MTN Rwanda slashes data prices

MTN Rwanda internet subscribers are set to benefit from the operator’s decision to cut its data prices. The company announced on Monday that it had slashed data prices by half the current price for both post-paid and top-up users as it seeks to consolidate its leadership position amidst growing competition following the entry of India’s Bharti Airtel, late last month.“We continued with our aggressive push for market penetration especially in rural areas,” MTN’s Chief Marketing Officer, Yvonne Makolo in an email to Business Times. In a statement, which outlines the new tariff structure, MTN said that on the 250Mb package, prices were reduced to Rwf3,000 from Rwf6,000. Prices on the 5Gb were reduced from Rwf30,000 to Rwf15,000 while on the 500Mb package, the price dropped from Rwf10,000 to Rwf5,000.The new tariffs are available on MTN Internet (3.75G) and MTN Hotspot (Wi-Fi), the company said.“The expiry period for 250Mb, 500Mb and 1Gb is 30 days, 5Gb, 10Gb and 20Gb is 90 days. While the 5Mb and 50Mb packages were scraped off effective April 16th,” the statement reads in part. The operator has also introduced new packages that include 10Gb, priced at Rwf25,000 and 20Gb at Rwf43,000.MTN has also introduced happy hour tariffs where internet users can browse for only Rwf10 per Mb everyday between 1:00am and 6:00am.Internet fee for postpaid customers were also reduced to Rwf18,000 per month from Rwf35,000 per month.The operator has also increased the broadband and virtual private network (VPN) capacity for the corporate customers, saying that the existing customers will get faster and better bandwidth at the same price. VPN is a network that primarily uses public telecommunication infrastructure such as the Internet to provide remote offices or travelling users access to a central organisational network.“The Broadband and VPN packages have been revised; speed is faster with better quality of service and at very good rates,” the statement said. According to a recent report by the sector regulator, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), out of the 11 Internet Service Providers (ISP) on the broadband segment, only six offer broadband internet service.

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MTN Rwanda slashes data prices