8ta has introduced a tariff innovation to the South African mobile market, becoming the first mobile service provider in the country to launch an unlimited voice flat-rate subscription.
The 8ta Unlimited Voice All-Net allows subscribers to make unlimited calls to all national mobile and fixed line networks at any time of day for a flat rate fee. Calls to Vodacom, MTN and Cell C numbers, as well as to fixed Telkom and Neotel lines are included in the offering.
Users will pay a monthly flat-fee of R1,199 (US$138) for the SIM only package, while the telecoms operator also offers the package with a Samsung Galaxy S3 at a slightly higher cost of R1,499 (US$172) per month. A 24-month contractual undertaking will apply.
The company insists that the roll-out of its new promotional tariff – to be available commercially as of November 1 – intends to support the South African population in its increasingly “mobile lifestyle”.
“Mobile voice services have fast become the communication medium of choice for South Africans on the move. Now for the first time the limitations of this medium has been removed. 8ta is enabling its customers to be connected like never before,” said 8ta Senior Managing Executive AmithMaharaj in a press statement.
Maharaj also referred to the knock-on effects of the recent slide in South Africa’s economic stability, as strikes spanning multiple industries have caused significant financial detriment to the country, being felt across the board. He claims that under this context it is more important than ever that 8ta delivers “products and services that enable South Africans to maximise their potential and to live unlimited.”
8ta has attached certain conditions to the promotion; in particular, it will consider as fraudulent activity any subscriber using the SIM for “purposes of least cost routing, international bypass or payphone”.
Telkom Business customers will also be welcome to avail themselves of the new tariffs, and indeed, the offer may well be better suited to the business customer given the quite high-end value of the promotional package – as such the package is unlikely to compete with the low-cost pre-paid pricings currently on offer on the market.
