Smartphones are currently taking the world by storm and is becoming the norm when it comes to choosing a phone. The only problem is that these phones are relatively expensive, but Vodacom is set to change that soon with the release of the Vodafone 546 smartphone.

Vodacom will be launching the cheapest smartphone available in South Africa soon with a price tag of a mere R400, but don’t expect too much for that price.

The Vodafone 546 features a TFT display with 256K colours running at a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. It also has a 2MP camera, FM radio, full QWERTY keyboard and SD card support. Data capabilities include GPRS, EDGE and Bluetooth 2.1 support.

So these features may not look very attractive to you if you are used to a iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone, but for those looking for a cheap phone that can do allot for a next to nothing price, this will be their first choice.

At only R400 this is surely the cheapest smartphone available on the market, not the most attractive, and there are talks about a touch screen version to be launched as well for between R500 and R600.

Leaf is also set to introduce a lower end smartphone to the market by the end of June 2010 called the HTC Wildfire, whether is will be as cheap as the Vodafone 546 I doubt, but it does pack allot more.

Afrihost launches SA cheapest uncapped ADSL from R197/month

Afrihost, the broadband Internet service provider (ISP) that sparked South Africa’s ADSL price war with its R29 per GB offer, has announced pricing for its first uncapped ADSL products.

Users will be able to source uncapped ADSL from Afrihost from as little as R197 a month for a 384kbps line. For uncapped data on a 512kbps you’ll pay R297 per month, and for uncapped data on a 4096 kbps line you’ll pay R497 per month. Prices are for bandwidth only and exclude line rental costs through Telkom.

“When we launched our R29 per GB offer almost six months ago, we knew that South African users craved more affordable ADSL. At the time, most ISPs charged around R70 per GB (and many still do) so our move really shook up the ISP industry,” said Gian Visser, CEO at Afrihost. “But we knew that many users wanted more. Over the past few months, we have been testing an uncapped product, which we are now ready to introduce to the market.”

Afrihost is surprised that another ISP has beaten it to the punch with an affordable uncapped ADSL offering, but is now ready to respond with a set of products that are now the cheapest on the market, added Visser. “Our intention when we introduce our R29 offer was to put pressure on the incumbents to lower their prices, and I think we can safely say that we have achieved that goal,” said Visser.

The Uncapped 4096 kbps product is available for purchase through the Afrihost website or Client Zone with immediate effect. Sign-ups will be limited for now, with accounts granted to users on a first-come, first-served basis.

Users who signup for the uncapped package in the initial beta testing stage will lock-in this package and price in for as long as they are Afrihost customers (although the company is not planning on increasing prices). The other uncapped offerings will be made available once the company has comprehensively tested the performance of its uncapped service and the impact on the Afrihost network.

Visser said that the uncapped service does have some restrictions and disadvantages that the capped packages from Afrihost does not have. The uncapped packages allow only one connection for each account while the capped packages allow many simultaneous connections from different locations for each account.

If you are accessing your ADSL account from several different locations (e.g. from home AND work), you will need to opt for a capped account or buy uncapped accounts for each location. The uncapped ADSL service will run off a higher ‘contention ratio’ than the capped ADSL service – which will be true of all ISPs in South Africa that offer uncapped services. This means more users are allocated to a certain chunk of bandwidth in uncapped than is the case with capped services. If many users are simultaneously making use of the network, then uncapped will be slightly slower than capped. “What that means is that people who value network speed and performance – especially during office hours – over cost may still find a capped package to be the best option for them,” said Visser.

According to Visser, with bandwidth priced at R29 per GB on a capped package it makes sense to move over to an uncapped offering if:

• You’re on a 384 kbps line and use more than 7 GBs a month
• You’re on a 512 kbps line and use more than 11 GBs a month
• You’re on a 4096 kbps line and use more than 17 GBs a month

“Unless you literally move hundreds of GBs per month this service will be uncapped for you with no catches at all,” said Visser. “However, we will take action on the minority who through their usage start affecting all of our other clients’ internet experience.”
The uncapped service is designed for humans who want to use the internet as much as they want – for some downloading, streaming media, browsing, and more. It is not designed for computer programs that are setup to continuously download 24/7, 30 days a month.

Great news is Afrihost is catering for those that has been bumped to the 8mbps trial, you can also obtain a 8mbps uncapped account from Afrihost. You can register your uncapped ADSL account from Afrihost here.

By now every body have heard of, or signed up to the limited R29 per GB ADSL offer from Afrihost.

This offer by Afrihost, known for its hosting, has set the wheel rolling to drive broadband prices down in South Africa. Although Afrihost is only offering it as a limited promotion, if you sign up during the promotion you will always be charged R29 per GB for as long as you are a customer.

Now Afrihost has again disrupted the local internet market by slashing their price by another 50% if you top up. If you are a Afrihost customer you can now top up at R14.50 per GB. This is the cheapest per GB price for international bandwidth South Africa has ever seen, it even comes close to what other ISP charge for 1 GB local only bandwidth.

If you haven’t by now signed up to the cheapest ADSL in South Africa, what are you waiting for? Sign up here for cheap international ADSL bandwidth, or if you are looking to host a website why not visit Afrhost site to sign up for one of their great hosting packages.

PS. I dropped my long time ISP WebAfrica and switched over to Afrihost about 2 month ago and haven’t looked back since, saving me a total of 50% on my 5GB cap at home.