Let’s talk about USD bundles. They came hot on the scene and the promise is you get more value when you pay in USD. But how much value is it really and who has the best value hands down? Time for some tables. In this head-to-head, we have several categories.
- Device support: Works in which phones, routers, or MiFi devices
- Network Coverage: Which areas are the service available
- Selection: How broad is the US$ product range
- Setup costs: How much it is to get the service
- Price: Lowest average price per GB across all their packages
As for the ratings, it’s pretty simple. The one with the highest overall score is the best value service, provider. Just because they are the cheapest doesn’t always mean they are the best. Let’s get into it.
Device support
| Econet Private Wifi Bouquets | NetOne OneFi | Liquid Home WibroniX | TelOne Blaze LTE | Utande LTE | Telecel |
| Works on all smartphones, LTE routers or Mifi devices that accept sim cards | Works on all smartphones, LTE routers or Mifi devices that accept sim cards | Works only on a few smartphones that support the ZOL Wibroniks LTE frequency band Works on most LTE routers and Mifi routers that accept sim cards | Works only on a few smartphones that support the TelOne Blaze LTE frequency band Works on most LTE routers and Mifi routers that accept sim cards | Works only on a few smartphones that support the ZOL Wibroniks LTE frequency band Works on most LTE routers and Mifi routers that accept sim cards | Works on all smartphones, LTE routers or Mifi devices that accept sim cards |
| 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
All these service providers are making use of a technology called LTE. This technology uses sim cards to connect to the internet. So any device that uses a sim card should be able to use the LTE service but that is not the case. Liquid home, Utande, and TelOne are using LTE bands that are not very commonly supported on smartphones and tablets. As a result, they will not work on every smartphone or tablet. Some will and some won’t. You can get better luck with LTE mobile and fixed Wifi routers but it’s not 100% guaranteed as well. Meaning you may want to rely on the equipment these service providers will provide you.
Network Coverage
| Econet | NetOne | Liquid Home WibroniX | TelOne Blaze LTE | Utande LTE | Telecel |
| Largest number of LTE base stations Largest Nationwide coverage | Second largest number of LTE base stations Second largest nationwide coverage | Available in parts of the country with the 4th widest coverage area. Sim cards are geolocked that is they only work in the area they are registered in. | Available in parts of Harare and Chitungwiza only. Service only available within 10km from the TelOne exchange the line was registered | Coverage is available in parts of Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare | Third largest number of LTE base stations Third largest nationwide coverage |
| 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Econet, NetOne, and Telecel have the best network coverage and flexibility. You can use the service on any device that accepts a sim card and move with that device anywhere in the country with no restrictions. Liquid Home, Utande, and TelOne do not have the same level of coverage as the 3 MNOs. On top of that, they are not classified as MNOs meaning as much as their LTE service makes use of sim cards, they are geo-locked. You cannot use the service outside of the area you registered it in. Liquid home has a cheat code for that. FibroniX On The Go.
FibroniX on the Go is a service that is available to FibroniX subscribers which enables them to access their home internet from over 300 Liquid/Liquid Home Wi-Fi zones countrywide at no extra cost.
Liquid Home
Selection
| Econet | NetOne | Liquid Home WibroniX | TelOne Blaze LTE | Utande LTE | Telecel |
| 11 different packages 1hr bundle 1.2GB 2hr bundle 3GB Daily bundle 300MB Daily bundle 650MB Weekly bundle 500MB Weekly bundle 1GB Private Wifi 5GB Private Wifi 10GB Private Wifi 14GB Private Wifi 20GB Private Wifi 30GB | 7 different packages 7 days 2GB 7 days 5GB 14 days 8GB 30 days 15GB One Fusion Lite 1GB* One Fusion Gold 2GB* One Fusion Premium 4GB* | 7 different packages WibroniX SpeeD Lite 1GB WibroniX SpeeD Basic 3.5GB WibroniX SpeeD Value 7GB WibroniX SpeeD Magnum 20GB WibroniX SpeeD Titanium 40GB WibroniX SpeeD Basic Owl 90GB WibroniX SpeeD Platinum 200GB | 4 different packages Starter 40GB Mega 110GB Giga Plus 200GB Supreme 1TB (Unlimited) | 4 different packages Startermax 5Mbps Supermax 10Mbps Megamax 15Mbps Gigamax 20Mbps | 4 different packages Giga7 7GB Giga10 10GB Giga15 15GB Giga30 30GB |
| 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
*One Fusion data is a combination of universal data and data dedicated to specific platforms like streaming, WhatsApp, and Gaming.
