Crazy complicated 79c per minute MTN promo

A number of MyBroadband readers have (quite rightly) queried the terms and conditions of the new promotion launched by MTN that reduced its prepaid call rates to 79c per minute.

The MTN website links to 3 different lengthy pages of legalese, each of which contains different promo expiry dates.

Two of the sets of T&C’s also refer to bundles that expire within a few days of buying them.

Which ultimately raises the question: when exactly do you pay 79c/minute?

To unravel the knot that is MTN’s prepaid product line-up, let’s look at each of the prepaid products that received the price cut one by one.

MTN Pay Per Second

Pay Per Second is MTN’s new default prepaid price plan as of 21 February 2014.

Before 10 April 2014, it offered a “2c per second” (R1.20 per minute) call rate to any network, billed per second.

According to the updated terms & conditions for MTN Pay Per Second, between 23h59 on 10 April 2014 and 23h59 on 9 July 2014, the reduced rate of 79c/minute will be in effect.

Other standard benefits of MTN Pay Per Second are: 10 free “CallBacks” daily, 1 free SMS daily after 60 seconds of calltime is billed, and access to Voicemail Lite.

MTN PayAsYouGo Bundles (R30) promotion

The 79c/minute call rate has also been introduced to a promotional bundle MTN is running until 24 April 2014.

These bundles all cost R30 and gave MTN subscribers the option of 3 different reduced in-bundle (i.e. within the R30 value bought) rates for 3 days.

Subscribers on MTN’s Pay Per Second; Zone Per Second; Muziq; and Call Per Second price plans can buy these bundles.

As should become evident, there is no point to buying these bundles at all anymore.

MTN PayAsYouGo R7, R12, R17 bundles

Another set of promotional bundles MTN launched for its prepaid subscribers on 17 March 2014 are its R7, R12, and R17 bundles.

These bundles offer a reduced call rate, on-net minutes, SMS messages, and data that must be used in 2 or 3 days.

The updated terms & conditions state that as of 23:59 on 10 April 2014 and until 23:59 on 17 June 2014, the reduced call rate of 79c/minute will apply to these bundles.

Not that useful if you’re already on MTN Pay Per Second (unless you have use for the on-net minutes, and handful of SMS messages and data), but perhaps something other subscribers might look at.

As with the now redundant R30 bundles, these bundles are available on MTN’s Pay Per Second; Zone Per Second; Muziq; and Call Per Second prepaid price plans.

In short

If you’re an MTN prepaid subscriber you should probably switch to the new MTN Pay Per Second price plan.

On MTN Zone Per Second you would need at least a discount of 68.4% in the zone you are in to get the standard R2.50/minute call rate down to 79c.

MTN’s other prepaid price plans don’t even come close to Pay Per Second’s tariffs, so there just don’t seem to be good reasons to stay on them.

More SA cellular news

MTN cuts call rate to 79c per minute

Vodacom, MTN preventing drastic price cuts: Cell C

New MTN PayAsYouGo bundles launched

MTN 90c per minute prepaid promotion

New MTN default prepaid price plan