MTN Zone Tariff Plan in Nigeria and Its Code Are Gone

Zone was the MTN plan that priced MTN-to-MTN calls by where you were and what time it was, from as little as 1 kobo a second. It was already off MTN Nigeria’s published list of tariff plans by October 2019, and it has no page on MTN’s website today. The code people still look for, *135*1# or 135 sent by text to 131, appears on none of MTN’s tariff or help pages, and MTN does not say what it does now, so do not count on it.

Nothing MTN sells now works the way Zone did. Each current plan charges the same rate to every Nigerian network, and the cheapest minutes come from small voice bundles that work on any plan.

The best MTN tariff plan for calls now

BetaGist, if you call most days. Six paid minutes in a week is all it takes to start getting minutes back, and there is no daily fee. MTN X suits people who care more about data than calls, and XtraTalk 1500 on XtraValue covers a month of calls and data with one payment.

An SMS to any Nigerian network costs ₦6 on all four. Changing plan is free the first time in a month. After that MTN charges ₦102 to move to MTN X or mPulse and ₦150 to move to BetaGist.

Sachet bundles for cheaper minutes on any plan

For one long call, you do not have to change plan at all. MTN’s sachet bundles are blocks of minutes for calls within Nigeria, open to every prepaid and postpaid customer. Ten minutes on the Starter costs ₦100, where BetaGist’s plain rate would charge ₦198.

Dial *887# to buy one from your airtime, and *310*15# to see the minutes left. Unused minutes are cleared when the bundle expires unless you buy the same bundle again in time, so pick the size you will finish.

GistPlus needs a second look before you use it. Load a ₦1,000 card with *888*PIN# and it becomes ₦4,000 in a bonus account that lasts 14 days, on lines that have been on MTN for more than 30 days. Calls from that account are billed at 75 kobo a second, which is ₦45 a minute. So the ₦4,000 buys about 88 minutes, where ₦1,000 at BetaGist’s plain rate buys 50. Useful, but it is not four times the talk.

How BetaGist gives minutes back

Every new MTN SIM starts on BetaGist. For every 6 minutes of local calls you pay for from your main balance in a week, MTN returns 3 minutes, valid for two days. The week runs from Monday to Sunday and the count starts again each Monday.

Use the returned minutes in time and you have paid ₦118.80 for 9 minutes of talk. That works out at ₦13.20 a minute, or 22 kobo a second. Dial *310*5# to see the minutes you have been given back.

MTN X and its daily fee

MTN X sits where Pulse used to be: the old Pulse address on MTN’s site now opens the MTN X page. If there is not ₦10 on the line for the access fee, calls are charged at 30 kobo a second.

Against BetaGist’s plain rate, MTN X saves ₦4.80 a minute, so the fee is covered after a little over two minutes of calls in a day. Against BetaGist with its returned minutes, MTN X loses: ₦15 a minute plus the fee is more than ₦13.20.

The reason to choose MTN X is data. MTN lists a ₦750 weekly bundle of 1.2GB with an hour of Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and a ₦300 bundle of 1GB for streaming apps. Bundles earn points that you can swap for more data.

The MTN night plan code

Text NT2 to 312 or dial *406# for the Nightlife bundle, 500MB for ₦75, usable from 11pm to 6am. It is data, not calls, and it is the nearest thing left to Zone’s midnight offer. You can buy it up to four times in a day, and whatever is left is wiped at 6am. Buying it from another plan moves your line to MTN X with no migration charge.

XtraValue bundles, and mPulse for children

On XtraValue you buy a bundle first. Two of them lean towards calls. XtraTalk 500 costs ₦500 and gives 37 minutes, 250MB and 5 SMS for 7 days. XtraTalk 1500 costs ₦1,500 and gives 117 minutes, 580MB and 10 SMS for 30 days. Text V500 or V1500 to 312 to buy one. MTN says buying a bundle moves your line to XtraValue, and you pay only for the bundle.

mPulse has the lowest plain call rate of the prepaid plans, but MTN describes it as a plan for customers aged 9 to 15, built around education data bundles and a parent’s line linked to the child’s.

How the Zone plan worked

MTN’s own page for the plan, which the Internet Archive still holds, describes a prepaid plan with discounted MTN-to-MTN calls that depended on the area you were in and the time of day. The discount changed from one cell site to the next, and your phone showed the going rate on screen if cell broadcast was switched on.

The other draw was Happy Hour. Between 12am and 4am, calls were free as long as there was ₦100 on the line at midnight. None of the plans MTN lists today gives free midnight calls or a discount that depends on where you are, and MTN numbers cost the same to call as any other network. 9mobile’s Talkzone plan priced calls by place and hour in much the same way, and it has gone too.

If your line has been on Zone since those days, check which plan it is on today. MTN’s BetaGist FAQ covers customers on two other older plans, BetaTalk and YafunYafun, being moved to BetaGist. It does not mention Zone. SuperSaver Plus, from the same years, has gone the same way, and we cover that one under the MTN Super Saver code.

Checking and changing your MTN plan

The myMTN NG app names your plan: tap your airtime or data balance on the home screen, and it is at the top of the next page. Tap it for the Change Plan option.

On the myMTN website, mymtn.com.ng, sign in with your number and the one-time code MTN sends you, click your name at the top right and choose My Plan. Dialling *123*2# opens the menu MTN uses for moving from one plan to another.