MTN perform spectacular u-turn on Twitter usage: Announce it remains free, but capped

The network provider announced on Thursday that they are keeping free access to Twitter, but it now comes with a cap of 500MB.

It signals an incredible U-turn for MTN, who tweeted earlier in the week that they would limit the cap to just 100MB – You can barely send an abusive tweet to Piers Morgan with that. Ironically, Twitter was the battleground where those protesting made their feelings known

Due to abuse, we’ve had to cap our free Twitter service to 100MB per day. Normal data charges will apply thereafter: https://t.co/ZzTwhXMpMv

— MTN South Africa (@MTNza) June 14, 2017

The public pressure of the announcement forced them to yield to the demands of the online community. They went on to publish a blog outlining their amended plans for data usage:

“You can retweet, love, follow, unfollow and set your profile picture, up to fair usage of 500MB per day. Once the daily 500MB data limit on Twitter has been consumed, the subscriber will be charged applicable data rates.”

Now you can stay connected with 500MB free Twitter data per day! Happy Tweeting! https://t.co/kRazKWlDAP

— MTN South Africa (@MTNza) June 15, 2017

They were also keen to stress that they are keeping the Twitter SMS service free, where users can receive tweets and updates that get sent straight to their message inbox rather than ‘eating up’ any further data.

The new plan will be ‘implemented within the next week’, a company customer service representative replied on Twitter.

MTN said it is important for users to note though, that in line with standard industry fair usage policies, there are limitations that need to be considered.

Hopefully, the provider has learned a valuable lesson: Do not come between a South African and their fire tweets. You will not win.