8ta shakes up prepaid market

8.ta has introduced a new offer with low broadband rates for prepaid users.

Following the introduction of its 10GB contract data bundle promotion, the mobile operator is now looking to shake up the prepaid market.

8.ta is offering a 3GB pre-paid data bundle promotion at R149, which consists of 2GB anytime data and 1GB Midnight Surfer data for use between 12am and 5am. Users will basically be paying 5 cents per MB.

Managing executive of Telkom Mobile, Amith Maharaj, said 8.ta has responded to the need for an aggressively priced pre-paid data bundle.

“This offer gives users the freedom to purchase an economically priced data bundle as and when needed, with no contract commitments or large upfront payments. It also provides contract subscribers from all networks with the ability to topup their data usage for the remainder of the month”, said Maharaj.

Available from Sunday 21 August 2011, the offer will be launched at participating Telkom Direct Stores, 8.ta flagship stores, Altech Auto Page and Nashua Mobile – which will activate the SIM for access to the new Pre-paid Data promo rate plan immediately.

For standard prepaid SIM cards purchased and RICA’d at any other channels the subscriber will need to contact the 8ta call centre on 081180 or 081183 to convert to the new pre-paid data promo rate plan.

In line with the purchasing of any pre-paid service, subscribers will need to perform the RICA process at the channel. Once subscribers have been provisioned for the prepaid data promo rate plan, they may load airtime onto their SIMs and then purchase the R149 bundle via USSD

As with all other 8.ta Pre-paid data bundles, the bundle is valid until the end of the next calendar month. There is no limit to the number of pre-paid data bundles a subscriber can purchase.

Existing prepaid per second billing and per minute billing users will be allowed to convert to the new prepaid data promo rate plan by calling the call centre.

The Pre-paid data offer will only be offered on 8.ta’s network. To prevent bill shock, 8.ta provides users with a safety net to check balances and make out-of-bundle purchase decisions in real-time using the redirect functionality.

With this offer, the users will also receive a free e-mail account with free access to online Office web applications such as MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint to store documents online without having to purchase a license.

The offer does, however not include a modem, giving customers the option and freedom to utilise their existing compatible modems or buy a compatible modem that suits their needs.