MTN Visitor SIM and tariff plan — details, activation, and subscription

Leading mobile telecommunication network in Nigeria, MTN has unraveled a new kind of physical SIM card — the MTN Visitor SIM.

The Visitor SIM which is unlike the virtual MTN eSIM released some months back is offered at international point of entry into the country and it profers an alternative to the roaming services still widely employed by majority of operators.

MTN Visitor SIM in details

With such subscriber module, MTN customers would be originally added to a tariff plan specially made for travelers into the country – the Visitor tariff plan. Although these visitors have the option to migrate off the plan at any moment they intend to, they would automatically be ported to the XtraSpecial plan if they haven’t migrated after 30 days. The call rate for subscribers on the Visitor plan is an excellent 14k/s, one of the cheapest rates attainable in the industry.

No much additional information pertaining to the SIM’s details is made to the public. However, it should be noted that activation of the SIM card and subsequent subscription to the Visitor Plan isn’t to be individually done by the visitor but by an MTN representative. This activation follows the mandated SIM registration.

MTN Visitor plan bundles

The following are the bundles in the Visitor SIM service.

The bundle vs international call rates

The essence of introducing the visitor SIM is to reduce or discontinue roaming into the country using foreign SIM cards. To this advantage, the visitor SIM would henceforth help such visiting personalities place calls back to their home countries at a considerably reduced rate.

Comparing this plan with international bundles from the same operator, the international bundle is way cheaper. However, remember that the MTN international bundle is meant only for calls to international destinations. These international bundles are furthermore exclusive to calls placed to selected countries, implying that calls to other non-listed countries would be charged at regular zone rate which are higher.

How the plan compares with roaming call bundles

Although a seemingly odd comparison because the roaming SIM wouldn’t be an MTN Nigerian one as these visitors are roaming with a foreign carrier, however, a relative justapose helps determine how value-packed the packages are.

MTN has a roaming bundle which costs N5,000 and there is a similar plan from the Visitor tariff plan bundle. Both packages are valid for seven days, although one is more relatively exorbitant than the other. The visitor plan bundles are obviously more cheaper than MTN roaming bundles.

End note – MTN Visitor SIM isn’t selfless as it seem

The newly introduced MTN visitor SIM isn’t a selfless move as the telco makes it seem. The MTN operator stands to gain as incoming visitors to the country might prefer its Visitor SIM service than roaming. This service’s outright purpose is to woo subscribers from roaming in the country with their home lines, and that imply an additional revenue to the popular Telecoms operator.

MTN is Nigeria’s largest Telecoms operator and a choice network by many, as such the preference of the network to other contemporaries isn’t disputed. The Visitor SIM service is the first of its kind in the country.

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