Internet & BlackBerry Data Plans

Complete Guide To How MTN Nigeria Data Share Works - F.A.Q

When you run a google search for MTN Data Share, the bulk of results you get are from bloggers who just copied and pasted the info from the official site without even giving it try. Thanks to @SuperSanusi and @MTN180, I now have all the details with regards to how MTN Nigeria’s data share works. You can refer to this as a sort of MTN Data Share FAQ.

For me, the N8,000 for 5GB Data Share experience was sweet. I highly recommend reading this guide before subscribing for MTN Data Share to avoid mistakes like I made.

Lets begin

How Many Beneficiaries Can I Share MTN Data With?

You can only share data with up to 5 people. You MUST add these five people to your account before sending Share <PIN> to 131. If you have only 2 beneficiaries and activate share, you won’t be allowed to add more beneficiaries again until the current plan expires or you exhaust you share of data.

How Is MTN Data Shared Amongst Beneficiaries?

Unlike Glo Data Share that doesn’t set a limit to the amount of data that can be shared, when you activate data share on MTN, your data balance is shared equally between you and your beneficiaries. That is if you have 4 beneficiaries and you’re subscribed to the 5GB data plan, the 5 of you will receive 1GB of data each.

Can I Share My MTN Data Delight Bonus?

MTN data share plans come with data bonus which unfortunately can not be shared. The sponsor (main SIM) has access to all of it. You can only share your main data balance.

How Do I Check My MTN Shared Data Balance?

For now, only the sponsor (main SIM) user can check his data balance. Beneficiaries will have to call customer care or tweet at the very responsive @MTN180 to get their data balance. Hopefully MTN will release a USSD code or SMS code for this in the future.

Awesome: Glo Nigeria Increases Data Allowance on BlackBerry 10 Data Plans

logob2 The major evil in migrating from legacy blackberry devices to the new BlackBerry 10 devices is the outrageous data allowances offered by the networks. In the beginning they allowed we the wise ones to continue rocking the old blackberry data plans on the BB10 platform but lately they've shut it down now except on the Airtel network. Unfortunately Airtel's internet service is so annoyingly dependent on location i.e. on the roof of your building, under your bed, in the toilet, at the left hand side of your refrigerator etc that I got tired of it recently and decided to suck it up and just go for a dedicated blackberry 10 plan.

Imagine my surprise when I checked out Globacom's site and discovered that they had silently increased their data allowances per plan as shown below. Even their retail office over here, are still sharing out the old BB10 data plans on fliers.

BlackBerry 10 Data Plans from Globacom Nigeria

Category	Package	MSR (N)	Data	Keyword
BB10Max	Month	3000	3 GB	MaxMonth
	Week	1050	700 MB	MaxWeek
BB10Mid	Month	1400	2 GB	MidMonth
	Week	600	500 MB	MidWeek
BB10Lite	Month	1000	200 MB	LitMonth
	Week	400	50 MB	LitWeek

Airtel Nigeria Offering Up To 6GB of Data for Just N3,000 - Tested and Works On PC*

UPDATE 10 July 2013: I can now confirm that it doesn't work on non blackberry devices out of the box. To get it to work on android devices, PCs etc, you have a buy a regular data plan as well. I subscribed for their 10MB for N100 a day data plan and have been browsing freely ever since on my PC.
Quick Notice: If you have excellent Etisalat reception in your area, you might want to check out these offers of 1GB data allowance for N2,000 and 2GB data allowance for N3,000. Click here for more details.
If you're not interested, just continue reading to get the info you need below.

The ads have being popping up everywhere and the gist is that Airtel Nigeria now offers unlimited blackberry data plans to customers who dial the USSD code *440*16#. Unfortunately some have realized that this isn't so as dialing that code only gives you 2GB of data for N1500 and not unlimited data. Also another USSD code is making the rounds offering as much as 4GB of data for the same N1500 by simply dialing *440*161#. This particular code is being spread by Airtel Nigeria via text messages such as that which is shown in the capture below and shared via Whatsapp.

Some folks have tried it and gotten this message instead.

