Last month. MTN Uganda with their youth-focused platform MTN Pulse launched Cr8YoBundle, a service that gave “pulsers” the power to create their own data bundles within the app and Pulse website. But should you use this feature? How does it compare to the already existing modes?
Think about Cr8YoBundle as MTN offering a buffet and their customers selecting an amount of each item to their heart’s desires….. and wallet’s ability. Finally.. the ability to self-prescribe how much of voice, SMS, and data one needs and not the boardroom discussed bundles that were written in stone. I played around with the service and created my own bundle (I called it Ignited Bundle. Side note: MTN can we give our bundles names?)
While the UI is sweet, there are formulas in the background doing all the donkey work to calculate the cost as you move the sliders to your desired amounts of each item. Each slider has a multiplying factor attached to it. For example, after choosing a certain quantity of voice, the number is multiplied by the factor attached to the Voice slider to determine cost.
How does Cr8YoBundle compare to the normal way of purchasing bundles?
Hellen Kirungi the MTN Uganda Youth Segment Manager said that this innovation is meant to empower the youth to be in control and we confirmed this. So we did a cost comparison to help you decide whether you should still try to create your own bundles.
Cr8YoBundle Data Purchase Vs Normal Data Purchase
Each MB of data is priced at UGX 5 if you go the create route. The minimum amount of data you can create your bundle with is 50mbs. This costs an easy UGX 250. However, using the normal method, this only gets you 15Mbs. Looking at the table below, it is clear that you mostly get more for less until the two methods intersect at UGX 5000 for 1GB.
| Quantity (MBs) | Normal Purchase (UGX) | Cr8YoBundle Purchase |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | 250 | N/A |
| 40 | 500 | N/A |
| 100 | 1000 | 500 ✅ |
| 300 | 2000 | 1500 ✅ |
| 1000 | 5000 | 5000 |
Create Your Bundle Voice Purchase Vs Normal Voice Purchase
The minimum you can buy for voice if you choose to create your bundle is 5 minutes with each minute coming in at UGX 83. However, after putting it side by side with the normal method of buying minutes, I don’t advise anyone to ever use it to buy voice bundles.
| Quantity (MBs) | Normal Purchase (UGX) | Cr8YoBundle Purchase |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | 500 | 500 |
| 10 | 700 ✅ | 833 |
| 20 | 1000 ✅ | 1667 |
| 60 | 2000 ✅ | 5000 |
| We advise you to buy daily data bundles by dialing *150*20# as trying to create them is more costly |
Cr8YoBundle SMS Purchase Vs Normal SMS Purchase
You buy from 5 to 1000 SMSs when creating your bundle with each SMS setting you back UGX 5. With the exception of the starting 30 SMS bundle, the other daily SMS bundles cost the same price with both methods.
| Quantity (MBs) | Normal Purchase (UGX) | Cr8YoBundle Purchase |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | 200 | 150 ✅ |
| 100 | 500 | 500 |
| 200 | 1000 | 1000 |
Create or stick to the normal?
Well, that mostly comes down to what you are trying to purchase. A look at the tables above can help you decide. Creating your own bundle brings so much power into a user’s hands but sometimes, the cost is just not worth it.
However, for anyone who likes buffet, you have a menu of 6 items to choose from to add to your bundle. Good luck creating.
