The Decline of the Monetary Value of MTN Internet Data Bundle – My Personal Experience – January 2024
To start with, I’m a heavy internet user. My monthly data usage is around 30 GB (excluding midnight data that I use when I have to do huge downloads at a go).
Background to my data usage
During the 3G era, I was a Vodafone data customer. My reason was very simple: Vodafone had cheaper internet data bundles than MTN (MTN and Vodafone were the leaders in internet service provision). However, things changed when the 4G era was born. Vodafone still had cheaper internet data bundles but the internet connection became unbearably slow for me. Even though I had a 4G-compatible phone and a 4G-compatible data SIM, the network never connected to 4G, but was always connected to 3G. I tried many tricks such as switching airplane mode on and off; soft restarting the phone; hard restarting the phone; and resetting network settings, all to no avail. So, in spite of Vodafone’s cheaper data bundles, I had to start looking for alternatives. This is where I started researching all MTN internet data bundles.
Discovery of a gem of a data bundle on MTN
I use two main criteria for selecting a data bundle, thus, the cost per megabyte (MB) and the validity length of the bundle. After going through all the MTN internet data bundles one after the other, I discovered a gem of a data bundle: the ghs 399 no expiry flexi internet data bundle that gave a data quota of 214.09 GB as at December 10, 2022. This was the cheapest of all the MTN internet data bundles. In fact, it was dead cheap compared to the other internet data bundles. When I checked, Vodafone had a similar internet data bundle, but theirs went for ghs 1 more at ghs 400, but was significantly more generous with the data than MTN (I don’t remember the amount of data difference because I did not record it, but it should have been in the region of 10 GB). This was to be expected as cost was the main reason why I had chosen Vodafone internet service over MTN internet service. However, since the MTN internet data bundle was already affordable, there was no need to choose the poorer Vodafone internet service over the better MTN internet service. So, I jumped in and made my first big MTN internet data bundle purchase: ghs 399 for 214.09 GB of internet data without expiry.
My experience with the MTN data bundle
I purchased the first ghs 399 flexi no expiry MTN internet data bundle on December 10, 2022. This data lasted until July 11, 2023, which was exactly 7 months. That translated into a data usage of about 30.58 GB per month, and a cost of about ghs 57.00 per month.
I purchased the second ghs 399 flexi no expiry MTN internet data bundle on July 11, 2023. At this point, MTN had reduced the data quota to 182.08 GB for the same price of ghs 399. As you can see, the value of the internet data bundle had started to decline. This decrease in the value of the internet data bundle did not just affect this data bundle alone, but all other MTN internet data bundles. In fact, MTN had already announced this value change through various channels. And, it wasn’t just MTN but Vodafone as well. However, at this point, Vodafone’s similar internet data bundle was still a little more generous. After testing the Vodafone internet service again, I still didn’t have a reason to return because it was still not connecting to the 4G network on my phone, and the 3G service was still as slow as before. Disclaimer: This is not to say that the Vodafone internet service was generally bad: this is just my personal experience, at the locations where I normally access the internet.
This second MTN data bundle lasted until January 18, 2024. That translated into a data usage of about 30.35 GB per month (I’m pretty consistent with my data usage, uuh :)), and a cost of about ghs 66.50 per month. That is an increase in cost of ghs 9.50 (16.67%) over a period of 6 months.
The straw that broke the camel’s back
I was upset when the data quota was reduced from 214.09 GB to 182.08 GB, but owing to the economic situation in the country at the time, the reduction was understandable and even expected. However, at that point, the data was still affordable. All this changed when I went to buy my third MTN flexi no expiry internet data bundle.
There was no longer a ghs 399.00 internet data bundle, but a ghs 350.00 data bundle, with a data quota of only 92.88 GB. Using my previous usage data, this would translate to a cost of about ghs 116.67 per month. This was an increase of ghs 50.17 per month (75.44%) over a period of 6 months.
The accumulated increase in the cost per month of the upper limit of the MTN flexi no expiry internet data bundle over the period of 13 months was about ghs 59.67 (104.68%).
Here’s a summary of the changing cost of MTN internet data bundle.
| Cost (ghs) | Data (GB) | Cost/GB (ghs) | Cost/MB (ghs) | Cost/mo (ghs) | Duration (mos) | % increase | Date Purchased |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 399 | 214.09 | 1.86 | 0.00186 | 57.00 | 7 | Dec 10, 2022 | |
| 399 | 182.08 | 2.19 | 0.00219 | 66.50 | 6 | 16.67 | Jul 11, 2023 |
| 350 | 92.88 | 3.77 | 0.00377 | 116.67 | 6 | 75.44 | Jan 18, 2024 |
The dilemma: MTN or Vodafone internet service?
