MTN clears air on depleting data
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – MTN South Africa has addressed complaints of disappearing data from customers.
The company gave possible causes of the data depleting.
MTN said many modern smartphones were configured for heavy data usage and are compliant with new generation networks such as Long Term Evolution, otherwise known as LTE or 4G.
This super-fast network is capable of high download speeds and heavy data consumption which ensures that users can seamlessly undertake a variety of data applications such as surfing the web, sending and receiving e-mails, interacting on social media platforms and streaming, downloading and sending high definition videos using instant messaging platforms, said MTN.
MTN said some devices have none or limited data functionality and other full data functionality which is directly linked to the amount of data usage.
The transition from a dumb phone to feature phone or smartphone has impact on data usage.
The company said social media platforms were continuously being updated in response to customer demands, new functionalities while bug fixes are added to make them more interactive and user-friendly.Often, the updates are automatic and continue to run in the background and the updates often happen without customer interference using data bundles.
These automatic updates are default settings on many phones. Most customers are not even aware that some automatic updates can consume up to 3GB of data.
To stop automatic updates, users must deactivate updates if they wish to save their data bundles, MTN advised.
Earlier this year, MTN announced it would be adjusting its out of bundle rates to 99 cents in line with the industry norm. Out of bundle rates are charges for each megabyte transferred outside of the stipulated period which is normally 30 days.
In addition, MTN also adjusted its expiry duration of its data bundles from 60 days to 30 in line with the industry.
The implication of this is that customers who deplete their data bundles before the stipulated time will be charged a premium per megabyte when they top up during that period. Customers are advised to purchase data bundles that suit their consumption patterns and buy them when they have reached their monthly allocation.
– CAJ News
