We love it when any mobile operator cuts rates, because it forces other operators to do likewise, even if not immediately. We love it even more when they make their bundles last longer and reduce the often ludicrously inflated out-of-bundle rates, designed to trip consumers up. With its new data packages, MTN has done both.

The operator’s new high-denomination data bundles offer an out-of-bundle rate of 29c/MB and are valid for 60 days – a substantial improvement on the previous 30 days, which made buying more cost-effective, large bundles difficult if you weren’t sure you’d use the full allocation within a month.

MTN South Africa’s chief operating officer, Larry Annetts, says the new bundles meet the need of South African customers for Internet access at affordable rates.

“These competitive Internet bundles will give customers that have been looking for low rates the opportunity to connect to the Internet and to instant messaging platforms cheaper and more cost effectively.”

For extra brownie points with consumers, MTN has also announced that it will give customers who purchase data bundles an additional 50% to 100% of the data they purchase. This free data will only be valid for a limited time, however, up to a maximum of 30 days.

By way of example, if a customer buys 5MB of data for R3 – MTN is the first to offer data in so dimuntive a denomination – they’ll receive an additioanl 2.5MB of data that is valid for one day. A customer buying a 50MB bundle will get an additional 25MB of data, which will be valid for three days.

Customers who purchase 3GB worth of data or more will receive additional data to the value of half the purchased amount, which will expire after 30 days.

Let’s see how long Vodacom, Cell C and Telkom mobile take to respond in kind.