Comparison between 2015 and 2016 data plans for MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat

Update: Glo Data Plan updates as of June 2016 included

As in 2016 data plans are getting cheaper, one might think that everything is getting better and competition amongst telco companies will bring a bright new era of cheap data.

While Misstechy calls it the Nigerian Data Wars, I have the impression that there is a common consensus: MTN lowered prices and everybody else followed. Read and compare to see if they did their homework.

For your convenicene, I compared data plans published on providers’ websites in late 2015 with data plans published in May 2016 when all providers updated (some) of their tariffs (but left a lot of them unchanged…). There are other offers around not listed here like MTN’s Unlimited ₦150 data plan but because they are not available for all customers we do not list them in this article.

Should I change my data plan?

• For those of you always short on data, some of the plans offer significantly additional data in 2016. Happy you if you already use one of these plans. If not, consider changing to a cheaper data plan or changing your provider.
• If you rarely run out of data, you can probably save money by changing to a cheaper plan.
• Keep in mind that if you regularly top-up airtime your data plan auto-renews with most of the tariffs. Learn about auto-renewal and how to turn it off on your provider’s overview page.

MTN 2016 Data Plans

For quite some time MTN seemed to be unimpressed by their competitors low pricing. This suddenly changed in May 2016 with a rather impressive data offensive. MTN made a complete makeover of their data tariffs and forced the others to follow.

Airtel 2016 Data Plans

In 2015 we did not have all Airtel data plans in our listing. They added data to their ANDROID data plans (which despite their name are usable on all devices). They added the UNLIMITED data plans to their range of offers (which despite their name are not unlimited) and the UNLIMINET plans (this is not a typo) which are bundles of data, calls and SMS. Special award for creative product names…

Glo 2016 Data Plans

Glo presents some new plans. Some adaptions. An improvement of the Glo So Special Plan. Solid work, no surprises.

Update: Glo changed their data plans from June 2016. See changes below.

Etisalat 2016 Data Plans

Etisalat introduced some new data plans in 2016. Especially the ₦1000 plan to comply with the rule: You must offer 1.5GB for ₦1000 and 3.5GB for ₦2000. Their data stays quite expensive though.

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