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Airtel just launched yet another data plan for its subscribers. They call this one the “Always on” data plan

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On opting in to the Always On data plan, subscribers are gifted 1MB on daily basis, at a rate of N5 per day. Subsequent internet activity after the daily 1MB is exhausted attracts a pay-as-you-go billing of 1 kobo per kilobyte – 1MB should amount to about N10 in charges. So, essentially, you’re charged N5 for your first daily MB and and then twice that amount for very subsequent MB.

I can see why this plan makes sense, particularly for the very casual internet user. Base cost of the data plan, at N5 per day is N150. For that amount, at 1MB free daily, you get 30MB. For a very casual user who does not much more than share text and imaged on WhatsApp, 30MB can prove quite substantial. Also, because the plan is neither volume nor duration based, there are practically limits or diabolic data caps and, it is “Always On”. Just load airtime and you’re good to go.

Heavy users should obviously. steer clear of this data plan. Especially is you use a smartphone with so many data-hungry apps running in the background. There are more suitable options for heavy users.

Muyiwa Matuluko Author

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