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Cape Town - Telkom has edged out the top mobile operators in SA to earn the most value for money title, new research has suggested.
According to research from industry tracker Tarifica, the telco beat out Vodacom, MTN and Cell C on both contract and prepaid value for money.
"Telkom had strong plans and a variety of options at virtually every price point," said Beth Teitel, South African analyst at Tarifica.
The research company used an algorithm to determine rank on both prepaid and contract plans, though it was made more complicated because prepaid plans were weighed on light, medium and heavy user profiles, Tarifica said.
The mobile operators were then assigned a score up to a possible 100 maximum to indicate their performance.
Competition
Telkom scored over 75 for 15 out of 28 plans that earned the distinction of "Top Value Plans", followed by MTN with eight, Cell C with four and Virgin Mobile with one.
Telkom's mobile offers saw it awarded the "Best Value for Money" title. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)
But the results did not indicate one-way traffic for Telkom.
Cell C captured the "Top Overall Value Plan" with its mobile plans, which scored well in the light user profile, said Tarifica. MTN won four "Top Value Plans" in the moderate user category and the research firm noted the operator had a competitive per minute call rate and data promotions.
"MTN and Cell C were each competitive in one or two profiles, but only Telkom's plans provided strong consumer value across the board," said Teitel.
The results seem to indicate the strength of Telkom's business. The company's share price is on an upward trend, trading between R58 and R60 since its low of R12.80 in May 2013.
The company is embroiled in a drive to reduce its overheads, though it was blocked from a plan to retrench around 4 400 workers. Telkom is trying to bring its staff expenditure to revenue ratio in line with rivals Vodacom and MTN.
According to Telkom's results, the company has 2.2 million mobile subscribers and added 1 317 LTE or higher speed long term evolution mobile sites in the last year.
The company is also expected to benefit from the government's drive to expand broadband in SA.
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