I was lucky to stumble on one of their numerous ads which led me to their actual promo page.,

The promo is tagged BlackBerry 2-PLUS-1 Offer and as is common with most offers, it is a limited offer which is available while offer lasts

As shown in the table below, BB Unlimited 2+1 offers you a whooping 6GB of data for just N3,000 when you dial *440*016# or text Bbum3 to 440 and it's valid for 90 days

Etisalat Nigeria Launches BlackBerry Unlimited Data and Emails Plan For N1500

Two nights ago, after an exchange of tweets with some of my tweeps, I learnt that the Etisalat full BIS plan is now N1,500 down from N3,000. As in, you get up to 10 Web based emails + Unlimited data through out the duration of your plan for just N1500. […]

Cheap and Free Ways Of Changing Your IP Address for Downloads & Web Surfing

Ever tried downloading a file from a file sharing service and they keep tossing you around with some *wrong captcha* error message? Well not too long ago, I discovered that this seems to be the status quo for most IPs that aren't US based. How did I figure that out? […]

Get Unlimited WhatsApp Access On Airtel Nigeria For N100/month

There is fire on the mountain, BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) run run run. lol. Mister Mobility once said that sooner or later BlackBerry would lose the top spot in the Nigerian smartphone market to Android (that’s of course if Nokia doesn’t seize the opportunity to reclaim its’ lost glory) and looks […]

BlackBerry 10 Data Plans For MTN, Glo, Etisalat & Airtel Nigeria

BlackBerry’s flagship device, the Z10, has been on the market for over a month now but due to the asking price (N100,000 - N130,000), lack of data compression and the *funny* data caps being offered by the major networks, I’m yet to get one. Besides I hear before the year runs out, 3 more devices will be launched (Q10 included) and for all I know, they will feature the same 4.2 inch screen and cost less than the Z10.

Thus I’ve decided to hold off on getting one for now.

In the mean time, for those who are out to get theirs now, here’s a run through of the data plans created by the networks specially for the new BlackBerry 10 devices. For BlackBerry 7 devices and below, the old data plans/subscription codes still apply. Only time will tell, if we all will be forced to make use of the BlackBerry 10 Plans on all devices.

Before we proceed, here are links to the existing blackberry plans for OS 7 devices and below

Etisalat Nigeria BlackBerry Complete, Voice & Social Plans

MTN BlackBerry Complete Plans Subscription Codes

Airtel Nigeria BlackBerry Complete Plans

Glo BlackBerry Social and Complete Plans

NOTE: Once you exhaust your data cap on BlackBerry 10, all functions that need internet access will stop working minus BlackBerry Messenger which has unlimited access for the duration of your plan. The new BlackBerry 10 internet plans follows:

How To Cancel MTN, Glo, Etisalat & Airtel Internet Data Subscription

Last month I made up my mind to take advantage of Airtel's 3GB for N2800 blackberry Internet access offer (SMS BCM3 to 440). Unfortunately I made the dumb mistake of recharging my account without deactivating my previous plans and as soon as the money landed into my account, I was […]

Airtel Nigeria Now Offers The Cheapest and Most Cost Effective Mobile Data Plan

Everyone who owns a feature phone with internet access in Nigeria now knows that the cheapest data plan you can get goes for N1,000 with a minimum data cap of 200MB depending on the network. Same applies to those who own non-blackberry smartphones.

For those of us with BlackBerry phones, N1,400 can fetch us unlimited pinging, emails, browsing and downloads all month long without data restrictions if you're on the Etisalat Nigeria network (Globacom has a data cap of 3GB per month while MTN has one of 200MB which they haven't really enforced)

Airtel Nigeria recently deployed 3G across all states of the nation and after a few positive reviews from colleagues of mine, I was quick to sign up for the night browsing plan which I really enjoyed.

With Etisalat Nigeria and Globacom Nigeria experiencing BlackBerry internet connectivity issues for weeks here in Sokoto, I decided to give Airtel a try only to discover that they only offered what I felt then was a measly 1GB per month with the option of PC tethering which isn't available on blackberry data plans offered by other networks in the country unless you use some form of hack.

The Fastest & Slowest Broadband Internet Across The Globe

I'm guilty of bitching about the internet speeds obtainable here in Nigeria on some mobile networks. My experience with MTN Nigeria's GPRS/EDGE/3.5G service has never passed the 20KB/s download speed mark and my best so far has been a whooping 800KB/s with Globacom Nigeria 3.5G services which is why I sometimes miss Lagos.

No mobile network here in Sokoto offers 3G internet service though I hear Airtel Nigeria recently launched the service in Gombe so only the Big Guy above knows if Sokoto will be next.

If you've ever wondered which country has the fastest internet speed or the average maximum internet speed obtainable in your country, DataJack Mobile BroadBand is here to help.

The folks behind the US Based no contract mobile broadband provider recently released a top internet speeds related infographic based on information gathered from top mobile technology news sites such as Mashable, TechCrunch, Broadband Expert, Huffington Post and PC Mag.

South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan lead the list of top 50 countries with the fastest internet speed ever with Nigeria coming in at position No. 49 with 0.50Mbits/sec and Congo making the bottom of the slowest internet speeds list with a measly 13KBits/sec