only a promotion and does not offer any value to current Vodacom Standard broadband subscribers.

The company has now taken the wraps of their new mobile broadband data offering prices with lower in-bundle and out-of-bundle pricing, and they have also removed the 600MB, 1.2GB and 2.3GB packages, replacing them with 1GB, 1.5GB, 2GB, 2.5GB and 3GB packages. Out-of-bundle pricing has also been reduced from R2 per MB to R1 per MB.

From 1 August 2011 all Vodacom Standard data packages will be replaced by the packages bellow, all contract customers now also qualify for the Vodacom Nigh Owl service which offers customers extra bandwidth to the same amount as their bundle size during the hours of 00:00 to 05:00.

New Vodacom Mobile Broadband Pricing

8ta, South Africa’s newest cellular operator has just dropped the bomb on rival cellphone network operators by introducing the cheapest mobile broadband package available in South Africa.

The new 8ta deal called Internet 5 will give subscribers access to 10GB of bandwidth at only R199 per month, and for an additional R100 users can get another 10GB that can be used between 12AM and 5AM.

This new deal from 8ta undercuts the current deals by Cell C, MTN and Vodacom that offers customers a mere 2GB of bandwidth per month for R149, by a large margin.

The 10GB package from 8ta for R199 per month will be available at all 8ta flagship stores from 26 June 2011, users will need to sign a 24 month contract and the deal is only applicable on 8ta base stations and not where 8ta uses MTN coverage to serve its customers.

To see if you are covered for the 8ta 10GB package see the Internet 5 coverage map.

Web Africa has just launched a new Home ADSL product range that is sure to shake up the local South African ADSL market. The new product called Home Connect gives users double the bandwidth for the same prices compared to other ADSL providers.

Having analysed home user ADSL bandwidth trends, Web Africa have come up with the Home Connect product that offers users peak and off-peak usage allowances, resulting in low prices starting from R29 for 2GB of ADSL bandwidth.

I have to point out that the off-peak usage allowances is not like other broadband providers’ where you only get to use the bandwidth when you would normally be asleep, but rather when you would use the internet most as a home user, between 7pm and 7am.

Head of Product and Marketing, Cliff Hazell, says: “We have specifically designed this product for home users who are looking for good value for their money and don’t want to spend a fortune on quality ADSL. The majority of home users’ bandwidth is utilised outside of business hours or on weekends, allowing us to offer ‘off peak’ usage at much lower rates, whilst still providing sufficient bandwidth for normal peak-time usage and pass the value on to our customers.”

Web Africa Home Connect pricing

For more details visit the Web Africa Home Connect ADSL product page.

Information was recently leaked about a mobile broadband promotion that Vodacom was set to run from 1 May 2011 to 31 July 2011, soon after the leak Vodacom put details up on their site and got everybody all excited.

The Red is mofaya broadband deal from Vodacom initially offered customers 2GB of bandwidth every month, with an additional 2GB of night owl bandwidth which can be used between 12 AM and 5 AM in the mornings and also included a 7.2 Mbps USB dongle at R149pm on a 12 month contract. The next day however, the terms and condition suddenly changed on the Vodacom website and made the deal part of a 24 month contract instead.

When users saw the new terms and condition they did not take lightly to it and started to vent their anger, and soon after that Vodacom pulled the deal from their website.

The reason Vodacom said they retracted the deal from their site was to rectify the issues with the terms and conditions and have since re uploaded the deal again with all new terms and conditions offering the Red is mofaya broadband deal like it was advertised in the newspapers.

The Vodacom Red is mofaya broadband promotion will be available from 1 May 2011 to 31 July 2011 on a 12 month contract offering customers 2GB of bandwidth per month, with an additional 2GB night owl bandwidth and a USB dongle for the stated price of R149 per month.

Last week MyBroadband leaked information about a broadband promotion that Vodacom was set to launch in May 2011, shortly after that Vodacom put details up on their site about the promotion.

The Red is mofoya promotion initially promised users 2GB of mobile broadband data, a 7.2Mbps USB modem and an additional 2GB of night owl data that users could use between 12AM and 5AM in the morning, on a 12 month contract for R149pm.

