Business and Technology

How much it really costs to use WhatsApp in South Africa

WhatsApp is the first app installed and opened on many new smartphones in South Africa, as it has quickly become the primary means of communication in the country.

Like all other data-based messaging applications, WhatsApp offers a cheaper and more feature-rich way to send messages to other people or even call them over a data connection.

Despite the price of mobile data in South Africa remaining relatively high due to a lack of available spectrum for mobile operators to reduce network costs, WhatsApp still offers a much cheaper way to communicate than the conventional channels used by mobile operators.

Out-of-bundle usage has historically been a major concern for WhatsApp users, but the introduction of new regulations which prevents out-of-bundle billing by default on all mobile networks has removed this threat to customers’ treasured airtime.

By any metric – even when using out-of-bundle data – calling, texting, and other activities are cheaper through WhatsApp than South African networks.

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VoIP calling on WhatsApp is substantially cheaper than calling on mobile networks, even if you have opted into out-of-bundle data usage.

During a standard voice call, WhatsApp consumes roughly 400kB per minute.

When calculating the cost per minute for a WhatsApp voice call, the size of the data bundle and the network needs to be accounted for.

Below is the cost of a WhatsApp voice call if the user purchases a 1GB data bundle on each mobile network.
Video calling is also supremely cheap on WhatsApp compared to standard call rates offered by mobile networks.

Previous tests conducted by MyBroadband found that a video call used around 5.05MB of mobile data per minute, which equated to less than a cellular voice call if the customer had an active 1GB mobile data bundle.

Below is the data pricing comparison for WhatsApp video calls on each mobile provider, including the per-minute rate for standard cellular calls.

Operator 1GB Bundle Price per MB Cellular Call – Per minute WhatsApp Video Call – Per minute
Vodacom R149 R0.15 R1.53 R0.75
MTN R149 R0.15 R1.50 R0.75
Cell C R100 R0.15 R1.50 R0.51
Telkom R99 R0.10 R1.90 R0.51
Rain R50 R0.05 – R0.25

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Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa

In a statement released on Wednesday the company said Mahanyele-Dabengwa will report directly to group CEO of Naspers Bob van Dijk and her responsibilities will include leading Naspers Foundry and Naspers Labs…Read more here

Source: mybroadband