JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—MTN South Africa has launched its General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) service, to be available in a trial phase to its contract subscriber base prior to the commercial launch.
“When we got the service up and running on more than 95 percent of our network a couple of months ago and communicated our plan, we had a great response from people wanting to use the technology—not only from customers, but from companies and individuals looking to develop services and content based on the technology,” said Sifiso Dabengwa, managing director of MTN.
“This free trial open time is a great way for those people to test and work with GPRS before we go to a full-blown commercial launch. We hope to get some feedback from everyone who does use it.”
According to Georges Bongi, group executive of marketing and strategy at MTN, this free window is not a reflection of what is coming when the service goes commercial.
“Until the commercial launch, people with GPRS-enabled handsets will essentially have access to existing mobile data services, and it will allow their phones to be used as modems with free Internet access,” explained Bongi.
The company announced that a tariff structure, along with a new range of products and services, will be revealed at a later date. The service provides a mobile link to the Internet, and MTN is reported to be working with solutions partners to build products for both businesses and consumers.
