MTN has announced that it will hike the price of its WhatsApp bundle, following an extraordinary increase in demand on its 3G network.<\/p>\n
The WhatsApp bundle will be hiked to R30, from R10 as of 16 July 2018.<\/p>\n
However, the most vulnerable South Africans who spend less than R10 on WhatsApp per month, will be protected from the change in pricing and will still have access to the low-cost WhatsApp bundles, it said.<\/p>\n
Customers who are primarily using feature phones on its 3G network will still pay R10 a month for WhatsApp access.<\/p>\n
MTN added that a significant portion of its current customer base make use of feature phones (3G handsets), which is particularly evident in rural parts of South Africa.<\/p>\n
“Spend on these 3G handsets in rural areas, tends to be on the much lower end and we want to continue to offer affordable data access through WhatsApp bundles to this group of South Africans, who need to communicate but whom can least afford it,” said executive consumer business, Mapula Bodibe.<\/p>\n
She added that in the coming months, MTN will increasingly offer more personalised products to meet the needs of its customers through its MyMTNOffers service.<\/p>\n
“These offers will be designed around the customers unique needs and offered directly to the customer, based on their location, usage, affordability and network capacity available,” she said.<\/p>\n