Attorney Michael de Broglio on: South Africa, Law, Politics, Attorneys, Sport, Photography, Technology, Gadgets, Media, Crime, Road Accidents Fund,
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The cellular companies don’t compete much in South Africa, certainly not on price per minute of calls, and it seems like their big payday comes when you go overseas. International roaming, for example in the UK is R17,00 per megabyte for data, and R21,50 per minute to make a call back to South Africa. Just to receive a call is R6,00 a minute and making local calls within London, as thousands of South Africans do every month, is R7,00 a minute.
Essentially, the companies’ greed is such that you are forced to get yourself a separate SIM card when you are in that country, and divert all of your calls to that SIM card. A friend of mine told me that the best solution is to get a Skype-to-go number and then set up the numbers that you frequently dial in South Africa with that account and then simply get a SIM card from whichever country you are travelling to, with a cheap data package, and make the calls that way – and you will not be making them at 1/20th of the cost, but you will probably be making them at 1% of the cost that local cellular companies, like Vodacom in my case, charge!
Posted by Michael de Broglio on Friday 30-Sep-11
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Comments
Lucretia said:
on Tuesday 04-Oct-11 08:45 AM
As long as corruption is rife, and government is not prepared to take action we, the public, will continue to fuel the gravy train for the "big wigs". Our biggest problem is, where do we take our business, all the cell phone comanies have roughly the same costs and Telkom leaves much to be desired! Us, South Africans, are between the devil and the deep blue see!
Lizanne said:
on Tuesday 04-Oct-11 08:37 AM
I have also been told by my sister in-law, who travels allot, to get a separate SIM card in which ever country you are traveling in. It is much cheaper and you can still send your e-mails as well. I have also heard that if you take a laptop with or if your phone has access to google talk, that is also a way to go.
cherise said:
on Tuesday 04-Oct-11 08:32 AM
this is truelly interesting, i did not know that there are so many little costs that are entailed when going overseas.
one really must save for every aspect when going overseas. really a nice bit of information to consider.
Dee said:
on Tuesday 04-Oct-11 08:30 AM
Its ridiculous how much it costs to make a call. My uncle travels all over the world for his job while my aunt and 2 children stay home in SA. It is cheaper to pay for internet bundles for them to chat on Skype for 30 minutes and actually see each other than it is to make a 5 minute phonecall on a mobile phone. Prices to make calls lately are ridiculous. On MTN they allow you to buy R5 airtime at the shops or via cellphone banking, yet you cannot even make an outgoing call or better yet not even a missed call? So why sell it when you can send maybe 5 sms's from it? I cannot believe the prices that cellphone companies. An example, my stepdad is the FD for Vodacom in Mozambique, and all his calls are paid for. When he was working in Tanzania and my mum was in SA, He would phone every night for atleast 15 to 30 minutes each time, knowing that all his phonecalls were paid for. Makes you wonder, are we indirectly paying for the "companies calls" as well?
Johannesburg based attorney specializing in personal injury matters including Road Accident Fund claims and medical negligence matters. My interests include golf, reading and the internet and the way it is constantly developing. I have a passion for life and a desire for less stress!
