Econet vs NetOne vs Telecel: Who Has The Least Expensive Data After The Changes

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So “smart data bouquets” are now official and that means we can compare all 3 mobile networks to see who has the best offering. We had already made a comparison between NetOne and Telecel as they announced the new prices last week.

Anyway, let’s get right into it. We will be comparing the daily, weekly and monthly bundles as those are the easiest to compare.

Daily bundles

Bundles have always been a bit difficult to compare because of the variations in price and data to go along with those packages. The most convenient way to compare was to compare the ranges of the packages. That means we compared the pricing range for each bundle from every network along with the range of data you’re getting from each. There are also images for each package.

NetworkPrice of bundleData (MB/GB)Validity
Econet$1 – $840MB – 2GB24hrs
NetOne$1 – $342MB – 150MB24hrs
Telecel$0.50 – $330MB – 130MB24hrs

Most consumers thought data was already expensive (which might not have been the case), will no doubt be livid with these prices. $5 would get you at least a couple of gigs in 24 hours but outside Econet, it’s no longer an option and with Econet, it only gets you a gig.

Weekly bundles

NetworkPrice of bundleData (MB/GB)Validity
Econet$0.90 – $2025MB – 700MB7 days
NetOne$1 – $1036MB – 500MB7 days
Telecel$3 – $5200MB – 320MB7 days

Monthly bundles

NetworkPrice of bundleData (MB/GB)Validity
Econet$0.90 – $10020MB – 3.1GB30 days
NetOne$0.50 – $5014MB – 2GB30 days
Telecel$10 – $75650MB – 5GB30 days

Amongst all packages, it’s hard to see which one is cheaper and it feels like an exercise in futility as most subscribers will feel all of the packages are expensive.

Unfortunately for mobile networks (and the consumers), their main expenses are in acquired forex (infrastructure and bandwidth). As the RTGS/bond or whatever has weakened against “mari chaiyo chaiyo” (USD), the mobile network operators have suffered. Now it’s time for subscribers to also suffer as a result…

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40 comments

  1. Rodney

    NetOne and Telecel are now bloody expensive ๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก๐Ÿ˜ก

    1. Divine

      have u seen Econet?

  2. Neo

    This article was lazily written. So much could have been done but seems like it was written to rack up the number of articles. You could have broken this down way more. Hope you do better going forwards.

    1. Dalton Deedz

      True. Atleast breakdown to price per MB

    2. Ackson Mapfundematsva

      I’m in agreement, this article provides nothing for consumption. Even the screenshots themselves, can’t even see what the netone items say

      1. Neo

        Thought I was the only one who had issues with the screenshots. Seems like the author himself did not bother to check how his article came out. Techzim surely you can do better. Maybe you can use the ZOL vs Telone article as a starting point and improve on it.

  3. Ackson Mapfundematsva

    I’m pretty disappointed with this article, I expected more given my experience with your past articles. You could have done waaaay more to breakdown the actual cost per MB or something like that. What about the social media bundles. You did nothing to touch on the WhatsApp bundles, which I feel are the ones people are most focused on as these are the ones that provide the easiest of access to communication for your readers.

    1. Ackson Mapfundematsva

      The article doesn’t even address its title, Where’s the conclusion on who has the least expensive data package

  4. Ephias

    Apa ndopasina zvataurwa apa. So nyaya yako iri pakutii in relation to your heading

  5. Anonymous

    or simply compare the mostly consumed bundles wc are whatsapp bundles and daily bundles…. weakly or monthly poorly done article

  6. Chasura

    Where is POTRAZ?

  7. Elvado

    From what i analysed, at the present moment Telecel is less expensive,followed by Netone. Econet bundles are the most expensive ones. However, considering network issues, i will rather use Netone since Telecel experiences poor connectivity. They should improve on their network connectivity because it doesn’t make sense to offer more bundles that doesn’t work.

  8. Elvado

    From what i analysed, at the present moment Telecel is less expensive,followed by Netone. Econet bundles are the most expensive ones. However, considering network issues, i will rather use Netone since Telecel experiences poor connectivity. They should improve on their network connectivity because it doesn’t make sense to offer more bundles that doesn’t work.

    1. Tatenda

      Telecel actually works way better than econet

  9. Tsibby

    Ndauya ndichida kuziva akachipa qacho qanike dololo naye haatozivi

    1. Anonymous

      ๐Ÿ˜‚ ๐Ÿ˜‚ ๐Ÿ˜‚

  10. Willard

    Poorly written article

  11. Farai Jabulani Chaibva

    Very poor analysis.

  12. Bhinikwa

    Stop complaining about the article as if you are a paid up subscriber. Contribute time as well & give your opinion as a user. Im not defending techzim but we are too used to freebies, we ve stopped adding our brains

    1. Neo

      Please. The reason I visit (or is it used to visit) Techzim several times a day is because of the quality of their posts. Have followed this blog for close to 8 years now and why should I feel quiet if I feel shortchanged? Don’t forget that for them this is a business, in which they get money based on the number of viewers they attract to their pages. If that traffic is to down because people feel shortchanged it will also have an adverse impact on TZ.

      Would you rather I showed my dissatisfaction by not visiting the blog?

      1. Nigel Tigere

        Does this individual understand what a freebie is? The whole point of them writing these articles is to attract and impress readers and if that is not being doe then there is no point in them doing it at all.

