MTN slashes data prices by up to 50%, 1GB bundle now R99

MTN SA CEO Godfrey Motsa announced on Friday that it would follow suit with Vodacom to reduce the price of monthly data bundles of 1GB and below by 25% to 50%.

MTN. Image: Moneyweb

Similar to Vodacom, the 1GB monthly bundle will decrease by 33% to R99, in keeping with directives from the Competition Commission to lower costs for customers despite spectrum still not being freed up yet by government.

Motsa said that data would not cost higher than R99 per gig on the MTN network, though other packages would see it becoming even cheaper, depending on the deal being offered in each case.

MTN will also provide each of its South African customers with 20MB of free data every day through instant messaging platform Ayoba, which has 500,000 customers in South Africa at the moment.

On March 10 the Competition Commission reached an agreement with Vodacom that saw it reduce its monthly data prices by at least 30% from April 1.

MTN’s new prices will only be effective from April 15.

The competition watchdog had given telecommunication companies three months to implement recommendations.

After investigating the cost of data in the country the commission earlier found MTN and Vodacom to have had overly high data costs. In a report, the commission recommended they reduce their mobile data prices by half or face prosecution for exorbitant pricing.

Watch the announcement below, courtesy of eNCA.