MTN has taken an axe to ad hoc data rates, reducing them significantly just as rival Cell C has been pushing them up on some of its offerings.

The operator has adjusted its Pay Per Second price plan base data rate from R2/MB to 79c/MB, a reduction of more than 60%, it said.

“As of 1 June 2014, existing Top Up customers who upgrade or new customers signing up on MTN AnyTime Top Up or MTN Off Peak Top Up price plans will experience 79c/minute for voice calls for both their in- and out-of-bundle usage,” the company said in a statement.

“They will also benefit from a standard 79c/MB for ad-hoc data usage,” it said.

The company said it is also introducing a new promotional price plan called MTN 1c Per Second, which is available for prepaid and top-up customers to all networks. These customers pay 1c/s or 60c/minute for voice calling and have a standard data rate of 99c/MB.

The new MTN Talk Free price plan gives customers additional value when making a call and talking for long periods of time, it continued. They pay R1,20/minute for the first three minutes on MTN-to-MTN calls and then receive the rest of the hour for free. Vodacom has a similar product. Customers on MTN Talk Free will be charged 79c/minute when calling other networks. The ad hoc or standard data rate is 99c/MB.

Effective from 1 June, customers on MTN AnyTime, My MTNChoice and MTN Off Peak also get a reduced rate of 99c/MB for all ad hoc data usage.