Orange introduces airtime advance service

GOTHATAONE MOENG
Staff Writer | Thursday November 3, 2011 00:00

 

The service, the first for any cellphone network provider in Botswana, has been dubbed Mpharanyetse Airtime and will be available from today.According to Orange Offers and Devices Manager, Lebogang Moruti, the service advances qualifying prepaid customers with up to P10 airtime that is then deducted from their accounts when next they recharge.

But it comes with a surcharge. As Moruti told journalists at the launch yesterday, customers will be charged P2 every time they use the service. Even so, the service will come in handy when customers need emergency airtime, especially when they are in a place where it is hard to get airtime. Orange Botswana CEO, Elizabeth Medou-Badang, said to qualify for the product, a customer would have to have been a registered and active Orange prepaid subscriber for at least three months.

To check if you qualify for Mpharanyetse, simply dial *129# on your cellphone. Medou-Badang acknowledged that there might be a risk of customers just signing up to use the service and thereafter getting off their Orange SIM cards. 'The risk exists, but we are willing to take it because we trust our customers,' she said.

Mpharanyetse is the latest offering from Orange in the pulsating 'arms race' between Botswana's mobile phone networks. Earlier this year, Orange introduced Orange Money, a phone-based financial service that allows subscribers to carry out simple banking operations such as deposits, withdrawals and money transfers from one mobile phone to another mobile phone. Not to be outdone, Mascom answered with My Zaka aka Mascom Money at about the same time.