SA: Telkom launches free music, video streaming service

The new service, called LIT, will allow Telkom users to stream music from partnering platforms such as Google Play Music, Apple Music and Simfy Africa. Video streaming services will be available from YouTube, Showmax, Netflix and Google Play.

Subscribers with a 2GB FreeMe contract will have access to LIT Music whereas those with contracts of 5GB plus will be able to access LIT Video. The update to use the LIT service will be enabled automatically for customers starting 1 September.

“This innovation is aimed at really transforming the way South Africans consume digital entertainment,” Telkom consumer CEO Attila Vitai said. “By removing the worry of additional data costs we are putting unlimited entertainment in the hands of our consumers”

LIT will come with limitations to prevent “heavy data users from overloading the system”. Based on a fair use policy, Telkom will allow a 10GB threshold for LIT Music and a 50GB threshold for LIT Video. Once a threshold is reached, data will be deducted from users’ existing data plans.

Telkom said users would not get free subscriptions to the external services the company had partnered with. It said users still had to subscribe and pay for services such as Google Play and Apple Music because those fees were separate from the FreeMe and LIT packages.

The LIT service, which Telkom has described as a game changer, comes at a time when South Africans have spoken out against high costs of data.

Vitai said the launch of the new service would compel more people to buy FreeMe data packages in order to gain access to free music and video streaming.

Telkom's 2GB and 5GB packages are sold for R149 ($11.50) and R299 respectively.