Good news for students and staff of universities in South Africa. If you’re a Vodacom subscriber, you can access online university portals for free. So you no longer have to use up your data if you want to access online university services when you’re not on campus.
Last week, the network provider decided to “zero rate services to universities for students and staff who are Vodacom subscribers… in a bid to help address cost challenges associated with access to education content and remote learning for institutions of higher learning,†it said in a statement. According to Vodacom, 19 of the 23 universities it had approached about the programme are now active participants.
Students and staff will be able to access key websites identified by the university as the most important ones for teaching and learning. These include the university’s official website, student and staff portals, and online library services and databases. A Vodacom representative said they’re still waiting to hear from the other universities which websites they have identified.
South Africa’s has some of the most expensive data prices in Africa and people have been calling for prices to fall.
Data has yet to fall but for students at least, those pricey data bundles will be able to stretch a bit further than they used to.
