MTN to cap BlackBerry BIS

The operator will implement a 200MB/month "fair-usage" cap on BlackBerry users from March.

Added by Editor on 26 February 2013.
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MTN will implement a 200MB/month “fair-usage” cap on the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) from next month in a move designed to reduce load on its network. MTN and other operators have complained in the past about a small percentage of BlackBerry customers who download well above the average, undermining the quality of the service for other users.

The company says that from 1 March, its R59/month BlackBerry BIS plan will be renamed as BlackBerry Absolute.

“As part of the new BlackBerry Absolute plan, for R59, MTN customers will continue to enjoy all the benefits and features that come with owning a BlackBerry handset, including services such as BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) where users can text, share photos, video clips and voice notes, as well as access BlackBerry e-mail, instant messaging, Internet browser and BlackBerry App World.”

BIS has traditionally been one of BlackBerry’s key selling points, offering consumers unlimited on-device Web browsing, e-mail and BBM for a fixed monthly fee. This has proved popular in the youth segment in South Africa.

“The BlackBerry Absolute plan is aimed at optimising the network to make it efficient so as to provide a world-class experience for our customers,” says Devan Chetty, GM: core and Internet protocol planning at MTN South Africa, in a prepared statement.

“It is important to note that the BlackBerry Absolute plan will not limit our customers’ experience and connectivity on their BlackBerry handsets. Our analysis of usage behaviour shows that the majority of our BlackBerry customers fall within the 200MB usage pattern on a monthly basis. This means that those customers who use up to 200MB per month will continue to enjoy BlackBerry features and services.”

MTN says it will also offer an extra 200MB “free” to customers using more than 200MB for the first three months of the launch of Blackberry Absolute.

Once customers have depleted the 200MB allocation, they will stay connected to BIS by either using their Internet bundle or getting charged directly from their airtime balance.  — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media

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  • AfroWillis

    Good thing that Blackberry has compression technology in place so that the 200MB of data is equivalent to 600MB of data usage on iPhones and Android devices. Blackberry users may be upset with this new cap but all of the other phone customers should be real mad that they pay essentially the same price for a 1/3 of the data of what a Blackberry customer gets to enjoy. Yet another Blackberry battle won!!!

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    Actually… no. R59 for 200mb is overpriced enough to negate any benefit you’ll get from compression. Pretty much all websites use http compression nowdays, and other commonly used technologies, like EAS for mail, offer the same compression/security benefits of the BB platform. R59 for 200meg is expensive, however you try and justify it.

    BB customers should be mad that MTN is playing them for a fool with this feeble offering.

  • http://www.facebook.com/grant.abrahams Grant ‘G’ Abrahams

    Can you please tell me when BB has ever won a battle???? The way I see it, the only thing BB have ever won is a swam of ignorant users blinded by a R59 cost for endless problems and crappy data…… Currently I pay R130 for 500MB of data on my iPhone every month, which is so much more pleasurable to use than BIS every other day when I had a BB. Sorry but, Big ups to MTN. This will push the market to get proper smartphones, possibly reduce data cost on the whole and grow mobile on the country at a much better rate.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rafiq-Ally/671318469 Rafiq Ally

    I swopped from mtn to cell c n i am enjoying the full bis service. BB10 is outselling other smartphones in some markets n should do the same here next month.

  • Jason

    Blackberry’s BIS is ridiculously slow and with a 200mb cap id rather burn my hands in freshly boiled kettle water than go back to BB.
    Android / Iphone FTW
    buy a Data Bundle for a real smartphone and Go on with your life.

  • http://twitter.com/Gorgeous_Kay28 Keabetswe Tsima

    I want to say that i’m extremely upset with MTN right now, two entire days without BIS yet the airtime has been deducted from my account. No warnings of any technical issue

  • http://twitter.com/Bre_ndy PER$$Y

    They are really taking us for granted… and I want to change to Cell C. Mtn is trying to cover their loss by this BBA and yes, Kea, my airtime went to waste as well

  • flee

    This whole article is a load of crap MTN have implemented bis limitations since last year already, I use to download at 250kbs avg with bb torch now its a miracle if I can even download a simple mp3 song of 1.3megs. It really is absolutly ridiculous I don’t even bother trying to download anymore and I have moved over to Cell-C. Goodluck MTN if you think this is going to gain customers.

  • mpumi

    This is completly unfair. It doesn’t make sense for MTN to give us 200MB for 30 days and at the end of the 30 days all your mega bites expire even if you have a lot left…. They should be carried over or offer 100MB for R29/pm. There’s only so much you can do with 200MB – not everyone is a social network junky!!!!

  • Vish-ous

    This is crap. Surely the contract between users and MTN become void, at the least voidable, upon this happening. I mean, this isn’t what was intended upon the finalization of the particular Blackberry contract.

  • challosobrochus macculatus

    if you would just want to know, whoever that implement this as a staff of MTN or boss, has made and extremely mistake and you would need to see the rate at which people are swapping from mtn to other networks….,before making any drastic decision, general visiblities studies supposed to have been taken so as to know the weakness of the other companies as well as what is obtainable at a certain point in time. i bet this would just bring MTN nothing but a huge loss of customers … like me i am swapping right now and i bet i would enjoy the full level of BIS with other network. i wish mtn good-luck in their potential innovations

  • francismekus

    Scew MTN…how can you play smart when you know you’re gona loose so much…@mpumi I don’t think you know the use of social netwrking that’s why you utter irrelevant words

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