Econet data is split into anytime data and off-peak data working between 2300hrs and 0400hrs
Liquid Home offers 100% bonus data on each package
Almost seems as if each service provider does bundles differently. Econet, Telecel, and NetOne have bundles with smaller data denominations. A max of 30GB and so they are targeted at those looking for data on the go. Liquid Home has a more balanced spread with a good selection in the small data packages as well as some representation with the 100GB package for someone whose needs cannot be handled by 30GB. Utande and Telone are definitely focusing on heavy internet users with their USD packages. With TelOne the spread is from 40GB all the way to 1TB and Utande takes it even further by only offering unlimited packages and making download speed the only difference between them.
Setup costs
| Econet | NetOne | Liquid Home WibroniX | TelOne Blaze LTE | Utande LTE | Telecel |
| US$0.50 for the sim card | US$0.50 for the sim card | Portable Mifi – US$100 or Indoor – US$224 or Outdoor – US$457 or ONT – US$176 Sim – US$1 | Sim + Handset + Modem – US$156 | US$100 | US$0.50 for the sim |
| 6 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
Econet, Telecel, and NetOne don’t really have any setup costs apart from buying and registering the sim. This is because any device can use their service so really it’s up to you. No restrictions. Utande, Liquid Home, and TelOne, unfortunately, require the device that you put their Sim in to meet a specific requirement. It must support whatever LTE band the chosen service provider uses. And it’s not going to be a common one that every mobile device supports. That said, Utande is offering the most reasonable and fuss-free all inclusive setup costs. They are closely followed by TelOne with Liquid Home having the most expensive setup costs. They do offer a better variety of setup options though.
Average price per GB
| Econet | NetOne | Liquid Home WibroniX | TelOne Blaze LTE | Utande LTE | Telecel |
| 1hr bundle 1.2GB – US$0.60 2hr bundle 3GB – US$1.80 Daily bundle 300MB – US$1.20 Daily bundle 650MB – US$2.50 Weekly bundle 500MB – US$2.50 Weekly bundle 1GB – US$3.50 Private Wifi 5GB – US$8 Private Wifi 10GB – US$12 Private Wifi 14GB – US$18 Private Wifi 20GB – US$24 Private Wifi 30GB – US$34 | 7 days 2GB – US$3 7 days 5GB – US$5 14 days 8GB – US$8 30 days 15GB – US$10 One Fusion Lite 1GB* – US$5 One Fusion Gold 2GB* – US$7 One Fusion Premium 4GB* – US$10 | WibroniX SpeeD Lite 1GB – US$1 WibroniX SpeeD Basic 3.5GB – US$3 WibroniX SpeeD Value 7GB – US$5 WibroniX SpeeD Magnum 20GB – US$10 WibroniX SpeeD Titanium 40GB – US$15 WibroniX SpeeD Basic Owl 90GB – US$30 WibroniX SpeeD Platinum 200GB – US$50 | Starter 40GB – US$10 Mega 110GB – US$25 Giga Plus 200GB – US$40 Supreme 1TB (Unlimited) – US$60 | Startermax 5Mbps – US$60 Supermax 10Mbps – US$99 Megamax 15Mbps – US$169 Gigamax 20Mbps – US$249 | Giga7 7GB – US$6 Giga10 10GB – US$8.50 Giga15 15GB – US$12 Giga30 30GB – US$23 |
| US$2.04/GB | US$2.17/GB* | US$0.58/GB | US$0.19/GB | – | US$0.82/GB |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 |
Telone is the absolute cheapest on data charging an average of US$0.19 per GB across its US dollar packages. A couple of things need to be noted though. NetOne was poised to be the cheapest of the 3 MNOs on data but they ended up being the most expensive because I included One Fusion packages. The problem with doing so is that One Fusion bundles also include other services like voice and SMS and so it’s factored into the pricing. Stuff that does not come in anyone else’s package. But if we only include their MoGigs bundles, its only bested by TelOne and Liquid Home.
