Which cell phone data plan is right for you?
Mobile broadband is usually a more affordable option in South Africa and the price is slowy but surely coming down.
When comparing it to ADSL it is also more convenient as there are no installation fees, no lines and no monthly line rental costs. Its greatest advantage is that it is portable and can be used with smartphones, USB modems, laptops, iPads, etc. You can also switch it to different devices if it is loaded on to a SIM card (which is usually is). Mobile broadband is the way forward due to the fact that it is cheaper and involves a lot less hassle.
There are five main mobile carriers that cater to mobile broadband demands in South Africa: Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, 8ta, and most recently Telkom Mobile – the last two are both owned by Telkom, but are indeed separate networks. Other companies providing mobile broadband include Mweb, iBurst and others.
There is a lot of confusion as to which is the best data plan, but what is best for you depends on how you use your data. Deciding on the right data plan for your needs will save you money and it is made easier if you know how much data various applications use every month.
Below, we’ve broken down the most popular ways people consume data on their phones, and provide estimates on how much data is eaten up by each category.
Email is one of the oldest and most used features on smartphones, and luckily it uses up hardly any data. If you are just sending regular email without any pictures, videos, or other attachments you can basically send an endless amount of email without using up much data.
For example, if you were to send or receive a total of 5,000 emails each month you would have a hard time breaking 100MB of data. If you plan on sending normal amounts of email each day you won’t have to worry about how much data you are using.
However, there is a big difference between text email and email with attachments. If you were to send the same 5,000 emails each with an image or video attachment you could be looking at over 2GB of data used per month.
Assuming you aren’t going to take 5,000 photos and send them, then you won’t have to worry about emailing pictures. Even keeping it to a few images a day you should use only about 100 megabytes of data.
Web browsing
Much like email, Web browsing is a required feature for every smartphone. Depending on what websites you visit it can be economical on your data budget.
Of course, every website is different and sites with a lot of multimedia features will spike data usage. Light Web browsing shouldn’t take up more than 100MB per month.
On the other hand, if you visit a lot of data-heavy sites that are not optimised for phones you could find yourself going over 1GB of data. There a huge difference between the two extremes. Unless you know for sure that you’re going to be online a lot, you shouldn’t surpass more than 200MB a month.
Social media
Access to Twitter and Facebook draws many people into buying a smartphone. How much data can you expect to use when looking at the latest tweets and friend updates?
Both social sites are optimised to use relativeley little data, so general use shouldn’t increase your data usage rates by much. Unless you plan on uploading a lot of pictures to either network than you shouldn’t breach the 100MB mark.
As with the other usage categories, the data number greatly depends on how much you use these services. For example, if you post 10 pictures a day to Facebook, you’ll be looking at around 400MB just on social networks.
Downloading apps, games and songs
Downloading anything eats up data. If you download a single app, game or song every day, you’re likely to reach 100 megabytes a month in data. It’s more than likely that you won’t be downloading something every single day, but it can add up if you aren’t paying attention.
Streaming audio
Data really starts to spike when you stream. Streaming songs is very data intensive, and as a general rule you want to try to avoid streaming music or podcasts while using your data service. It’s better to only do this while on a Wi-Fi network.
If you wanted to listen to music all day every day at work you are looking at over 6GB of data a month. Averaging an hour a day will rack up just under 1GB per month.
Streaming video
Streaming video is equally as data intensive as streaming audio. For example, watching a 30-minute television show every day will consume almost 2GB of data monthly.
A movie a day drives that number up to 5GB. It’s important to keep track of how much data you’re using when streaming videos.
Again, like streaming audio you should try to avoid watching video unless you are on a Wi-Fi network or have a hefty data plan.
Add it all up
Our suggestions and estimates above should give you an idea of how much data various phone hobbies will use.
It’s always wise to give yourself some room in case you have a data-heavy month, but there’s no reason to overpay for data amounts that you aren’t using.
So, unless you’re planning on streaming audio or video on a regular basis you’ll be hard pressed to regularly pass the 2GB-a-month data threshold.
There can be a lot of confusion surrounding data plans so when you make your choice make sure that you understand exactly what is included, as well as any additional costs that will be incurred should you exceed your monthly data.
For network specific information and rates click here.
Source:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-size-cell-phone-data-plan-is-right-for-you/
http://hubpages.com/hub/Best-Mobile-Broadband-SA