Discounted airtime for your cell phone – where’s the best price?

It’s been a while since I updated my “Buying Airtime Calculator” calculator (Feb 2009), so I decided to do another Bing search (anyone noticed that I’m avoiding Google?).  Truth-be-told, I was spurred to update the calculator after I saw a Tweet from @HifiCorp: “Now you can talk for more while paying less with our discount prepaid airtime offers! http://bit.ly/l2Q3Zz”.  The link takes you to a very large pdf file – I’ve snipped the great pricing:

Or in tabular form from the calculator here:

	Vendor	CreditCard	Date	Airtime Value	Actual Cost	Discount
Vodacom	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	5.00	4.70	6.00%
Vodacom	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	12.00	10.90	9.17%
Vodacom	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	29.00	26.90	7.24%
Vodacom	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	55.00	49.90	9.27%
Vodacom	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	110.00	99.90	9.18%
MTN	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	5.00	4.60	8.00%
MTN	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	10.00	9.30	7.00%
MTN	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	15.00	13.90	7.33%
MTN	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	30.00	28.50	5.00%
CellC	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	5.00	4.60	8.00%
CellC	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	10.00	9.30	7.00%
CellC	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	25.00	22.70	9.20%
CellC	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	35.00	30.80	12.00%
CellC	HiFiCorp	Yes	Jun-11	50.00	45.50	9.00%

Download the updated calculator which also lists the outlets that I could find here:  http://www.mediafire.com/file/l6bq6ioa44wwl7q/BuyingAirtimeCalculatorJune2011.xls

Anyone notice that they don’t list the new provider 8ta?  Do they even sell 8ta airtime?

That’s not just a question “out of the blue”… I’m getting suspicious about why GoogleAdsense suspended my account almost immediately after I posted this article on 8ta’s “special”: ‘I knew there had to be a catch with that 8ta deal for a Blackberry for R90 per month.... with free calls to a landline number’.
8ta was an advertiser on my blog – in fact the questions that I received were from readers asking about “my ad” on “my blog site”.
Since Google Adsense will not tell me the reason(s) for the suspension I will continue to speculate – and believe that this is the reason.

I knew there had to be a catch with that 8ta deal for a Blackberry for R90 per month.... with free calls to a landline number

I received a couple of calls asking me if this was a great deal for a Blackberry 8520.  Over the phone it seemed to be a brilliant deal (especially how it was read to me over the phone): it included a free phone, and BIS, for only R90 per month, and (as it was read to me) free calls to any landline number. plus had 500MB free YouTube streaming per month!

So, I had to investigate…

Here’s the ad:
 
Here’s the small print – with catches highlighted in red:

Blackberry 8520 @R90 for the first 3 months; includes free BIS subscription worth R49.
Thereafter R139 x21 months.

· 500MB Free YouTube streaming
· Call one Telkom landline number for FREE
· Send five SMSs per day and receive 50 FREE to send for that day
· 90 FREE minutes 8ta to 8ta / national landlines
· 15 FREE 8ta minutes to other local SA networks
· 25MB FREE data
· Free SIM & connection

So, don’t be fooled: it doesn’t offer free calls to all landlines – only to one nominated landline.
It’s R90 for the first 3 months – the remaining 21 months are charged at R139.

I recently purchased great contract deal from Vodacom’s RED specials on TopUp 135 for R135 per month:
(Unfortunately, it’s no longer available from the Vodacom Direct web site).

Things to watch out for that make it great:
Free phone, Free SIM, Free connection, Free delivery, 2 year warranty on phone, includes R135 free any time minutes (note: that it’s any time minutes, and not off peak minutes), the unused minutes roll over for up to 5 months (so you don’t lose the unused minutes).
So, for R135 per month, you got R135 airtime and a free phone!
These are per minute rates and they are cheaper than the Vodago rates.

The deal details (no longer available):
“
Blackberry 8520 RED including BIS FREE at R129 per month when signing an initial 24 month contract on Top up 135 (per minute billing only).

FREE SIM, FREE CONNECTION AND FREE DELIVERY.

This offer includes a 2 year handset warranty and for your own peace of mind, should you not be satisfied with your purchase you can return it within 14 days from delivery.

Phone features:
Dedicated Multimedia keys
Full QWERTY keyboard
2 megapixel camera
BlackBerry® Media Sync and Wi-Fi
”

So, does it work? Building your own HDD recorder (PVR) for under R1,850 (US$280)

Here’s a follow up posting to my design of How to build your own 500GB HDD recorder (PVR) for under R1,850 (US$280). 
Unfortunately, it's not as easy as I hoped it would be....
The smoothest part was the ordering of the parts from BidOrBuy and Kalahari.  The parts arrived much faster than I expected. (BidOrBuy much faster than Kalahari by the way.)
The Mecer LT291HD Stand Alone TV Tuner did not work as advertised/expected and I am in the process of sending it back (seems like getting a refund from Kalahari is no problem #BrandPlus). 
The web page (https://www.kalahari.net/profile/electronics/Mecer-LT291HD-TV-Tuner/4585/37643532.aspx) states: “TV input: (75 ohm impedance, F or PH type)” and “Video output: RCA x1” BUT the TV signal is *not* output on the video RCA cable at all :(
So, either the unit is faulty or does not operate as I interpreted.  I will have to rely on the input from my TopTV decoder. 
Additionally, it did not remove the CSS copy protection :(
For anyone that needs it, here is the Mecer’s instruction manual: Instruction Manual Mecer LT291HD External Tuner HD
Unfortunately, the Emprex ME1-V2 Media Player+Recorder also gave more than its fair share of problem – however, I don’t think I’ll be returning that box as I have 2 possible workarounds, and I kind of enjoy watching the media files on our bedroom TV.
The problems that I encountered were with pausing live TV.  The system seemed to hand and had to reset it by removing power! :(
Googling a bit found that the 500GB HDD that I have (WD5000AAKB) was incompatible with the Emprex unit! – how is that for UNlucky! #FFS #Frustrating!
So, I might also try to get another (bigger 1TB HDD) at some time.
Another option is to get an external HDD enclosure (info from this article).
The picture quality on AV OUT was poor on my 29” TV, but displayed fine on my older 54cm TV in the bedroom.
I had to use the Component (Y, Pb, Pr) to get excellent quality picture on the 29” TV (I don’t have a HDTV to test the higher quality output on).
I upgraded the firmware and played with the scheduled recording function – the start date setting is a bit clunky, but once you get the hang of it it’s fine… remember to set the date to today’s date in the settings page before trying to play with the scheduled recordings feature.
I wanted to test how many tasks you could program in that scheduled list – but didn’t get to it – the HDD hung while I was testing the live-pause feature.
I haven’t yet tested the streaming content feature yet.

The remote control is a bit thin and looks brittle, but it works well and the range is good.  I have programmed most functions into the learning remote but it doesn’t have enough buttons for all the features :(

So, to summarise:
The Mecer LT291HD Stand Alone TV Tuner did not work as I needed it to and will need to record from the channel that the TopTV decoder is set to.
Not having a tuner inside the recording device is a big disadvantage since you cannot schedule recordings independently from your “tuner-device” – that’s the coup-de-grace of this design…
The Emprex ME1-V2 Media Player+Recorder is a nice media player, and I think that I will sort out the HDD issues.
The number of cables and connections (power and video and audio) don’t make the “system” very portable

So, if I had R2,800 would I spend it on that Sony RDR-HX980B 250GB unit?  It’s only 250GB, but it has a tuner, it’s standalone, it has a scheduled recording feature, its HDD doesn’t hang when doing live-pause… I think I would!