MTN boosts broadband with lower prices

MTN is on a major drive to boost its broadband products by offering significant price cuts and launching an aggressive marketing campaign.

New Prices

MTN announced their new 3G/HSDPA data bundle and contract prices which bring significant savings to consumers.

MTN’s 2 GB data bundle now retails for R 389-00 while a 1 GB offering costs R 289-00. MTN also has a 500 MB bundle costing R 189-00 and a 350 MB bundle for R 169-00 a month.

MTN also reduced the prices of their data contracts which gincludes a Data Card or USB Modem as part of the 24-month contract.

A 350 MB data contract is priced at R 209-00, the 500 MB option will cost R 249-00, the 1 GB service R 349-00 and the 2 GB contract R 449-00.

MTN said that all of the prices and bundles are applicable immediately for all current and new subscribers.

All existing subscribers will automatically have their bundle size and tariff adjusted (where applicable) and do not have to do anything to benefit from these adjustments. The new bundles and tariffs will kick in at the next bill run for existing subscribers.

New price plans will boost uptake

Brian Seligmann, Data Bearers and Services Manager at MTN, says that the success of the company’s “buy 1GB get 2GB” promotion proved so popular in excess of 4,000% on some price plans - that they decided to make the 2GB bundles and price plans permanent. This however necessitated the downward adjustment of other prices.

With the increase in bundle size to 2GB it was also necessary to adjust the prices of the smaller bundles and price plans to make them competitive. We are also just starting a significant marketing campaign to support our BroadBand access products, said Seligmann.

Seligmann is confident that the lower prices and increased marketing will result in increased uptake of MTN’s broadband products.

Our experience with the promotions from February to July this year make us extremely confident that there will be significant uptake and that these adjustments are a very good idea, said Seligmann.

Network ready

With increased uptake specifically in the mobile broadband space there are always questions as to whether the network will be able to accommodate the increased traffic.

This is particularly relevant to the mobile providers where they are often hamstrung by the long waiting period and high prices for their transmission links supplied by Telkom.

Seligmann is however confident that their network will not buckle under the heavier anticipated load: We have spent the last 90 days doing a number of significant performance and tuning enhancements to our network.

We have added additional GPRS core equipment in Cape Town to supplement the existing equipment in Gauteng, many of the servers have been significantly upgraded, international capacity has been increased, and an additional 45Mbps international link from Cape Town is now available, said Seligmann.

The 3G/HSDPA network is in the best condition ever and has measured performance to rival the best in the world. We have built nearly 600 new 3G/HSDPA base stations this year and will build at least another 400 over the next few months.

MTN aim to become leading broadband provider in South Africa

MTN said that they currently have over 4 million active data subscribers on their network, but this does not mean that the company is resting on its laurels.

MTN SA Managing Director Tim Lowry said that while the company has shown good data growth, it is still not where it should be and that there are a lot of initiatives in place to grow their data contributions.

Seligmann reiterates this sentiment, saying that data is a significant part of MTN’s future plans and that the target is for data to exceed 10% of MTN’s total network revenue this year.

Our investment in HSDPA is purely to support our data ambitions as a leading broadband provider in South Africa, Seligmann concluded.

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