On Tuesday, Vodacom announced it would begin offering free off-peak call minutes to its contract subscribers from 1 May 2010, with subscribers on high-end talk packages receiving as much as three hours of additional airtime over weekends.
TechCentral has tabulated the numbers (see below), which show that Business Call and Frequent Call subscribers will receive 20 free minutes, either over weekends or on weeknights, while those on the high-end Talk packages will receive up to three hours for use over weekends or 90 minutes for use during off-peak periods during the week.
Lower-end contract packages, such as the Weekender plans, don’t receive weekend minutes, which suggests the free minutes are meant to encourage business users to use their phones more after hours.
The allocation of the monthly “more minutes” bundle will default to weekend minutes. However, customers will have the option of changing their weekend minutes to weekday evening minutes by calling the Vodacom call centre.
A Vodacom spokesman says that if a subscriber makes calls during off-peak times on the weekend, then the free weekend minutes will be used before their allocated monthly “anytime” minutes — the airtime that is included in their bundle.
In addition, subscribers’ monthly unused minutes will continue to be rolled over for a period of six months. — Staff reporter, TechCentral
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