TelOne launches public WiFi promo, offers 1GB for $1

Nigel Gambanga Avatar
TelOne WiFi, Zimbabwean Internet, Harare, Copa Cabana

TelOne, the local fixed telecoms and internet company has kicked off a new promotion for its public WiFi service, offering significant increases in data on its 3 packages.

The $1 voucher which previously offered a total of 350 MB (100 MB standard data and an extra 250 MB) now gives users 1 GB of data which is valid for 24 hours.

The $2 voucher now offers 2.5 GB of data (up from 240 MB) and is valid for 72 hours, while $5 now gets you 6 GB of data (up from 600 MB) valid for 7 days.

The new validity periods are a marked drop from the 30-day allowance that was previously offered on the same vouchers.

The generous promotion places TelOne as the cheapest paid-for public WiFi service outpacing Africom’s 6GB-for-$6 offering. The 1GB for $1 tag also competes strongly with broadband offers from mobile telecoms providers, including Econet’s recently launched $2-for-1 GB day bundles.

Is an increase in data allowance enough for TelOne to corner the market? That may not necessarily be the case. In a field that has broadband alternatives from mobile operators and home internet service providers, TelOne and other WiFi providers are competing not only on price but validity periods and access point dynamics.

TelOne has clearly got price and value for money on lock, but these other factors come into play if TelOne wants to make a bigger impression in the race towards offering internet to most of Zimbabwe.

According to TelOne, the promotion isn’t a response to competition or the VOD/Netflix craze that appears to be influencing internet providers’ product and price fit decisions. Instead, this promotion is meant to be just another play at value addition for its WiFi consumers that have huge data needs.

Broadband consumption patterns have changed significantly over the past few years as internet users have adapted to growing trends such as video’s growth as a medium and the way cloud-based access has been extended to a gamut of services. TelOne seems to be watching those changes and tailoring its products accordingly.

Whatever the reason, though, anyone who needs to access a lot of data (here’s to the users of torrents) with $5 or less will likely be headed to TelOne wifi hotspot from now on.

8 comments

  1. Cool

    Not bad but econet is still the king in terms of lte speeds and coverage, so dnt compare wifi and cellular data networks.

  2. Wifi hazards

    Well this poses new problems for Telone, for one how will they adjust their new pricing to the ADSL user base otherwise they are the ones subsidizing Telones new promotion.
    $15 for 15 gigs what is one getting on the basic package today.
    The other problem would the life span of the bundle?, if the nomadic wifi user buys the bundle, it’s value would be measured by how lond that 1gig can be used for before Telone tells you your data has expired
    Let there more ISPs for better choice not this shaft me today and then clothe my wounds tomorrow.
    Besides there are wifi spots which one can get 1.5G for a $1 and that was before Telone did their thing.

  3. cost per unti

    anyone know the speeds i can expect on this connction? and no this package doesnt hurt their adsl and their are lower costs associated with wifi and until a certain point its cheaper to sell $1 per gig. but when it reaches $89 then its cheaper and more prifitable to sell unlimited adsl. for example its cheaper to transport 30 tonnes over 100 km than it is to transport 12 tonnes over a short distance when broken down to cost per unit

  4. Taa

    I once got a virus in Chrome on my old windows PC. I rarely browse on a laptop so this was quite strange. It was one of those browser based viruses that turns text in articles on every other site into auto pop-ups that even play sound. Also this was one of those nasty viruses that adds an add-on that reappears even if you delete it (I figured it had changed my browser shortcut to be a self replicating executable code.) plus it also changed my search engine.

    Anyways why this random comment? As I was scrolling down this article, one of the ads was one of those “congratulations you are visitor XXXXX, you’ve won…” and it confirmed my suspicion that the ads on this site are from malicious and or sketchy sources. I’m quite disappointed at the ‘Tech Zim team’ for such blatant disregard for visitor security. I realise ‘mari inonetsa’ but geez those things are bad news especially on windows.

    Also PS I obviously didn’t click on it. Im not a 60 year old fiddling “pa net”.

    1. Simple

      I hv never seen such an ad on techzim sites, u better do fresh install on yo pc, yo history says it loud and clear “U R INFECTED” . Next time use this website answers.techzim.co.zw if u knw tht yo comment is out of context.

      1. Taa

        I don’t use a PC anymore so that’s not the problem. This ad is also location based because the prize is in Rand so unless you have an SA or probably US based VPN you might not see it. Right now I’m seeing it on my iPad and on my MacBook as well. So it can’t be my history (I purposefully turn off ad tracking.)

        I will try said website.

      2. Taa

        FYI the ad in question is the one midway through the article

  5. Nelson

    How best can I defend my from viruses while surfing using a PC. May u please recommend me a suitable antivirus

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