MTN is making GPRS or general packet radio service, available to all its contract subscribers for free until the end of June.
The company promised to deliver the much-hyped always-on data bearer by June, and says it is now active on 97% of its network.
"The remaining [unactivated] base stations are mainly extended range cells; because they use multi-timeslot technology it is not as easy on them," says Christopher Geerdts, GPRS product developer for the company.
Over the past week, the base stations have been gradually made available for public use. Trials have been underway in various parts of the country, but this is the first time the public has access to the technology.
Use of the service, branded MTNdataLIVE, will be free until at least the end of June, when a pricing structure will be announced at a commercial launch. Until then, the company says, it is keeping a low profile on GPRS as it does not have commercial applications ready.
"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," says Georges Bongi, group executive of marketing and strategy.
Once it is launched as a paid-for service, Geerdts says, MTN will focus on promoting the applications it is developing rather than the data bearer.
MTN estimates that around 40 000 of its contract subscribers have GRPS-capable cellphones.
The company says it is seeing increases of 70% a month in subscribers using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to access mobile data services. GPRS is to greatly improve the data rate for such uses.
Vodacom and Cell C are expected to launch their own GPRS services within the next three months.
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