Prepaid offers by telecommunications giant Telkom’s mobile arm have come out tops in a new study of South Africa’s prepaid mobile market.

Incorporating prepaid plan evaluation into its monthly Tarifica Score for the first time in June, telecommunications pricing research firm Tarifica found that Telkom offered more high-value plans for consumers “than any other operator in the country”.

The comprehensive algorithm, which traditionally weighed the consumer value of contract mobile plans, scored mobile operators Cell C, Vodacom, MTN, Virgin Mobile and Telkom based on light, medium and heavy user profiles.

The light user profile reviewed the low-end feature phone use of 50 all-net minutes and 50 all-net SMSes, while the moderate user profile examined the limited budget users using smartphones for up to 250 all-net minutes, 250 all-net SMSes and 500 MB of data a month. The heavy user profile evaluated the high-end use of a large volume of mobile services and incorporated 500 all-net minutes, 500 all-net SMSes and 2 GB of data.

The study ranked, from 0 to 100, every feature, including the use allotments, geographic coverage, data speeds, value-added features and promotional elements, of an operator’s mobile plan against its total costs, determining its consumer value compared with rivals’ offerings.

“Telkom had strong plans and a variety of options at virtually every price point. 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 Tarifica South Africa-focused analyst Beth Teitel.

Tarifica awarded ‘top value plans’ in each user profile to plans scorings above 75.

Of the 28 plans that achieved the top quartile position, Telkom accounted for 15, MTN for eight, Cell C for four and Virgin Mobile for one. Vodacom had none.

Telkom captured three top value plan positions in the light user profile, as well as the highest scoring overall plans in both the moderate and heavy user profiles, with seven and five top value plan awards respectively.

Cell C offered overall best value for the light user profile, netting the top overall value award in this category, with three top value plans.

However, South Africa’s third-largest mobile operator performed poorly in the moderate and heavy user profiles. Cell C earned one top value plan in the moderate user category and none in the heavy user profile, mostly owing to its slow average download speeds.

Vodacom failed to obtain any top positions owing to its relatively high per-minute and per-SMS rates, particularly in the light user category.

“Improving on its performance in the light user profile, Vodacom did have several decent options for moderate users. While none of these plans were able to capture a top value plan award, four scored in the low seventies, just missing the top value threshold,” the report noted.

Meanwhile, MTN performed best in the moderate and heavy user profiles with four top value plans each owing to its diverse bundle options, relatively competitive per-minute calling rate and generous data promotion; however, the telecommunications giant narrowly missed securing a top value plan in the light user profile, with its highest scoring plan ranked at 74.

Virgin Mobile earned one top value plan in the light user profile; however, as it operated on Cell C’s network, its slow data speeds dragged its status in the moderate user category. The operator also performed poorly in the heavy user profile, with none of its plans scoring better than 46.