MTN chief executive 
Mteto Nyati said they would allow university students free access to university websites in order to access online content. Telkom said this was part of its ongoing commitment to supporting education .
“… As MTN, we are mindful of the backlog that students and academic institutions are facing, and we believe that this gesture will help to maintain continuity and expedite access to much-needed educational content,” Mteto said.
MTN said to date, students from the University of Cape Town and University of Pretoria will benefit from this initiative.
It appealed to other institutions of higher learning to “tap into this initiative by providing their URL addresses”.
Telkom said it was offering a solution that would enable universities to allow free access to academic content for students, even if students have run out of data or airtime.
“This may result in further anxiety for students who may already be surviving on the smallest of stipends, and must now find additional funds to purchase the data needed to access the materials they require to continue their studies.
“However, during this critical period, Telkom has taken a decision to waive the data consumption costs until the end of the academic year.
Students who need to work off-site can therefore do so even without the need to fund these costs themselves.”
The company has approached academic institutions throughout South Africa to implement this solution.
