Uncapped LTE data prices Zimbabwe versus South Africa

There is nothing that I loath more than data bundles for specific services and zero-rating. Essentially what you have is an Internet Service Provider or Internet Access Provider going out of their way to be a referee in the content game. It’s the reason why bad apps like WhatsApp triumph over good apps like Telegram. I, however, love uncapped packages. LTE is the easiest way to get online for most people. All you need is a modem and a SIM card. Recently I came across some of the best uncapped LTE deals in South Africa. Which made me wonder, how do Zimbabwean deals compare to this?

Uncapped LTE Package	Speed	Restrictions	Price in USD	Price in ZWL
Rain 19 hours	Up to 10 Mbps	Only unlimited for 19 hours per day	$17	$2 550
Rain 4G for Phones	Up to 10 Mbps	Only used on phones without tethering	$20	$3 000
Rain 4G	Up to 10 Mbps	360p video, VPN and torrents throttled.	$33	$5 000
Rain 5G	Up to 30 Mbps	720p video	$50	$7 200
Telkom Unlimited	Up to 10 Mbps and then 2 Mbps if you exceed 300GB	300GB fair usage data	$52	$7 800
Rain Unlimited 5G	About 300 Mbps	No Fair Usage	$70	$10 500
MTN Unlimited	Up to 150 Mbps	No Fair Usage Policy	$70	$10 500
Afrihost MTN	Up 150 Mbps	1 TB usage policy	$205	$30 750
ZOL Home	Up to 15 Mbps	Unknown Fair Usage Policy	$67	$10 191
ZOL Nano Office	Up to 7 Mbps	Unknown Fair Usage Policy	$72	$10 705
ZOL Micro Office	Up to 10 Mbps	Unknown Fair Usage Policy	$105	$15 843
ZOL Small Office	Up to 15 Mbps	Unknown Fair Usage Policy	$168	$25 263
Utande SuperMax	Up to 5 Mbps	Unknown Fair Usage Policy	$100	–
Utande Megamax	Up to 10 Mbps	Unknown Fair Usage Policy	$169	–
Utande Gigamax	Up to 15 Mbps	Unknown Fair Usage Policy	$250	–

NB a rate of $150 ZWL per 1 USD was used to convert prices to ZWL. It’s not the official rate but the market. Also, Utande has constantly changing ZWL prices based upon a rate I could not determine.

Clearly, whether it’s prices or speeds the South African’s have us truly beaten. Our LTE speeds are decent enough but nothing to write home about. We also don’t have 5G not that I think it will really make any difference to our internet speeds. LTE speeds are barely breaking the 5 Mbps threshold outside Harare.

Econet and NetOne uncapped packages

Now here is something I have constantly asked myself. When we will see uncapped packages from traditional Mobile Network Operators? It has been years since we had GPRS and mobile data became a thing. In other countries, they have uncapped packages if only on phones without tethering.