The Best Mobile Data Bundle You Can Buy

If you were looking for cheap mobile data in Zimbabwe, where would you go? Are you sure your current data provider of choice is the very best or is it a matter of who is charging less?

Well in this article I shall be taking you on an expedition to get as close as possible to which service provider is the overall best. Think of it as a contest of networks. Let’s get to it.

The Contenders

The contest comprises of 4 of Zim’s most popular MOBILE data service providers that include Econet, NetOne, TelOne and Zol/Liquid. Specifically we are comparing their high volume data packages (2GB+). The packages are Private Wifi Bouquets (Econet), OneFi (NetOne), Blaze LTE (TelOne) and Wibroniks (Zol/Liquid).

The Categories

Price is not the only factor you should consider when choosing any product or service. And that’s why in this contest it’s one of the 5 categories which are:

Device support: Works in which phones, routers or mifi devices
Network Coverage: Which areas is the service available
Selection: How broad is the product range
Perks: What does each one of the packages have that make it attractive
Price: We all know this one. Cheapest one wins

Ratings

Ratings are out of 5. 1 is a poor score in whatever category and 5 is the best score. At the end, scores of each package from all the categories are added up and the package with the highest score wins. Enough with the formalities. On with the show.

Device Support

Econet Private Wifi Bouquets	NetOne OneFi	Zol Wibroniks	TelOne Blaze LTE
Works on all smartphones, LTE routers or Mifi devices that accept sim cards	Works on all smartphones, LTE routers or Mifi devices that accept sim cards	Works only on a few smartphones that support the ZOL Wibroniks LTE frequency band Works on most LTE routers and Mifi routers that accept sim cards	Works only on a few smartphones that support the TelOne Blaze LTE frequency band Works on most LTE routers and Mifi routers that accept sim cards
5	5	3	3

Network Coverage

Econet Private Wifi Bouquets	NetOne OneFi	Zol Wibroniks	TelOne Blaze LTE
Largest number of LTE base stations Largest Nationwide coverage	Second largest number of LTE base stations Second largest nationwide coverage	Available in parts of Harare and parts of Bulawayo only	Available in parts of Harare only. Service only available within 10km from the TelOne exchange the line was registered
5	4	3	1

Selection

Econet Private Wifi Bundle	NetOne OneFi	Zol Wibroniks	TelOne Blaze LTE
Only 3 packages to choose from 25GB, 50GB, 75GB	Only 3 packages to choose from 25GB, 50GB, 75GB	11 different packages 2GB, 3GB, 5GB, 10GB, 15GB, 20GB, 25GB, 30GB, 60GB, 100GB, Unlimited	6 different packages 8GB, 15GB, 20GB, 40GB, 100GB, Unlimited
3	3	5	4

Perks

Econet Private Wifi Bouquets	NetOne Onefi	Zol Wibroniks	TelOne Blaze LTE
Wide Network Coverage	20% discount if you use OneMoney to buy any bundle	Largest selection of packages to choose from Unlimited package	Unlimited package
3	4	2	1

Price Per GB

	Econet Private Wifi Bundles	NetOne OneFi	Zol Wibroniks	TelOne Blaze LTE
Lowest	$13.3/GB	$13.3/GB $10.7/GB (OneMoney)	$13.9/GB	$11/GB
Average	$15.1/GB	$15.1 /GB $12.1/GB (OneMoney)	$30.1/GB	$21.4/GB
	3	4	1	2

Results

	Econet Private Wifi Bouquets	NetOne OneFi	Zol Wibroniks	TelOne Blaze LTE
Device Support	5	5	3	3
Network Coverage	5	4	3	1
Selection	3	3	5	4
Perks	3	4	2	1
Price	3	4	1	2
Total	19	20	14	11

Thoughts…

Well then. Looks like NetOne took it. But just by a point really so it was not a complete walk over. Thanks to the 20% discount when using OneMoney, NetOne eked out a win over the other 3.

Price comparisons are a headache when packages are not directly comparable. So the best way to do it was pick the price per GB but which one?
Well we took the best offering from all 4 in terms of price per GB so that we could get the lowest price per GB. In all the packages the most expensive package was the one with the lowest price per GB. This excludes unlimited bundles for obvious reasons.

Problem now is looking at the lowest price per GB alone does not show the full picture of which service provider has the most reasonable pricing across the board.

So we took the price per GB for each package offered by a service provider, added them all up for a particular service provider and came up with an average.
This average again does not include unlimited packages.

NetOne has the best bang for the buck here and if you need to get some data for that line you can just click on this link and pay using EcoCash for your convenience.