After MWEB announced last week that it would be offering uncapped broadband for the first time, rival @lantic shot back the next day with a similar offer, and Afrihost has just undercut both providers with their new uncapped packages.

On 18 March 2010 MWEB announced that it will offer uncapped broadband packages in South Africa. They introduced six ADSL packages, starting from R219 per month for consumers and from R499 for businesses on a 384 Kbps speed ADSL line. These prices exclude the ADSL line rental. When MWEB launched these packages, they were about 40% cheaper than any other offerings available.

This significant advantage over their competitors was short lived however, as @lantic introduced 3 uncapped products the next day, starting at R399 per month on a 384 Kbps, including the monthly Telkom ADSL line rental. The fact that the ADSL line rental costs R152 on a 384 Kbps line means that in effect, consumers are paying R247 for this uncapped data bundle.

Afrihost’s uncapped packages start from R197 a month for a 384 Kbps line, excluding the cost of the line rental. Please note that all their uncapped packages are currently listed as “coming soon” except for the 4096 Kbps package for R497 per month.

South African internet users have been waiting a long time for this sort of positive price war. Consumers and the economy as a whole are sure to benefit from it, and it will be interesting to see what other uncapped offerings are available over the next few weeks.

Let us know who your preferred provider is, and why.