WhatsApp calling is a popular alternative to conventional voice calling, especially if both users are connected to a home or work Wi-Fi network and are not using mobile data.
However, if the prices are cheap enough, using mobile data for a WhatsApp call is of little concern to users.
There are a variety of factors which could influence the amount of data used by a WhatsApp voice call, including connection type, quality, and signal strength.
With the recent launch of Rain Mobile and its cheaper mobile data, we have detailed how much a WhatsApp call costs on South Africa’s major mobile networks.
Data costs
We then took the amount of data used by the WhatsApp call and linked it to the price of a 1GB data bundle from MTN, Telkom, Vodacom, and Cell C.
Rain was also tested, but as it does not sell data bundles, its flat rate of R50 per GB was used.
This data was used to calculate the cost-per-minute of WhatsApp calling on each network.
The price of a WhatsApp call using 1GB of data on each mobile network is detailed below.
The data shows that using WhatsApp voice calling is cheap across all networks – much cheaper than paying for voice minutes using airtime.
It is also important to note that Rain does not offer traditional voice services and does not charge out-of-bundle rates, meaning users will never have to pay more than R0.05 per MB.