Vodacom announced today that subscribers on its Weekend Plus package would be able to use their allocation of 120 free weekend minutes throughout the week and not only on weekends. Vodacom says these subscribers will also be allocated 15 free text messages per month for the rest of the year.
The revamped Weekend Plus package, which will be called Weekend Plus Everyday, is effective from 1 May and will still cost only R129 per month.
Furthermore, when Weekend Plus Everyday subscribers have used up their allocation of 120 free minutes, Vodacom will charge calls at only 68c per minute from 8pm to 7am on weekdays and the whole of weekends and public holidays. This represents a substantial discount on the standard peak time charge of R2.51 per minute.
Subscribers will be allocated their bundle of 15 free SMS messages on the first day of each calendar month and if subscribers are not activated on the first day of the month, they will receive a pro-rata allocation of free text messages. "SMS communication is proving increasingly popular with over three billion SMS messages sent worldwide in one month of this year alone. Vodacom customers alone sent some 10 million text messages last month," says Joan Joffe, Vodacom`s group executive of corporate affairs.
"The last several months have been a bonus for the cellular customer as Vodacom has introduced several innovations, all of which have left more cash in the customer`s pocket," she adds.
During the latter half of last year, Vodacom introduced the new Vodago R120 Incomer voucher, which allows access to cellular for just R10 a month for one year. Vodacom also cut prepaid rates by 45% for calls made outside of peak hours and introduced the cheapest prepaid SMS rates in the market at 65c per message.
What is SMS?
Both Vodacom contract subscribers and Vodago prepaid users are able to send text messages using the latest Short Message Service (SMS) technology. The service only costs 68c per message (65c for prepaid users) and messages can be up to 160 characters long. Note that characters include punctuation and spacing. Messages can be sent by typing them using a cellphone`s keypad, or by using e-mail or the SMS facility on Vodacom`s Web site. For information on how to set up this facility, call Vodacom Customer Care on 111 from a Vodacom cellphone or 082 111 from a Telkom phone (or listen to a tutorial on 082 159 from a Telkom phone or 159 from a Vodacom cellphone).
What is Weekend Plus Everyday?
Weekend Plus Everyday Connection fee R95
Monthly Charge R129
Inclusive minutes 120 Everyday Off Peak
Standard Peak R2.51
Long Distance Peak R2.51
Cell to Cell Peak (Own Network) R1.80
Cell to Cell (Other networks) R1.80
General Service Calls R1.50
Off Peak rate R0.68
Free SMS 15 messages
Vodacom SMS R0.68
SMS activation No charges
Valid from 1 May 2000 to 31 December 2000
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