    2. javacard

      hapana zvataurwa apo baba. maybe yanyorwa ne student on attachment so tingatongomuregerera but editor ngaaite verify zvonyorwa nema student on attachment before publishing

    3. javacard

      hapana zvataurwa apo baba. maybe yanyorwa ne student on attachment so tingatongomuregerera but editor ngaaite verify zvonyorwa nema student on attachment before publishing

    4. ERUM

      All I see here is constructive criticism. This article is rubbish. Writing such articles will jeopardize their reputation. Viewing news online is not a freebie, we use our precious data and time. TechZim pull yourself together and take this as advice.

  13. Anonymous

    From my own analysis. Econet is now by far the cheapest, who would have thought those words would in the same sentence. Netone most expensive and Telecel a close second. The price per MB for all three networks is hovering around 2c per MB with some bundles going as high as 3.5c per MB. I guess we should brace for more hikes coz approved POTRAZ floor price is actually 5c per MB in-bundle and 10c per MB out of bundle.

    1. ERUM

      Facts say otherwise. Econet is ONLY cheapest for daily bundles from $2.50 – $8, and I recommend it as low as $0.004/MB.Anything else from econet its radioactive, prices as high as . Overall Tecsl is the cheapest of all Networks, reliability might be their only drawback. Netone is second, best value at weekly 10 and monthly 50 both at 2c/MB.Ecocnet trailing behind, hs high as 4.5c/MB monthly bundles. Looks like Econet punishes long term relationships.

  14. Tsi

    Hapana zvamataura apa.

  15. kats

    From dily bundles
    econet 250mb is $2.50
    Netone 150mb is $3
    Telecel 130mb is $3
    Meaning econet is 50c cheaper than competitors with atleast 100mb more data

  16. Va Chasura

    Pakaipa. It’s better to switch to Cell-C, MTM or Codacom (roaming facikities) for all our data related communications needs and just confine our three local networks to voice calls.

  17. Va Chasura

    Pakaipa. It’s better to switch to Cell-C, MTM or Vodacom (roaming facikities) for all our data related communications needs and just confine our three local networks to voice calls.

  18. Va Chasura

    Pakaipa. It’s better to switch to Cell-C, MTM or Vodacom (roaming facilities) for all our data related communications needs and just confine our three local networks to voice calls.

  19. ERUM

    Lame article. You could have provided some form of analysis on the junk you put together but it seems that’s what Techzim is all about: poor research, bad execution and no conclusion.

  20. Croco

    The content quality of this article is poor. Nothing has been said that we already don’t know. We all know how much a certain package costs for each SP. We have done that comparison by ourselves. For a business in the tech interests, you should at least made it simpler to compare the various data offerings instead of saying that, “Bundles have always been a bit difficult to compare because of the variations in price and data to go along with those packages. The most convenient way to compare was to compare the ranges of the packages”. The reason why we come to this site is so that we get expert opinions but if expert opinions are the same as the layman’s, why waste my data. I personally did a comparison and I confidently say that comparing price ranges is not the most convenient way as you claim in this article. I don’t buy a range, I buy a specific product. My analysis concluded that Econet is cheaper in terms of daily data bundles but Telecel is much cheaper in Weekly and monthly data bundles. Example of how I compared.

    For RTGS $5 worth of data valid for 7 days:
    Econet – 160 MB ($0.031/MB)
    Netone – 227 MB ($0.022/MB)
    Telecel – 320 MB ($0.016/MB)

    For argument sake, let’s compare offerings of the same validity period but with different price tags to it.

    For a 30 day bundle:
    Econet ($25) – 700 MB ($0.036/MB)
    Netone ($20) – 833 MB ($0.024/MB)
    Telecel ($20) – 1300 MB ($0.015/MB)

    In these 2 examples, you can already tell who is worth spending money on. However, as already stated by ERUM, SP reliability plays a major role.

    Team TechZim, it’d be helpful to go do a proper analysis, based on opinions supported by facts not feelings. Do an analysis on all the different data offerings and compare them by some standardized variable such as Price per MB as I did with mine or better. Be able to advise us on whether to take on MegaBoost or OneFusion or we stick to buying airtime for calling, text bundles, data bundles and social media bundles separately. Then also do an analysis of who is more reliable to subscribe to. That way you would have been the experts that give us advice.

    This is constructive criticism, I’d like to believe. Let’s work together in giving quality articles not mediocrity.

    Anyways, data is still expensive.

    1. Neo

      Whoa. Now that is exactly the quality of posts that I would want to read. Nice one Croc. They should make you a consultant for them.

  21. JTK

    Nadii matongopa Croco basa uyo akunyoreraima article! Nice one for constructive criticism!

  22. JTK

    Madii matongopa Croco basa uyo akunyoreraima article? Nice one for constructive criticism!

  23. VMG

    I absolutely agree with JTK, we must just give Croco this job because heโ€™s given us an insightful analysis, unlike this article that was stating prices we already know. And just reproducing the obvious. Please do better.

    1. Neo

      Croc is the man for sure. They should consult him when they are not sure on how to proceed with certain articles.

      1. VMG

        Yes!!! Letโ€™s hope they are taking notes of our comments

  24. Anonymous

    Terrible article, the analysis aspect is very generic n blame. Please put more effort

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