South Africa’s MTN has launched a new pre-paid starter pack offering lower call prices and special offers, building on the success of its previous Mahala offerings to further enter the country’s mobile price war.
The MTN Mahala starter pack features lower calling rates of R2.59 (USS$0.29) per minute on-network, R2.79 (US$0.32) per minute off-network during peak times, and R1.19 (US$0.14) and R1.30 (US$0.15) per minute during off-peak times, billed on a per-second basis.
It also gives free airtime when customers recharge regularly.
The company says the package is inspired by the success of previous “Mahala” special offers.
“We understand that our customers want value for every rand they spend on their mobile phones… The success and popularity of our MTN Mahala offering to prepaid customers; which includes Mahala Thursdays, Mahala Day and Mahala Night, Mahala Weekend, Mahala International Calls and Mahala Data; has prompted us to introduce a new starter pack that allows new customers to enjoy more value,” said Serame Taukobong, Chief Marketing Officer at MTN South Africa.
HumanIPO reported recently MTN had revived its Mahala Thursdays offer to assist subscribers with extra savings.
The special offers customers will benefit from include 20 percent free on-network calls when customers top up more than R10 (US$1.13) per month, while users who top up more than R100 (US$11.3) per month will receive 10 MB of free data. Customers will receive five free SMSs for every 15 sent.
“The new Mahala starter pack reaffirms our commitment as a customer-centric organisation, to provide our customers with real value for their rand, and ensure they stay connected to the world,” said Taukobong.
The new offering sees MTN further attempt to join the ongoing price war between Vodacom and Cell C. The operators have vowed to match each other blow-for-blow in the race for market dominance through price cuts and special offers, a race which has been significantly pushing down mobile prices.
