8ta has been revealed as the cheapest prepaid mobile network by an individual study carried out by Research ICT Africa, despite its parent company Telkom trying to ditch it earlier this year.
HumanIPO reported in March the confusion surrounding the 8ta brand as conflicting reports emerged from part state-owned Telkom. The telecommunications giant ultimately went on to launch Telkom Mobile, while keeping 8ta.
The latest research carried out by Research ICT Africa, however, shows that on average 8ta works out the cheapest on prepaid, closely followed by Cell C and then Vodacom. MTN are bottom of the pile.
The results were formulated by analysing the affordability of 40 calls per month in each prepaid basket. On-net and off-net, as well as peak and off-peak, costs were taken into account when analysing the calls.
8ta saw a dramatic fall in price in the first quarter of 2013, compared to their fourth quarter 2012 performance.
The overall basket cost dropped from ZAR169.00 (US$18.44) to ZAR103.04 (US$11.25). The surge saw them undercut Cell C, which had been the cheapest since the third quarter of 2011 according to the index.
Cell C’s basket price has remained steady at ZAR106.11 (US$11.58) since the second quarter of 2011.
The other networks featured in the index were Vodacom South Africa (ZAR122.26), Virgin Mobile (ZAR137.75) and MTN South Africa (ZAR164.54).
