Best mobile data plans for South African travellers

South Africans who frequently travel for work or pleasure and need to use a lot of mobile data while on the go will find several high-value capped and uncapped products available from all the country’s major cellular networks.

There are many occupations in which large amounts of data may need to be downloaded or uploaded in the field.

Photographers, videographers, engineers, and scientific researchers are among the many examples of people who could require a capable mobile Internet plan in their smartphone or mobile router while out and about.

The best-value mobile data products in South Africa are uncapped fixed-LTE and fixed-5G plans, which offer a great alternative to households and small businesses without fibre-to-the-home in their area.

The biggest issue with these packages is that they are restricted to a specific location and cannot be used while on the go.

The reason for this is simple — mobile networks have physical limitations on wireless network capacity and must carefully manage demand.

To avoid uncapped users causing issues for other customers, fixed-LTE and fixed-5G SIMs are geo-locked to only connect to certain towers close to a specified address.

While customers can request to have the address changed every now and again, these products cannot be used while in motion or quickly go online without notification to the relevant operator.

However, there are a handful of uncapped mobile data packages that can be used while on-the-go, including Telkom’s Unlimited LTE products.

These are sold through Telkom itself, as well as third-party ISPs such as Afrihost and Axxess.

However, when it comes to travelling, it is also important to consider network coverage.

In addition, high network speeds are also a key advantage if you plan to download and upload large files.

Some companies use peer-to-peer file sharing (torrents) for quicker downloads, a protocol which Telkom throttles.

When it comes to these two factors, the country’s two largest networks — Vodacom and MTN have an advantage.

In such cases, a capped high-capacity mobile data bundle may be the best choice, especially if you plan on venturing into more remote areas.

That being said, Telkom still offers the best prices on capped mobile data when measured on price per GB, especially when it comes to its 1TB and 2TB anytime data plans.

Therefore, if you know the areas in which you will be working have good Telkom coverage, the country’s third-largest mobile operator might be your best option.

Below is a summary of the best mobile broadband plans offering at least 100GB data for people who need to access the Internet on the go.

Capped

Uncapped