MTN reveals reduced data pricing and major progress in COVID-19 zero-rating

20MB free Daily Lifeline immediately available to MTN customers

Another significant move to enhance digital inclusion countrywide is the launch of the 20MB daily data lifeline. The 20MB ayoba Daily Lifeline will ensure MTN customers are able to communicate with friends and family, every day, even when they are out of airtime. This is the equivalent of 600MB of free data per month, every month.

“This free data is already available for use on ayoba, an instant messaging app and can be used for text, video, audio and image sending and receiving – as well as for keeping up to date on the outside world via ayoba news and entertainment channels. As the lockdown continues, this will ensure more people can stay in touch with loved ones every day and connected to the latest news on the status of the lockdown,” says Jacqui O’Sullivan, Executive for Corporate Affairs: MTN SA.

The rollout of free ayoba data was launched in March, forming part of efforts to ease the burden on South Africans during the current lockdown period. This move builds on the zero-rated USSD line (*130*119#) for reporting infections and for other critical information. There are also two live zero-rated Ayoba COVID-19 channels sharing updated news and information.
In May, the offer will extend to include free browsing of general websites to allow MTN customers who are also ayoba customers to browse the internet on websites of their choice, between midnight and 5am.

MTN has, in the past three weeks, made significant progress in fast tracking its zero-rating of Public Benefit Organisations. The impact of the COVID-19 virus on communities across South Africa has required an urgent prioritising of zero-rated services in the health and education sectors.

MTN’s progress on COVID-19 zero-rating

MTN is grateful to the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies (DCDT) for its support in creating a Project Management Office (PMO) for the urgent zero-rating of public benefit organisations to assist in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. The PMO is ensuring coordination with the mobile operators and the Departments of Basic Education, Health, Higher Education and Training, Social Development, as well as the Government Communication and Information Service and the Internet Service Providers Association.

A workflow has been established and operators are able to refer requests for zero-rating to the PMO to assist with screening and vetting. The objective is to ensure the zero-rating covers as many affected parties as possible and that the educational content being zero-rated is approved by the relevant educational departments.
Access to the e-learning platform of the Siyavula Foundation, is already zero-rated for all MTN customers, which means the website can be used with no data costs being incurred.

In addition to this, the MTN Foundation has sponsored all of South Africa’s Grade 10, 11 and 12 students, with an amount of R3 million, to have full access to the mathematics, CAT and IT and Physical Sciences, learning materials, including practise sheets and exam preparation content. This can be accessed using the Siyavula website (www.siyavula.com) and via the Siyavula app (available in the Google Store).

The MTN Foundation’s sponsorship has also given South Africa’s Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners access to Siyavula’s adaptive mathematics learning software available on the same zero-rated website and app.

With the direction of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), MTN has also zero-rated the website www.2enable.org. This is an excellent and DBE approved website that offers detailed curriculum for Grades R to Grade 12. Learners must simply register, and they are then able to access excellent learning materials for all subjects and years. MTN has also zero-rated the Olico Maths Foundation that provides free, high quality maths education, to Grades 7, 8 & 9.

In the past three weeks, MTN has zero-rated 369 additional URLs covering e-learning and health platforms. The educational platforms offer learning materials, all aligned to Government curricula, for different grades and subjects. These include:

www.eccurriculum.co.za | www.ecexams.co.za | www.africanstorybook.org | www.khanacademy.org | www.learn.mindset.africa | www.techteacher.co.za | www.extramarks.co.za | www.digitalclassroom.co.za | www.olico.com

Through the Department of Higher Education and Training, we are currently liaising with all universities to assist with zero-rating of applicable sites. Every university comes with multiple URLs, with some of the large universities requiring support for up to 30 URLs each. MTN is currently assisting 20 Universities across the country, with zero-rating and is liaising with the remaining six to assess those requirements. MTN is also liaising with the TVET Colleges to assist with zero-rating support, where online curricula can be made available.

MTN OpenTime

While the current zero-rating focus on COVID-19 support, MTN is expanding the websites that will form part its permanent OpenTime service, with customers able to access up to 500 certain approved public-benefit service websites via the www.mtn.co.za website, which will take them to the MTN OpenTime service. To gain access to such public benefit service websites as approved by MTN, customers will have to register for this service on www.mtn.co.za, on the MTN OpenTime page.

MTN will offer a monthly 500MB free data access to public benefit services websites every month, amounting to 6GBs per year, for each of MTN SA’s current 29 million customers.