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Johannesburg - South Africa’s third largest mobile network Cell C has slashed data prices as the country’s telecoms market heats up ahead of the holiday period.
The company is cutting prepaid and post-paid rates for selected offerings as of 7 December, according to a statement released on Thursday.
Prices for Cell C’s 2.4GB prepaid data package, which has monthly data of 200MB spread over 12 months, has come down from R189 to R79. Cell C said this promotion will be available from 7 December until 31 January 2015.
Meanwhile, customers signing up for Cell C’s SIM only R999 per month postpaid ‘Infinity Select’ plan are set to get an extra 10GB bolt of data for the duration of the contract. This product currently offers unlimited calls and SMSs to all local networks.
Customers wanting to add a smartphone to the 'Infinity Select' plan also pay R1 399 per month for this deal.
Cell C said the new Infinity Select promotion will be available to new customers until 15 March 2015.
“We know that this time of year, customers are looking for the best value they can find in the market, and Cell C is determined to offer them this,” said Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos in a statement.
In addition, the company said it is extending its free WhatsApp and 'MegaBonus' promotions.
“WhatsApp that offers our customers zero data charges when using the application will now be extended until the end of March 2015 for all qualifying plans and the MegaBonus promotion which offers four times the value of the recharge will now be available to customers until 31 December 2014,” added Dos Santos.
Cost-cutting follows controversial banner
Cell C’s move to cut data costs comes after the operator has faced intense scrutiny over its customer service levels.
Cell C last month lost an urgent court interdict against businessman George Prokas to take down a banner that described the mobile network as the “most useless service provider in SA”. The banner, which has appeared on Johannesburg's Beyers Naude Drive and undergone several changes, cost over R61 000.
Prokas put up the banner following a dispute with the mobile network over an unpaid bill of R5 754 that resulted in the businessman being listed as a slow payer by a credit bureau.
Subsequently, Cell C moved to removed Prokas’ slow payer credit profile on condition that Prokas pay outstanding usage fees that he owed.
Prokas, though, told Fin24 on that he only paid an amount of R1 270 regarding usage fees owed to Cell C.
But Cell C eventually decided to close the matter.
"@Richards_Karin: Love it! George Prokas has his Cell C banner back up @eNCAnews pic.twitter.com/IxdoWL9LRR" Time to catch a wake up @CellC
— William Maodi (@wmaodi) November 25, 2014Research reveals SA’s best and worst cellphone contracts
Despite negative publicity surrounding Cell C in November, the company is rated second behind Telkom in offering South Africa’s best value for money cellphone contracts.
US-based telecom pricing research firm Tarifica has ranked the consumer value of every post-paid mobile contract in South Africa since July 2014.
Tarifica uses what it calls a “comprehensive algorithm” that “evaluates every mobile plan feature (including usage allotments, geographic coverage, data speeds, value added features and promotional elements) and weighs them against the plan’s total costs to determine ultimate consumer value”.
And South Africa’s two minnow operators - Telkom and Cell C which respectively have above two million and 18 million subscribers each - topped the research results.
Both Telkom and Cell C have cut prices in a bid to win market share from dominant players Vodacom and MTN.
“Of these groups, Telkom’s plans led the field in October, achieving Tarifica ‘Top Value Plan’ status in five groups. Cell C rated second best, winning three of the ten price segments,” said Tarifica in a statement.
“MTN and Virgin Mobile were each able to earn just one ‘Top Value Plan’ while Vodacom, after offering the top overall SIM Only plan in the market a mere two months ago, was shut out entirely,” added the research company.
3. Tarifica Score South Africa Market Leaders - October 2014
