MTN brings back unlimited BIS for BB

MTN today announced a return to its classic, unlimited Blackberry Internet Service, just three months after introducing the Absolute Plan that placed a data limit on BIS.

MTN has backed off on the 200MB data limit it set for BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) in March 2013.

It announced today that it would reintroduce the unlimited service, costing R59 a month, from July 14, “in an effort to simplify data access and offer more choice to BlackBerry customers””. A package equivalent to the 200MB capped service will now be available at a substantially lower cost: R39 a month. It also announced it would introduce a new suite of BlackBerry service plans to cater for all customer needs, based on their data usage patterns.

“”MTN BlackBerry customers on the new service plans will enjoy access to the full benefits of the popular BlackBerry Internet Service, such as personal email accounts, attachment viewing, internet browsing, social networking and instant messaging, including the popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM),”” it said in a statement.

“”BlackBerry MTN customers will be able to enjoy the complete and unlimited BlackBerry Internet Service for R59 per month.””

MTN also increased the data caps on its tiered BlackBerry packages, “”To meet different data needs””. The new BlackBerry service plans include:

* BlackBerry Messaging, increase cap from 10MB to 30MB at R14.95 per month

* BlackBerry Social, increase cap from 10MB to 40MB at R19.95 per month

* BlackBerry Social and Email, increase cap from 25MB to 100MB at R29.95 per month

* BlackBerry Internet Service Lite with a fair use of 200MB at R39.95 per month

The BlackBerry Absolute Plan that was introduced in March this year will be phased out.

Says Mapula Bodibe, general manager of Consumer Segments at MTN SA: ‚””We have listened to our customers and have re-introduced the price plan and broadened our BlackBerry services based on the usage patterns and needs of our customers, a true testament to customer centricity.‚””

‚””We know that our customers enjoy staying both informed and connected while on-the-go. They relish chatting with friends and family, tagging pictures and using BBM, and this introduction of BlackBerry service plans is in response to their needs.‚””

The BIS packages do not, however, apply to phones using the BlackBerry 10 operating system, such as the Z10 and Q10.

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