MTN contract price hikes — All the details

MTN has published a complete list of the pricing changes for subscription fees on mobile contracts.

The mobile network operator recently announced it would hike these prices by an average of 5.1% from 1 April 2023.

The most significant increases are on the Mega Gigs XS and Mega Talk XS products, which are each going up by R10.00 — or 7.4%.

Other packages with hikes over 7% include Mega Gigs L, Mega Talk L, Mega Flex R65, MTNChoice 8GB, and Made for Me XS.

On the flip side, four plans will see their subscription fees reduced.

The prices of the TopUp variants of Mega Gigs XS and Mega Talk XS will be reduced by R10 — or 6.5%.

The TopUp versions of Mega Gigs S and Mega Talk S will also be slashed by R10, working out to a 4.4% reduction.

Regarding per-minute voice call rates,  many plans — like the MTN Sky and MTNChoice ranges — will have no price changes.

But hikes on other packages will start from 4.2% and go as high as 7.6%.

The latter will apply to the MegaTalk M, MegaTalk M TopUp, and Made for Me M products.

2022 price hike furore

In 2022, MTN upset many of its contract customers after it effectively increased the prices of products by over 20%.

Although the operator said tariffs would be increased by an average of 5%, it neglected to mention that this increase would apply to the undisclosed “base price” of products.

MTN calculated the prices customers pay by subtracting a set discount from the base price. These discounts were often substantial.

However, while increases were applied to the base price, they were not applied to discounts.

When applying the stated 5% increase to the base price of packages and deducting the same discount as before, the effective price increases could go up by much more than 5%.

For example, a MyMTN Choice 30GB package came with a base price of R1,299 and discounted price of R299, for a total discount of R1,000.

Following the price changes, its base price was increased to R1,365, but the discount remained the same.

That meant the customer would be paying R365 instead of R299, working out to an increase of 28%.

Following an outcry from affected customers, MTN adjusted its approach and applied the increase to discounts too.

The table below summarises the changes in subscription fees and voice call rates on MTN mobile contracts from 1 April 2023.

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