Africom’s 100mb for $1 is OK, but not good enough because it’s not unlimited

Today’s online media was awash recycling the story in the Herald on Africom’s extended Crossover promotion which now has an added 100mb for $1. Africom is now offering 100mb of data for $1 with the data valid for 1 day.

At face value the promo looks like a game changer. $10 for 1GB? Econet gives you only 20% worth of data at that price.

But somehow, the “valid for 1 day” catch somehow dents a the whole deal. It simply means people need to either spend daily or spend in bulk. Seeing that the majority can’t spend in bulk, spending daily is what this Africom Promo is demanding on people.

So, technically, clients will end up spending $30 for plus/minus 3GB of data over a 30 day period and that hardly spells a great deal for me.

If it’s the $5 recharge card, the deal will give you 2.4GB of data for $20 over a thirty day period. This Still doesn’t excite me.

In a competitive context, Econet offers 1GB for $35 in bundle deal. Obviously a small fraction of Econet’s customers take them up on this offer. The majority probably spend $1 a day or less on data, which would make these the perfect for the Africom deal provided they haven’t taken up Econet’s Whatsapp and Facebook bundles.

Telecel bundles on the other hand gives you 2GB of data (1GB is a bonus) for $45 in bundle. This Telecel deal is valid for 90 days which means marginal data users can enjoy the promo for a longer period without the pressure of using it up before it expires as the Africom deal does.

Either way you see it and even with this promo, Africom remains in the “expensive internet axis”.

The recently introduced Scholar Pack from Powertel aptly exposes the weakness in the Africom deal. Although limited to students, and just like the Africom deal, Powertel is offering a limited time deal but with unlimited data for just $0.50. This makes much more sense. Students can pay $15 for and get unlimited internet for 30 days. No worries about reaching a cap.

On the other hand, with Africom, Econet and Telecel, you can sacrifice to buy a huge bundle but still worry about reaching the $2GB or 3GB cap, which can happen within days. I totally agree with a post we had earlier, for any mobile data promo or package to make sense, it has to be unlimited like how Powertel has done it, albeit, in a very limited way.

Surprisingly Africom introduced an unlimited promo offer for $35 last year. Maybe it didn’t work out for them, but introducing a less banging offer seems to be a step backwards especially when customers are shouting for unlimited offers.