MTN joins data price war

South Africa’s second largest telecommunications operator MTN, today slashed prices on its data bundles, with the price of a 300MB bundle cut by a third, and a 500MB bundle by just over 20%.

The cost of MTN Internet bundleshave been slashed, with effect from 1 November. However, the new rates are labelled as promotional, meaning they would have to be reimplemented when the promotion period ends on 28 february 2013, or MTN would have to have the rates approved by the communications regulator, Icasa.

MTN is the last of the telecommunications operators to announce dramatically reduced rates on data, signalling the end of the first round of the 2012 data price war that has brought the cost of data down to an all-time low in South Africa.

Says Serame Taukobong, MTN South Africa Chief Marketing Officer: ‚”We know that our customers want value for money and in response to this we have reduced our Internet bundle pricing to offer real value for the Internet experience.‚”

The need to have continued access to the Internet has resulted in a higher demand from customers for data to be easily accessible at affordable rates. MTN says the new Internet Bundles promotion offers customers more control, convenience and choice of data bundles to suit their needs. In addition, “customers will get more value for money as well as control and manage their data usage and spend through the MTN balance enquiries service by dialing *141*1#””.

Through this promotion, customers are now offered the following:

· The 300MB Internet bundle subscription which has now been reduced from R149 to R99.

· The 500MB Internet bundle which has now been reduced from R189 to R149.

All the new promotional features are available to new and existing and new MTN customers (PayAsYouGo, TopUp, and Contract) purchasing once-off and recurring Data bundles. MTN is also offering the Data bundles with MTN voice Contracts, thereby providing customers with all inclusive Contract packages that suit their voice, data and SMS needs simultaneously.

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