MTN 79c per minute prepaid call rate made permanent

MTN announced in a press statement on Thursday evening (24 April 2014) that its previously promotional call rate of 79c/minute on its Pay Per Second prepaid price plan will soon be permanent.

The required paperwork to make the rate permanent has been lodged with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), MTN said.

This announcement that the rate is being made permanent follows 10 days after MTN first introduced the reduced rate as a promotional offer, which was initially set to expire in July 2014.

“Our customers require certainty that MTN will maintain the most competitively-priced voice tariffs in the industry – right into the foreseeable future,” MTN’s chief marketing officer, Brian Gouldie said.

“This is why we have acted swiftly to lodge the required paperwork with Icasa, to give our customers surety that this rate is not merely available on a promotional basis, but is part of our long-term pricing strategy.”

Gouldie said that the 79c/minute call rate will be a permanent tariff on the MTN Pay Per Second prepaid price plan from 7 May 2014.

Those who wish to remain on MTN’s Zone Per Second, Muziq, or discontinued Call Per Second prepaid price plans can get the 79c/minute rate by buying an MTN PayAsYouGo voice bundle, the network said.

In addition to its existing R7, R12, and R17 bundles, MTN has introduced a R35 bundle. Each bundle only lasts a few days, and offers some SMS messages, data, and on-network minutes in addition to the 79c/minute call rate.

MTN has decreased the number of on-network minutes that used to be included with the bundles, but also changed them from “midnight minutes” to anytime on-net minutes. In the case of the R17 bundle it also increased the data allocation from 20MB to 30MB.

The table below summarises the MTN PAYG bundle denominations available:

Existing MTN prepaid users can switch to the Pay Per Second price plan by dialling *141*2# and selecting the “PPS” (Pay Per Second) option. You will be able to access the 79c flat call rate from your next call, MTN said.

Those who wish to use MTN’s other prepaid price plans can buy the bundles listed above by dialling *141*2*794#.

There is also a self-service number porting system available for those who wish to switch from their current cellular provider to MTN, the network said.

“MTN is anticipating a significant uptake of these offers,” MTN said. In preparation, MTN said it has invested substantially in its network capacity to ensure good customer experience while sustaining the higher volumes of traffic into the future.

“The timing of the launch has therefore been carefully planned,” MTN said.

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