Speaking of Liquid Home. They managed such a low average price per GB simply because they offer double the data. Every package has either bonus data or Night Owl data that is equivalent to the data available in the package. Utande has no price per GB because all their packages are uncapped. However, they have the most expensive offerings here. Their cheapest package is US$60 which is the price of the most expensive package from the rest of the pack. And they go all the way to US$249 which seems extremely steep. And that is why it came in last even without a number. Their packages are not very affordable compared to everyone else.
The best-value LTE service provider for your US$
| Econet | NetOne | Liquid Home WibroniX | TelOne Blaze LTE | Utande LTE | Telecel | |
| Device Support | 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Network Coverage | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Selection | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Setup costs | 6 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Price | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 |
| Total | 27 | 26 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 23 |
Econet clenches the lead. It was almost a clean sweep in every category They only fell through at average price per GB but that’s because TelOne and Liquid Home really went low. Econet was still the cheapest MNO so they are offering pretty fair USD rates on their data. Pretty good lead too.
NetOne is close to Econet and only suffered on price where it was seen as the second most expensive overall. Again mostly being adding One Fusion to the mix. Without One Fusion it would take Econet’s spot as the MNO with the fairest of fees. If Econet is not really reliable in your area you can always try NetOne. It’s a competent alternative. Speaking of competitive.
Telecel comes in 3rd. And it’s not far off the top 3 too! I mean yeah it’s biggest strength is on device compatibility and coverage. But it still managed to keep up with the other 2 and on paper it seems it’s not yet down for the count. On paper. Telecel users might know better than me on the real world performance. Still I am impressed. Viable option if the top 2 are down for the count.
Liquid home might be 4th on the tally but it is leading the fixed network operators. It’s superpower is its got the widest LTE coverage of all the fixed network operators and the second cheapest data on the list. Moving around with your data is a problem because the sim cards are geolocked but hey, you can somehow cheat the system with their FibroniX on the go service and just look for their public wifi hotspots when you are doing the rounds.
TelOne. 5th with the consistent trend of having the cheapest price per GB than anyone by a good margin. It’s biggest weakness is coverage. Its literally only available in Harare and Chitungwiza making it the ISP with the poorest LTE coverage on this list. It won’t really matter mentioning geolocking here too because of said coverage area.
Utande LTE completes the set. So some cool perks are that coverage is much better than TelOne but still falling short of everyone else. They also do something I personally prefer with their internet. You pay for speed and not volume of data. So all their packages are uncapped. Nice. But then the price is sky high! US$60 for the entry level package is what humans on TelOne are paying for the top spec Uncapped package. Yes it’s 1TB on TelOne because of FUP but still, the price for a top spec package on TelOne is the price for an entry level package on Utande’s LTE. At least their setup cost is the cheapest of the 3 ISPs but they may need to think about more affordable capped options for some of us.
Disclaimers. Important disclaimers
This whole article is looking at theoretical aspects of all these networks. The results and conclusions I made may not be supported by the real world performance of each ISP. Things like coverage will be area dependent and so you need to also confirm that your prefered service providers are available in your area.
Weight of each category might be different for you. You may choose to prioritize package price a lot more than you would the variety of packages that are available. So you can play around with the numbers and see which ISP best suits your needs.
Econet, NetOne and Telecel are not really serving the same customer as Liquid Home, Utande and TelOne. The 3 MNOs have packages that are suited for a mobile user and these users are often low data users. That is why most of their packages are capped and a majority of their offerings are below US$20. As for the 3 ISPs, they are only offering LTE for 2 major reasons.
- LTE is cheaper to setup than fiber especially in high density areas where each LTE base station can easily operate at capacity.
- It’s faster to rollout LTE and most ISPs are preferring it in areas where they do not offer any other service (Fiber/ADSL)
Thas said. The customer for ISPs is a high volume data consumer who is either a home internet user or an office internet user. Thats why they offer packages that go to the order of uncapped. It’s also part of the reason why they geolock their sim cards too. Because they are not offering a cheaper alternative to your mobile data but rather an alternative way to enjoy a fixed internet service. Just like they offer internet via satellite with VSAT.
So as much as we bundled them up together in here and sent them head to head. The fact of the matter is each serves a different sort of customer. Hopefully this makes it all make sense when choosing which internet service provider to use for your internet.
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