Mobile network operators have had a quiet year thus far, with no launched products yet to be announced. However, if a picture circulating on social media is to be believed then Econet is allegedly working on a new set of bundles to add value to their existing offerings.
Apparently, this set of bundles will be available under the *143*6# which makes sense once you consider there are 5 options on the *143# USSD menu right now. At the time of writing the *143*6# USSD code is not functional so if it was being tested then that option only appeared briefly.
[Update] – It seems these bundles are actually a work in progress and you can get them to pop up by doing the following:
- Dial *143#
- Enter 6 and send
It’s beyond doubt that they are working on this…
So what will be new?
If the picture is to be believed then Econet will be adding access to the following sites:
- Snapchat
- Hangouts
- Tune In
- Binu
Interestingly the leaked list of sites includes Hangouts which is being discontinued sometime next year. This does bring the leak into question but 2020 is a long time from now and in the meantime, people could benefit from the addition if it’s true. There seems to be no telegram bundle which reaffirms my thoughts on why mobile network operators won’t be warming up to Telegram anytime soon.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get a screenshot of how much data would be allocated to these sites and just how much they would cost.
It looks pretty legit to me
If this picture was intentionally altered or photoshop then whoever is behind the edit is quite the editor.
We did reach out to Econet but they are yet to respond to our request for comment at the time of writing.
Share
Home
7 comments
It seems that the bundles work now. Dial *143# and then type option 6 even though option 6 isnt shown on the options. *143*6# doesnt work.
Oh thanks tried and it works
Telegram is difficult to create a bundle for for the same reason it is difficult to block, the traffic comes from an unknown number of servers with different IP addresses that change on a regular basis making it difficult for MNOs to rate that traffic independently, the moment we are able to have a telegram bundle is the moment government know how to block it.
Interesting perspective, makes sense too. Thanks for this, hadn’t thought about it.
interesting i tried it and it is working
Econet needs YouTube bundles!!! They must be more like Vodacom and give free data….
it would be great if we could just get data from mobile operators and not bundles, that way we get to choose how and what we use the data for and i understand its a business move to keep bundles in play and make it open.