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I’ve been using Spectranet for a while but even with the 25GB data bundle I get for ₦8,000, there are rules I adhere to and I don’t go about downloading like I really want to. There are times the 25GB allocated data bundle gets exhausted in just two weeks and sometimes, I feel the rate at which the allocated data drains needs some kind of investigation.
Anyway, I got a message from MTN last week introducing a ₦150 daily data plan that’s unlimited. I smirked and thought to myself, “These rogues.” My assumption was that word, unlimited, was actually a trap.
Never gave it much thought till I decided to give it a shot yesterday. Sacrificing ₦150 isn’t gonna kill me right? I dialed, *567*59# to activate the data plan and a few seconds later, I got this message:
I told someone that was exactly why I was skeptical about this thing. These operators are so dishonest! Why should a 500MB plan be marketed as unlimited? I connected and shared with other devices through wireless hotspot. I activated the plan around 4:00PM.
Well, the allocated data isn’t actually 500MB, its way much than that. I was able to download a total of 8.2GB worth of data. For just #150, that’s quite a lot.
Speed Throttling?
I said I did this around 4:00 in the afternoon and I used it till late in the night. Sometimes the speed went as high as 800kb/s. There’s an application that checks this on mobile but I don’t know how accurate it is. It’s relatively fast though.
By 12:00 midnight, the speed kind of dropped. The download speed started dancing around 20kb/s and it never improved. That’s after I’ve pulled down over 8GB worth of data.
Multiple subscription same day?
No. You can only do this once in a day. After the speed went down, I tried to cancel and re-subscribe without success.
Eligibility
This doesn’t work on all SIM cards. I have 3 MTN lines and was able to do it on just one which is the oldest MTN line I have. This is the message when I tried doing it on another SIM card.
How to subscribe
Dial *567*59# and reply with 1. You should receive a confirmation message in a matter of seconds. If you want to Nextflix and chill or run some heavy downloads the whole day without using your main monthly data plan, this should come in handy.
I guess my Spectranet 4G should last much longer with this, but MTN may decide to suspend the data plan or place a cap on it. It’s a matter of making the best use of it while it lasts.
Update: This doesn’t seem to work any longer. The new subscription code that works is *661*2#. After exhausting the allocated 500MB, the speed gets throttled and it becomes rather too slow.