Mobile telecommunications giant MTN South Africa has announced an average 5.1% increase in consumer post-paid subscription fees, which will come into effect on April 1. The company cited a “challenging market environment” as the reason behind the price hikes.
According to MTN, the inflationary environment has resulted in increased input costs, driven by load shedding, rising fuel usage, battery theft, and vandalism, which has forced the company to push through the price increases.
“In some instances, the actual subscription fee increase may be higher than the average of 5.1%, with a maximum of 7.4%. This mainly represents a R10 increase from R135 to R145 on our Mega XS price plans,” said MTN in a statement.
Despite the price increases, MTN said it would continue to invest in its network, including in battery roll-out to mitigate against the impact of load shedding.
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“We want to assure customers we are working very hard to build the resilience of our network with batteries and generators and added security to guard against theft and vandalism,” the company said.
Voice call rates per minute will also be increased on average by 4%, or a maximum of 10c/minute. However, out-of-bundle data and SMS rates have been reduced to 25c/MB and 35c/message, respectively.
MTN assured customers that instalments on handsets and other devices as part of contract deals would not be affected by the increase. The company described the increases as “unavoidable” due to the current economic conditions. “We understand the impact this may have on our customers, but we remain committed to providing a high-quality service to all our subscribers,” MTN said
