MTN makes data deal permanent

Mobile data price war continue to benefit South African consumers as the operators drop the cost of connecting smart devices to the internet.

MTN on Wednesday announced that its data promotions were now permanent as the company looked to take on Vodacom in SA.

"We at first extended the data offerings promotion to our customers, but have now decided to make it permanent to provide our customers a bold, new digital world," said Brian Gould Gouldie, chief Marketing Officer at MTN SA.

Junior operator Cell C currently offers data at 15c per megabyte and the price contributed to disrupting the data market. Competitors reacted with a variety of pricing offers to reduce the cost of smartphone data.

MTN's data promotions of R10 for 20MB up to R249 for 2GB are now permanent.

source: www.news24.com

opera sofware ASA : MTN group renews agreement with opera software

Opera Mini is a mobile web browser that compresses webpages to as little as 10% of their initial size,which helps customers to save on data costs and network operators to save on bandwidth, thus enabling more people to access the mobile web.

In the past two years, MTN has rolled out a co-branded version of Opera Mini in 17 markets including Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Sudan, Zambia, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda, Swaziland, Cameroon, Benin, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Guinea and Yemen.

The MTN co-branded Opera Mini browser has seen phenomenal uptake since it was first launched, with its user base more than doubling in the past 12 months alone.

MTN and Opera have worked together to promote the co-branded browser via different campaigns in all regions in which it has been rolled out. Opera has also partnered with local MTN operations to embed Opera Mini on devices sold by MTN.

Under the new agreement, Opera Mini remains available for new and existing MTN subscribers in each market, providing one-click access from the home page to services such as MTN Play and MTN Football.

According to MTN Group Chief Commercial Officer, Pieter Verkade, "The renewed partnership with Opera Software will allow MTN customers to continue to have the best possible digital experience of the internet using their mobile devices, while accessing content in a fast and affordable way."

He adds that this is in line with MTN's vision to lead the way in bringing a bold new Digital World to its customers, as Opera Mini works on 3,000 handsets and does not require a 3G network to access the web, providing customers with a fast and functional web experience.

"Our relationship with MTN is a strategic one, and we look forward to building on the success we have had in the 17 MTN markets where Opera Mini has already been rolled out. Our goal with Opera Mini is to make the internet more accessible to people via mobile phones, as well as to increase the efficiency of operators in keeping up with an ever-growing mobile web demand," says Lars Boilesen

source : www.4traders.com

MTN Cameroon now counts 8.2 million subscribers

MTN Cameroon now counts 8.2 million subscribers in the country, for a market share of 58.1%. This was announced by the President and CEO of the MTN Group, Sifiso Dabengwa, while reporting the financial results of the Group for the third quarter of the year. Dabengwa revealed that MTN, the leading emerging market mobile operator, has increased its subscriber base by 1.1% to 203.8 million subscribers in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East, thus confirming its position at the forefront of global technological changes, delivering a bold, new Digital World to its customers.

Amongst the 22 countries, MTN Cameroon delivered a particularly encouraging performance, increasing its subscriber base 7,0% to 8,2 million subscribers and maintained its market share of 58,1%. This was attributable to a wide range of bonus offers and effective dormancy management. An improved distribution channel also contributed to the operation’s performance. During the same period, MTN Cameroon also registered a 30.9% growth of Mobile Money subscribers.

Since the beginning of the year, MTN Cameroon’s distribution network of products and services has been enriched with five new proximity Service Centres located in the towns of KOUSSERI, YAOUNDE and DOUALA, increasing its number of customer touch points nationwide to 15, with the most recent inaugurated on 17 October in BONAMOUSSADI, DOUALA. This is in addition to the thousand sales points of the chain of partners of its distribution network.

Since the year 2000, MTN Cameroon says it has invested over 500 billion francs CFA to build in Cameroon, a state-of-the-art, reliable, robust and an extended telecommunications network, to contribute to the development of the country. In 2012, the company reached the symbolic number of 1000 BTS sites, thus being the first company to reach this technological milestone in its market. The MTN network now covers all the 10 Regions of Cameroon including Divisions and Districts, and provides communication services to 90% of the national population, allowing it to strengthen the links between Cameroonians and the rest of the world.