MTN Nigeria's Labor Attacks; Zero-Rating for FB Messenger
MTN Group needs help in Africa. I do not know why they keep throwing things at this great company which had the boldness to invest in Nigeria's telecom sector when the world was analyzing how Nigerians would be unable to afford telecom services. Few days ago, the Nigerian labour union wanted its staff to unionize. Apparently coming together would help them earn more with better benefits!
But I was surprised that the union members who attacked a private property have not been charged by government. You can make your case without causing problems to MTN's business.
Yet, MTN needs to examine its business systems: it is reported that some of its workers plan to begin strike in South Africa. It needs to deal with these issues before it loses control of the labor narratives. If people begin to see it as a business that does not treat its workers well, its brand would be affected.
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MTN Group Ltd. workers in South Africa are set to go on strike after a breakdown in wage talks between Africa’s biggest mobile-phone company by subscribers and a key labor group.
The Communications Workers Union sent MTN an intention to strike and 120 protesters gathered outside the company’s Johannesburg offices, MTN spokeswoman Jacqui O’Sullivan said in an emailed response to questions Friday.
Meanwhile, MTN South Africa and Facebook are testing zero-rating on Facebook Messenger. I have always believed that in a perfect internet market, marginal cost would become absolute zero. This is the path to that as telecom services become ubiquitous.
MTN customers in South Africa have reported that Facebook Messenger no longer uses mobile data
[...]
“MTN SA in collaboration with Facebook is currently running a pilot on Facebook AutoFlex service,” said O’Sullivan.
“Facebook AutoFlex as a service to customers gives MTN customers access to a text-only Facebook experience when they have a zero balance on their accounts.”