12 March 2021

Dear Student

We are pleased to announce that the University will again make data available to UP students who do not have adequate connectivity available at home and who are unable to return to campus owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. During 2020, the University periodically made data available to assist students with their tests and examinations.

On Saturday, 13 March 2021 the data bundle facility will open and run for a limited period. Students need to apply for a one-off data bundle to be loaded by one of the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) onto a Vodacom, MTN, Telkom or Cell C number that students nominate. The cost of this data bundle will be covered by the University. 

In order to be eligible for this first “Data Bundle Offer” of 2021, you MUST log on as described below and provide the information requested.  Consequently:

• Those students who are either (i) joining UP for the first time in 2021, or (ii) who were students in 2020 but did NOT previously apply for any 2020 data bundle offers, can elect to now apply for this first “Data Bundle Offer” of 2021.  To do so, students are required to log on (as described below) and furnish UP with the information requested.
• Those who applied for any data bundle during 2020 (whether successfully or unsuccessfully), and who now want to apply for this first “Data Bundle Offer” of 2021 must log on AGAIN and either:
  • Confirm that their previously captured information is still valid and then re-submit, or
  • If their previously captured information is no longer accurate, to update their previously submitted information, and then re-submit.

To access this functionality to apply for the first “Data Bundle Offer” of 2021, please:

• Either:
  • Go directly to www.up.ac.za and select the “My UP Login” link to log onto the UP Portal, or
  • Log on via connect.up.ac.za. Select the icon labelled www.up.ac.za then select the “My UP Login” link to log onto the UP Portal.
• From the portlets available to you in the UP Portal, click on the (green) “GO” button associated with the portlet titled “Student Centre”.
• Ensure that you land on, or navigate to, the (default) collection of tiles labelled “UP Student Self-Service”.
• Locate and click on the “tile” labelled “Data Bundle”.
• On this function, you will be asked to either enter, confirm or update:
  • The name of the mobile service provider and the mobile number on which you want this data bundle loaded (namely Cell C, MTN, Telkom or Vodacom).
  • The last 9 digits of the mobile number to which you want the data bundle sent.
  • Confirm whether the number that you specified to receive the data bundle is also your normal contact mobile/cellular number on which UP can call or SMS you.
• Click Submit.

NOTES:

• The first “batch” of student responses logged for this first “Data Bundle Offer” of 2021 will be extracted at 12:00 on Tuesday, 16 March 2021 and will be sent to the respective Mobile Network Operator [MNO].  Thereafter, UP will periodically repeat the process (typically once every 3 days) to extract and then send any recently received requests received for this first “Data Bundle Offer” of 2021 to the respective mobile operators. 
• The window of opportunity available to you to apply for this first “Data Bundle Offer” of 2021 will not remain open indefinitely. It will stay open until at least Tuesday, 30 March 2021 (ie just over 2 weeks), but thereafter UP could elect to close this offer at any time.
• Once UP has extracted your application and sent your data to the respective Mobile Network Operators, UP depends on the efficiency of the specific operator to process these requests – and so you should anticipate a time lag between your request being sent to the operator and the data bundle being made available to you – as it can take them anywhere between 2 days and 2 weeks to react.  Obviously, if you accidentally provide incorrect information about the number to which your data bundle must be delivered, or select the incorrect Mobile Operator when capturing your information, your request will be rejected by the Mobile Operator.
• The size of this data bundle provisioned by the different Mobile Operators under this arrangement varies slightly from operator to operator, but is typically a minimum of 10GB Anytime data and 10GB Night data.  Note the data bundle will expire 30 days after being received by the student - even if not all of the available data has been used.
• Students can only apply for one data bundle per “Data Bundle Offer”. So, should you have received, and later depleted, the data from the bundle that was made available to you from the current “Data Bundle Offer”, then you cannot apply for a second data bundle for this same Offer.  However, should UP elect to open up a new “Data Bundle Offer” later in 2021, then you could elect to re-apply for this new Offer.
• This data bundle download facility is not available to people who are either “Study Applicants” (such as people who are not yet enrolled at UP), nor to students who are enrolled on any of UP’s Online Study programmes.  Furthermore, data bundles cannot be requested for SIM cards not issued by one of the above-mentioned mobile operators – even if it is a non-SA SIM card that is connected via “roaming” to one of these mobile operators.
• If you happen to be in the fortunate position of already having access to adequate data through your home Wi-Fi, or have recently moved to a location where adequate connectivity exists, then please do not request this data bundle.

If you experience any problems, please contact the IT help desk at [email protected] / 012 420 3051 between 07:00 and 16:30. A standby service is available from 16:30 to 22:00.