This is ofcourse something we have wished for a long time now that mobile operators would do. It just makes business sense; social business for us subscribers that is! Econet announced yesterday that they have introduced an unlimited access to Facebook promotion that will last until the end of February next year. As part of the promo, subscribers will eat all they can of Facebook for either 95 cents a week, or $3 a month.
Access will be be via special Facebook bundles which can be bought through USSD ( *143# ) or from Econet shops.
With over 1.2 million Facebook users in Zimbabwe, and the bulk of those with Econet lines, this is really a big deal. Especially for those that consume and contribute lots of pictures, sound and video content on the social network. Using Econet’s out-of-bundle data tariff of 15 cents in comparison, $3 would just afford you 20 megabytes of surfing on Facebook. 95 cents would give you 6 megabytes. And even if we’d take Econet’s average price per MB of 5 cents (which by the way is pretty much the same as that of Telecel but higher than NetOne) the $3 would give you just 60 megabytes. I know I use at least half a GB on Facebook monthly.
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Econet says in the announcement yesterday though that this doesn’t apply to access via Opera Mini. We’re guessing this means Opera Mini data is harder for them to distinguish because it comes compressed from Opera servers and not straight from Facebook. Now considering most people with feature phones use Opera Mini to save data, either people will use a separate browser for Facebook, or ditch operator mini altogether.
Anyway, it’s official, Econet offers the cheapest access to Facebook in the country. And the beauty of it is other operators will have to respond leaving subscribers all a little happier.
Dude half a gig on FB!!! Wow, you really are gonna benefit from this promo big time… Anyway hopefully competition will respond, might even consider playing on FB more often.
Here is a thought, what if Telecel responds by offering the same promo, only this time it will be for twitter!!! …. then again they probably wouldn’t…. 🙁
In Zimbabwe we don’t use twitter because its confusing & i dont want to know what our celebrities are doing.lol
Plenty Zimbos are on twitter, believe you me and its not celebrities
Being on twitter & using twitter are diff thinks , i have a twitter account but its been 2years now since i used. if someone asked me to follow him?her on twitter , i follow. that’s the only thing i do.
You are under utilizing a very powerful platform by following useless wannabe friends. If you are a professional, student or hobbyist, you can follow people and organisations along subject lines such that you are always up to date with any developments in your field… example @Newsdayzimbabwe is one of many Zim news streams.
I think it’s just that people have no clue what twitter is all about compared to Facebook. I know plenty people who have never heard of it, know of it but have not used it and others who simply created an account and fell off the twitter planet. Education of the twitter platform will increase its usage I believe, especially from the socialites, media personalities or politicians. Am sure we will get there!
its a pity you have a shallow view of twitter, or maybe you just don’t use it that often to appreciate it. I spend more time on twitter than facebook becuase i like news in real time about things that matter to those i follow. To get that amount of information on Facebook I will need to befriend close to 20 000, and that will be mainly pictures or I’m at KFC status updates. Or maybe thats what you enjoy
My Friend, On Twitter its called Follow
On Facebook Its called Like. You can like a news page on Facebook & you can still receive any news live. Just because yo 20000 friends are annoying , doesn’t mean Fb is annoying. also you don’t need to have friends to like(#follow) a page.lastly what are theose #@ retweet thingy?
aiwa hamawe, twitter is not yet widely in use locally. on the popular chat there you would find that most of the participants are tech enthusiasts or zimba riripadiaspora
You guys don’t think that if you aren’t doing something then everyone is likewise. Twitter is far better than Facebook in both currency and content. It’s so difficult to like individual’s pages because they then have to confirm they know you. Half the time they reject you, hid their profile from Facebook search, limit followership, etc yet you would need updates from them. One other thing that Facebook has copied from Twitter is the Hashtag. People are free to follow preferred hashtags and get to create them. Pretty cool way of sharing info. I bet Muti you aren’t on Instagram, Vimeo, Flickr, G+ etc. These apps just let you expand your social network experience. Twitter let’s you get real time updates on trending hashtags/topics better than Facebook.
Facebook Bought Instagram.I dont want certain people to know what im doing on my wall unless if they are my friends. Can you do that with Twitter? I dont want to be followed by anyone (pedophiles)
There are plenty of Zimbos on twitter , hashtag #NdebeleTwitter , #Twimbos
Let me guess the number of zimbo following that hastag …5000 to 10000 people? On face book chinos page has 300000 likes.
i dial *143 & its says sorry the service is not available yet until the 27th .
Confirmed, been trying since yesterday too. Maybe they were testing the market?
how many people in this country do facebook for real business??
Facebook does a lot of things ie watch videos, send email, skype , twitt etc
wow which facebook you using to send email, skype, twitt etc. Is that the facebook we all have????
Are you saying you just use your Facebook to post bible quotes & poke pretty girls?
kkkkkkkkk
i send emails, skype and twit through facebook bro
how do u skype, send email, twit on FB nhai Muti,musataure zvamusinganzwisise
are u sure u use that @facebook.com email?
You will be using your log in account/ name Blablabla@yahoo.co. as yo domain account.
So you are hinging all your online life on one account. That does not sound safe to me. If your fb account is hacked your entire life is hacked. uuumh
Yes because when i die ,people will remember me.lol
You can have addons that integrate with FB and allow you to do all these things bro
will this work for facebook android app on a 3g connection?? i.e tablet or smartphone?
that is a good question, because its useless to browse on Opera mini.
i suspect it will as the app communicates with facebook.com directly rather than via opera servers which opera mini does
Hi. Anyone know if this works with Facebook apps or just through the browser ?
I was hoping for something along the lines of 0.facebook.com – free facebook. If I’m not mistaken Airtel did that in Zambia.
I would rather prefer this if it covers access to pictures and videos than 0.facebook which does not and starts charging once you click a lick to any media.
What a waste of advertising for a product that is not active. my response on trying it – we are experiencing high call volumes. try again later. thanks for nothing Econot.
And i cannot post or like on facebook right now, is it me only???
I can’t either and I am using ZOL at the moment on my laptop
if you dial *143# it just says service not available till October 27. False promises again
With Telecel’s $5 I get 150MB and $3 I get 80MB so this Econet thing its trash
Might just try it out…..
Will be usefull when I am broke, bored and with sparetime on my hands
I still maintain that a promo like this targeting twimbos on twitter will get a good following and generate some pocket change for Telecel… Not everyone like facebook
Tested and working for both app and regular phone browser. An unexpected bonus did pop up 🙂 If i put my line in my dongle and connect i can go to facebook and only facebook with the bundle and no airtime.
So you saying , if you have no airtime it will still open facebook?
My 3$ monthly unlimited Facebook bundle is running out saying I have 44M of 220M left. Is this correct ?