Everyone knows the struggle of rationing their data. If you’ve ever been on a pre-paid data plan you know the feeling of running the numbers on how much data you can spare to use on Facebook during the day without running out before you host an important WhatsApp call. It can be super annoying because even though you can just dial a number to find out how much you have left, that doesn’t tell you how much data you’ll burn after browsing Twitter for ten minutes. MTN has formulated a plan for all of you who insist on rationing out those data bundles.
MTN’s EverydayGigs offer will allow customers to purchase 1GB of data that lasts a day for R29 or rather spend R149 for a week of data, rationed out as a daily allocation of 1GB per day. In a press release, MTN stated that the idea behind EverydayGigs is to, “cater for customer’s daily data usage needs and affordability constraints, MTN’s EverydayGigs is an easy, hassle-free and cost-effective data solution that guarantees daily connectivity for MTN customers.”
Yet what if you want to ensure your data lasts for the whole month rather than a week? Well, you could also pay R499 once off for a 30GB monthly bundle. Just like in the daily and weekly plans, this 30GB will be handed out as 1GB bundles every day for the month. 1GB a day not enough for a month? The R699 will get you 2GB a day instead.
| Bundle Type | Price | Data | Data Allocation | Validity | |||||
| Daily | R29 | 1GB | 1GB Anytime once-off Bundle allocation | Daily Data allocation is valid until midnight (23:59) | |||||
| Daily | R49 | 2GB | 2GB Anytime once-off Bundle allocation | Daily Data allocation is valid until midnight (23:59) | |||||
| Weekly | R149 | 7GB | 1GB Anytime Bundle per day for 7 days | Daily Data allocation is valid until midnight (23:59) | |||||
| Weekly | R199 | 14GB | 2GB Anytime Bundle per day for 7 days | Daily Data allocation is valid until midnight (23:59) | |||||
| Monthly | R499 | 30GB | 1GB Anytime Bundle pe day for 30 days | Daily Data allocation is valid until midnight (23:59) | |||||
| Monthly | R699 | 60GB | 2GB Anytime Bundle per day for 30 days | Daily Data allocation is valid until midnight (23:59) |
“Our aim with EverydayGigs is to keep our customers connected at all times. Customers won’t need to worry if they deplete all their data in one day as they will just get more the next day – giving all our customers a sense of security with a guarantee that they will be connected again tomorrow without the worry of finding money to purchase another bundle,” said Jacqui O’Sullivan, Executive Head for Corporate Affairs, MTN SA. “This is the first offer of this kind, at these prices, in the South African market.”
It’s certainly an affordable package and considering that most users would have to really try hard to use a gig of data with normal internet usage on their phone, it’s certainly appealing. The only downside is that if you don’t use up your allocated daily amount of data, it just vanishes into the aether, which super duper sucks. While it’s certainly not uncommon for service provides to do this with more fixed data plans, it’ll always feel like a waste if you have leftover data that just goes unused.