MTN has revealed some insights into data usage in its interim financial results for the first half of 2021. According to the document, the average South African MTN prepaid subscriber uses more than 2GB of mobile data every month, while those on contract use over 10GB.

The carrier stated that data was one of the top contributors to its growth in overall service revenue in the country. The company’s service revenue from South Africa rose by 9.3% in the first half of this year, from R17.61 billion in the first six months of 2020 to R19.25 billion in 2021.

Data revenue increased by around R900 million, from R7.03 billion to R7.9 billion, growth of about 12.3%.

The increase in data traffic makes sense following the last year and a half of fluctuating levels of lockdown, and with it, the number of people working from home. A 56.5% rise in data traffic from the same time last year and an increase of approximately 56,000 active data subscribers were also contributing factors.

MTN data bundle price cuts – finally

This report closely follows MTN’s decision to decrease its 30-day data bundle prices. The company announced Tuesday that it would be adjusting its prices for all customers. The new prices and the changes are detailed below.

These changes bring the yellow branded company’s prices closer to those of its competitors, and slightly ahead in some cases. If we compare the price of a 30-day 1GB data bundle from three of the country’s mobile carriers, we see that now MTN’s price falls to slightly below that offered by Vodacom. Coming in at the cheapest is Cell C at R70 for an effective 1GB of data (you’d need to buy two 500MB bundles), followed by MTN at R85 and Vodacom at R89.