Best smartphone contracts under R500

Buying a smartphone with cash in South Africa can carry a high cost. However, South Africa’s mobile network operators offer smartphone deals on two and three-year contracts for those wanting to avoid a once-off purchase.

MyBroadbroad compared some of the best contract deals from Cell C, MTN, Telkom, and Vodacom for less than R500 a month.

Our analysis showed that Telkom’s contract deals generally offer higher data, minute, and SMS allocations than the other network operators.

While Telkom and MTN specify data allocations for different uses, such as video streaming and social media, they don’t limit when customers can use their data.

On the other hand, Vodacom’s RED Core plans and Cell C’s Pinnacle 2GB package split data allocations for use anytime and after midnight.

Regarding minute and SMS allocations, Vodacom’s RED Core 500MB plan, which applies to all of its devices listed here, provides customers with 50 minutes and 100 SMSs.

Cell C’s Pinnacle 2GB package gives customers 60 all-network minutes, 120 on-network minutes, and 500 SMSs.

There are multiple Telkom plans included in our comparison, and their minute and SMS allocations are as follows:

• FlexOn 2 — 75 all-network minutes, 500 on-network minutes, and 500 SMSs.
• FreeMe 1.5GB — 100 all-network minutes, 500 on-network minutes, and 100 SMSs.
• FreeMe 3GB — 150 all-network minutes, 1,000 on-network minutes, and 200 SMSs.
• FreeMe 6GB — 200 all-network minutes, 1,000 on-network minutes, and 400 SMSs.

Interestingly, MTN’s Mega Gigs XS package — the plan assigned to all of its contracts listed in this article — provides the lowest minute allocation and no SMSs.

Comparisons of contract offerings from Cell C, MTN, Telkom, and Vodacom are summarised below. We only considered data-centric contracts for the comparison.

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Best smartphone contracts under R500