• MTN has announced sweeping increases to monthly postpaid contract fees.
• Almost all of its monthly contracts are getting more expensive by an average of 4.3 percent.
• MyMTN Sky Platinum customers will be paying the most on average come 1st February 2024, an increase of R200 per month.

Among the largest telecoms in Africa, and one of the most popular providers of mobile phone and internet contracts in South Africa, MTN, has announced a sudden wide-sweeping price increase for almost all of its post-paid contract offerings.

According to the announcement, customers who are paying monthly for contracts can expect an average increase of 4.3 percent on their monthly bills (which include all elements such as insurance, device fees, out-of-bundle spend, itemised billing etc.). The price increases will take effect as of 1st February 2023.

Why is the increase happening? MTN says its due to a number of economic factors affecting South Africa as a whole.

“In recent years, demand for data services has grown exponentially, placing greater strain on telecoms networks. At the same time as investing to improve our extensive network infrastructure, we have had to contend with the escalating costs of ensuring resilience during loadshedding, inflationary pressure and more instances of battery theft and site vandalism,” explained MTN SA chief consumer officer, Ernst Fonternel, in the announcement.

“The price adjustment will enable us to enhance our network resilience to ensure that our customers experience improved network stability and reliability,” he added. Additionally, MTN says that a generally weaker Rand against the Dollar has also piled on pressure for the telecom, which operates across 19 markets mostly in Africa and the Middle-East.

In its third-quarter results for 2023 published in November, MTN said that it was seeing inflation gradually ease in its African markets, while posting group revenues of R156.3 billion and an increase to 290.1 million paying monthly subscribers.

Despite losing R695 million to loadshedding in 2022, the operator invested significantly in energy and announced nearly 100 percent resilience against blackouts in Gauteng as of November.

MTN says that out-of-bundle voice rates will increase by R0.11 on average, while out-of-bundle data rates increase by only R0.04 per megabyte used. Subscription fees will increase by an average of 8.8 percent. However, device fees, insurance premiums, and add-on voice/data bundle prices will remain unchanged. 

A full breakdown of all monthly subscription and contract plan price increases as of 1st February can be found here. Almost all contract products are seeing increases, except for Home Internet Premium, Home Internet Ultra, Home Internet Infinite and the entire recently launched MTN SuperFlex line.

Products like Mobile Internet Silver, Mobile Internet Ruby, Mobile Internet Diamond, MTN Mega Gigs M, MTN Mega Talk M, as well as the entire MyMTN Sky line, will see the largest price increase of more than 9.1 percent.

The single largest monthly increase comes to MyMTN Sky Platinum contracts, whose customers will be on average paying MTN R200 more per month.