On January 16, 2024, the MTN network went offline in my area for around 30 to 60 minutes. During this period, I decided to peep back into the world of Vodafone internet service to see if there was a glimpse of hope. Luckily, I had some internet data on my Vodafone SIM from their RED No Expiry subscriptions I used for calls and SMS. I switched my data connection to the Vodafone SIM, only to be faced with the same old slow 3G connection. At this point also, I was about exhausting my MTN internet data bundle and needed to renew. Once the MTN network came back to life, I decided to check their internet data bundle cost. It was at this point that I saw the change in the data bundle offer. I checked the Vodafone equivalent of the MTN flexi no expiry internet data bundle and found that it was still being offer at ghs 400 for 190 GB of internet data. Having been slapped with this massive decrease in value of the MTN flexi no expiry internet data bundle, and not seeing any improvement in the Vodafone internet service, I was heart-broken and in a state of dilemma: Should I swallow the new MTN internet data cost or should I endure the slow Vodafone 3G internet connection that offered way more data?
Can Vodafone rescue me?
The next day, I headed to the Vodafone branch office hoping for a breakthrough in the quality of their internet service. My suspicion was that the Vodafone SIM wasn’t 4G-compatible all along, and I intended to request for a SIM swap. When I got to the office, in order to prove that I did not get 4G connection on my Vodafone SIM, I first showed them the 4G connection on my MTN SIM, and then switched the data connection to my Vodafone SIM. To my dismay, I had 4G connection right there in the Vodafone office. When the customer service personnel checked my SIM on the Vodafone system, he confirmed that it was indeed 4G-compatible.
At this point, the conclusion was that my house didn’t have Vodafone 4G coverage. But I was still puzzled that my house, which was located within the center of the regional capital, as well as my workplace, did not have Vodafone 4G coverage. In fact, I didn’t get Vodafone 4G coverage anywhere I tried.
Though the evidence clearly pointed to the fact that the problem was neither with the phone nor the Vodafone SIM, I still requested for a SIM swap. To my amazement, I got to my house and the 4G connection was active on the Vodafone SIM. The internet connection speed was comparable to that of the MTN 4G network. In fact, I’m writing this post from home using the Vodafone 4G network. This is why you should not leave any stone unturned when you face challenges in life. The following day, I headed to my work place to test the new Vodafone SIM out there as well. Unfortunately, there was no 4G connection on the Vodafone SIM there. However, the 3G performance was significantly better than before. I think I can live with that.
The verdict: MTN or Vodafone internet service?
My next internet data bundle is going to be on the Vodafone network, which I’m going to do… any moment from now, because I have only 166M of data left :).
Update
My good experience with Vodafone Ghana network didn’t last very long. I started experiencing challenges just 2 days (January 22, 2024) after I bought their ghs 400 data bundle and switched to their internet service. I joined an online lecture via zoom while I was at work, only for the Vodafone network to go off few minutes after joining. I rushed to my house, thinking that the problem was only at my work place, only to find out that the problem existed at my house as well. Finally, I was forced to buy a ghs 3 MTN internet data bundle in order to participate in the rest of the lecture.
With the above experience, I decided to use both the Vodafone and MTN internet services together. Therefore, I went ahead and bought the more expensive MTN internet data bundle on January 24, 2024, in addition to the Vodafone data bundle I had already bought. This decision is down to the way I use the internet. I am a heavy internet user, and most of my work and study require internet access. Others may not have to use the internet service of both providers together if they can live with temporary downtimes on either network. My decision was strategic to ensure that I didn’t miss any of my online lectures due to interruption in internet service.
Lesson learnt
The lesson I have learnt from this experience is that no one internet service provider may be absolutely satisfactory. Those who can afford the higher cost of the MTN internet data bundles should go for it for better internet performance. Those who cannot afford the higher MTN internet data bundles costs but can live with the slower and more-often-interrupted Vodafone internet service can go with Vodafone internet data bundles. Those, like me, who need, and can (or have to) afford, a bit of both services should go with both. The good thing is that both bundles don’t expire, so it’s easy to combine them, and to some extent balance out the cost. For now, I mostly use the Vodafone internet service, but switch to MTN internet service when I experience problems with the Vodafone internet service, or when I need to perform critical tasks, like attend an online lecture via zoom.
Modification to the blog post topic
Because of the experience I have shared in this update, I have decided to change the blog post topic from “The Decline of the Value of MTN Internet Data Bundle – My Personal Experience – January 2024” to “The Decline of the Monetary Value of MTN Internet Data Bundle – My Personal Experience – January 2024”. The addition of the single word “Monetary” to the blog post topic is to clarify that even though the Vodafone network has cheaper data bundles, the MTN internet service has its own advantage of higher speed and better stability.