MTN: 1GB data cost will drop to R99

Monthly prepaid data bundles of 1GB and below from MTN SA will, from April, cost from 25% to 50% less.

On Friday MTN said from next month the 1GB monthly bundle will decrease by 33% to R99.

“This continues the work MTN SA has done to improve the affordability of data for its customers, having already brought the effective rate of data on its network down by 76% between February 2017 and February 2020,” said the company.

A week ago, its rival Vodacom announced it had reached an agreement with the country’s competition watchdog to reduce its mobile data prices, including cutting the cost of its 1GB monthly bundle from R149 to “no more than” R99, a 34% reduction, from April 1.

Both companies participated in the Competition Commission's Data Service Market Inquiry earlier this year.

MTN said its initiatives span three areas: the affordability of monthly prepaid bundles, "lifeline data" and the zero-rating of data for public benefit service websites.

In terms of "lifeline data", MTN SA will provide each of its customers with 20MB free data daily – or the equivalent of 600MB per customer every month – through its instant messaging platform, Ayoba. The company said this platform has 500,000 customers in SA.

It will also offer monthly 500MB free data access to public benefit services websites every month, amounting to 6GB per year, for each of its 29-million customers.

MTN already offers zero-rated data access to a range of websites, which includes schools  and universities. Next month, it will extend the websites that form part of the public benefit service to also include health, public universities, vocational colleges, educational resources and employment sites, subject to specified criteria.

It also intends to launch an OpenTime service, "which will be enable free access to public benefit services".

Commenting on the costs of these initiatives, the company said: "While there will be pressure on MTN SA’s short-term financial performance from these initiatives, MTN believe the reduction in pricing will be compensated over time by elasticity and customer growth, and growth in prepaid data service revenue will return in a couple of quarters."