The promotion that was set to compete head on with the Cell C’s SpeedStick offering has since seen a turn for the worst. Yesterday I and many other users noticed that Vodacom have amended the Terms and Conditions of the promotion and now the deal has been removed from the Vodacom website.

Vodacom has not made any official statement regarding the matter but the removal either suggests that Vodacom has decided not to offer the Red is mofoya broadband promotion anymore, or they have taken it down to finalise the Terms and Conditions.

Last week Vodacom introduced their new Red is mofoya promotion to compete directly with Cell C’s Speedstick offering, giving clients access to 2GB of data plus another 2GB of night owl data for only R149pm for 12 month.

At first glance the Vodacom data promotion set to look allot cheaper than the similar offering from Cell C, but upon further investigation I actually found out that the promotion is not that cheap after all.

The R149 per month fee is applicable to 12 months, which makes it the same as the Cell C offering, but what was hidden a bit was the fact the after that 12 months you had to pay normal MyGig 2 data contract prices of R349pm and the Night Owl data is only applicable to the first 12 months.

The Red is mofoya data promotion from Vodacom is in fact a 24 month contract with reduced rates for the first 12 months, bringing the cost per megabyte up substantially from the initial 3.6c per MB as reported by MyBroadband, to 8c per MB or R83 per GB over the period of 24 months.

The fine print does state that you can cancel the contract after 13 months without a penalty, but you still have to pay R349 for the 1 month additional bandwidth.

[UPDATE]
Seems like Vodacom took down the promotion on their website.

[UPDATE]
Vodacom clarified Red is mofaya broadband deal for R149pm

It seems like just about every company out there are joining in on Vodacom’s Red campaign, first there was Cell C, then Afrihost and now the latest company to launch a red promotion is local ISP Web Africa.

For the whole week until Friday, Web Africa will be giving the first 30 customers who sign up through their Red Alert page access to 30GB of bandwidth for only R199 per month.

Web Africa will open registration every day at 12:00 and give the first 30 customers 30 gigs of bandwidth for only R199, they will also throw in 100GB of free Download Plus bandwidth which can be used between 12am and 6am in the morning.

For more information about the Web Africa Red Africa promotion view the Red Africa page.

Vodacom CEO, Peter Uys, once noted that the Cell C promotional data offering, giving clients access to either 2GB or 5GB of bandwidth for a year at a very low price, was not sustainable in the long run, yet Cell C have been continuing to offer clients the special promotional data offerings.

Seems like Vodacom has had a change of heart since it re-branded and are now offering clients a similar product to that of the Cell C 2GB Speedstick offer, with prices as low as 3.6c per megabyte.

The new promotional data offering by Vodacom is a “2GB + 2GB” offering, giving clients a 7.2Mbps HSPA capable modem, 2GB of bandwidth per month, and an additional 2GB of “Night Owl” bandwidth which can be used between 12AM and 5AM, all for only R149 pm. The offering also includes free technical support and a mailbox with 5GB of storage.

Vodacom has just become the most affordable mobile broadband provider in South Africa again, and I would like to see what MTN will do about the new price reduction seeing as they still charge users R389 pm for a 2GB offering.

Vodacom recently unveiled their new branding with a big focus on Red, the new colour of Vodacom.

Vodacom is spending more than R200 million on the new Red branding but Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys said that the re-branding is not only a once of change from Blue to Red and in the coming months consumers can expect more from the new Vodacom.

Cell C is however not letting Vodacom take all the shine with its new Red Vodafone centric brand, the cellular operator who recently changed their own brand from Red to Black is targeting all Vodacom Red advertisements on Google through ads.

The new advertisement campaign handled by Trigger, the social media company handling all the Cell C social media account, takes aim at searches related to Vodacom and then warns users to “Stay out of the Red” with another advertisement reading “Red means Stop”.

To view the advertisements simply search for Vodacom Red or Vodacom Broadband on Google.

Cell C, who’s brand was previously also Red, clearly are trying to win over users through the Vodacom Red campaign, my concern is just can Cell C handle more users on their broadband network with so many users already complaining about connectivity issues.