MTN South Africa said on Thursday that it is cutting out-of-bundle data charges for prepaid customers by as much as 75% and launching a new “double your bundle” promotion.

“Prepaid customers currently not making use of data bundles will pay just 29c/MB for their data usage, while customers that do purchase data bundles will pay 49c/MB for their out-of-bundle data usage,” MTN said in a statement.

CEO Godrey Motsa said the “imminent release of much-needed spectrum” is an “important milestone in South Africa’s telecommunications history and is reason for optimism”.

“We are greatly encouraged by the steps being taken by both government and our regulator (Icasa) to progress the release of spectrum,” he said. “More spectrum will be an important contributor to helping further drive down the cost to communicate and by slashing our out-of-bundle pricing…”

MTN said data bundles remain the most cost-effective way to use data, so the new out-of-bundle pricing is “structured to encourage customers to stay in-bundle”.

“For those customers that have never used data bundles, the pricing has been set at 29c to still allow for well-priced use of the Internet, despite not using a data bundle,” it said.

New customers that have just activated their Sim cards and customers that have ported to MTN, along with active MTN subscribers that have migrated from contract or hybrid packages to prepaid, will all be allocated the 29c rate. This rate will only change once they start making use of data bundles.

Next seven days

“Due to the size of the MTN subscriber base, the solution will be rolled out to all prepaid customers over a seven-day period, starting at midnight on 31 January,” the company said in the statement.

In addition to the reduced out-of-bundle pricing, MTN is also doubling selected prepaid customer’s voice and data bundles for the next two months.

“The MTN ‘double Your bundle’ promotion rewards prepaid customers with 100% free value when they purchase selected voice and data bundles by dialling *142#. When customers dial *142#, and select either ‘double data’ or ‘double voice’, they will be presented with three offers. When a customer chooses an offer, for example a 500MB bundle, they will receive an additional 500MB bundle. The bundles are available in daily, weekly and monthly options.”