As many of us struggle to make ends meet and rely on Facebook’s free mode to keep abreast with current affairs, a number of MTN subscribers who use the Opera browser are secretly enjoying 100MB of free data every day.

Opera announced near the end of May this year that it was partnering with MTN to provide free internet access to South Africans, something it has been doing for a while in many African countries. Due to the tough economic conditions we live in, one would expect to see #FreeData trending on social media. However, this is not the case. Either MTN clients are keeping it a secret or are not aware of this promotion, which has been running for more than a month now.

To qualify for the free 100MB daily data, one simply needs to download the Opera Browser or Opera Mini, switch on “Data savings” and start browsing. Because the browser compresses web pages, the data lasts much longer than 100MB does in normal browsing mode, thus allowing non-heavy internet users to stay connected all day without spending a cent.

However, the free data cannot be used to view or download videos. Only images and documents can be viewed and downloaded, which can be helpful to those who use the internet for studying and job hunting purposes. Also, the data can only be used by the Opera Browser, not other apps. It may also be worth noting that the remaining balance and/or amount of data used cannot be checked. One can only estimate these using the stats shown in the Data Savings page, where the amount of data saved is displayed, together with the percentage it constitues. For maximum data savings, it helps to set the image quality to low or to disable images altogether.

It is unclear how long this campaign will last and whether all users qualify to get the free data, which adds up to 3GB per month. This article will be updated when/if the promotion has ended.

Update (04 May 2023): This promotion has been paused/ended.