JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Mobile network operator MTN announced that it has begun charging subscribers for its wireless Internet gateway (WIG) services. The service has been offered free since its inception in August 2000.
An MTN spokesman said customers would now be charged the standard short message service (SMS) rate of 0.75 rand (US$0.07) for requests sent to the WIG server, while there would be no charge for the data returned. The WIG platform uses the SMS as the bearer for data that is interpreted by the handset or the server.
The most common services available on the WIG platform are reported to be banking applications, followed by news and entertainment. MTN said additional services are being developed and would soon be made available to subscribers.
MTN recently announced it would begin charging for its General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) in October, heralding a shift toward being a data-centric network.
