Made a Whatsapp call this past week to my wife on Globacom Nigeria’s 3G mobile Internet. It was my first.
In my estimation, a one minute call consumed about 360kb of data. If you are subscribed to the popular Globacom “So Special” data plan of N2500 for 4.5GB, a minute call would cost 20k (1 second call = 0.33k). Those on the network’s Blackberry Internet Services would get an even better deal at only 12k for the 1 minute call (1 second = 0.2k). Please note that this rate is constant irrespective of whether the call is a local, National or International.
A comparative analysis of the call rates between Whatsapp and Globacom Nigeria’s popular voice plan “Infinito” is shown below;
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The Snags
1. Call recipients must be subscribed to Whatsapp services.
2. Both parties pay for the call. The data consumption rate is constant, whether you are initiating or receiving the call.
3. 3G services is not available in all locations in Nigeria. And where it is available, the signal strength may be flaky. This will impact negatively on the call quality.
6 comments
Akan Ak
Nice… it probably is an even better deal for those of us who don’t pay for data by the kB.
With the advent of Skype, Whatsapp, Viber, FaceTime etc., the question to as is…. Will the voice call go the way of the telex and the fax?
muyiscoi
Interesting analysis. This is even more useful for making international calls which are typically extremely expensive.
Udegbunam Chukwudi
Did you activate data saving in whatsapp before making the calls? Settings >> Chats and Calls >> Call Seeings
Wale Falade
Hi Doc. I cant seem to find any setting for Data Saving in my phone.
Udegbunam Chukwudi
Ok no wahala. It hasn’t been released to the play store yet. I got it via http://www.whatsapp.com/android
Wale Falade
Installed the apk. Will compare if there will be any cost savings.