Admits last week’s price wars by the two telecom giants in Uganda, we had a TL;DR post that gave several options on how Airtel Uganda can make a “come back” after MTN stirred up the price wars by slashing its calls by 45%? Airtel’s initial reaction was to match MTN’s 3/= per second tariff but the company has not stopped there. To stay competitive, Airtel has rebooted Airtel Zone and for users out there, it all boils down to whether the price difference and savings you make when using the Airtel or MTN Zone price discounts from these two telcos is worth it. Could Airtel Zone be more a more superior option than MTN Zone or is it the reverse? Lets see how Airtel Zone Vs MTN Zone.
MTN Zone: More choices for you
In principle, both MTN and Airtel Zone offer customers variable discounts on your local calls, depending on the time of day, your location and customer activity in your area. One advantage MTN Zone has over Airtel Zone is that you get spoilt for choice. MTN has several packages of its Zone product viz; Night, Holla and Weekend Zone.
With the Night Zone: the new MTN Zone tariff of 6/- per second applies. And, between midnight and 5am all subscribed MTN Zone customers are guaranteed discounted calls of as little as 19/- per minute on calls made between midnight and 5am each day. Holla Zone is designed for those who want some data and SMS to go with their Call zone discounts is basically an evolution of MTNZone. No top of calling 19/- per minute that MTN Zone gives at the same time, this package gives customer 20MB and 50 MTN-MTN sms free every day between midnight and 5am. And lastly Weekend Zone, allows MTN customers to enjoy the weekend even more as it offers discounts of up to 95% on Saturday and Sunday.
Airtel Zone: Cheaper by the Zone
Whereas Airtel doesn’t have the fancy zone packages like MTN, we’ve seen the the Airtel Zone product on their website for a while now.And, now the company would like to use this as a major acquisition driver to lure back and or retain its clientele from not crossing over to Team Yellow. Airtel’s minimum discount at any given time is 70% and maximum could go to 100%. MTN on the other hand has a much lower discount threshold, which gives Airtel bigger benefit. With MTN, customers will spend 3/= per second whereas Airtel’s is 2.9/= per second. That assumes a 0.1/= difference can cut if for you.
Airtel zone Vs MTN Zone Comparison Table
| Airtel Zone | MTN Zone | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Discount | 70% | 5% |
| Maximum Discount | 100% | 99% |
| Zone Packages | None | Night, Holla and Weekend Zone |
| Activation | *135*1# | *135*1# |
The proof is in the pudding, as you can only judge these two products after you have tried them out extensively and see which one saves you more bucks. We feel that MTN Zone is good for those who want more choice, whereas Airtel Zone is definitely for the Wananchi who want slightly higher discounts. So, it comes back to you, aside from these hardcore numbers, have you tried both Zone products? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below about what you think.
