Johannesburg, 31 Oct 2012
Telkom Business and Cell C have slowly started encroaching on territory historically dominated by SA's mobile duopoly - Vodacom and MTN - with price cuts and new products, respectively, in the business space.
Telkom Business yesterday announced it has slashed the price of its mobile closed user groups (CUGs) service by about a third - from R149 to R99. In addition, says Telkom, new customers opting for the new 24-month CUG contract will receive the service for free for the first three months of the contract.
Telkom's CUG service allows customers to identify users within their organisations to form part of the CUG. The users in this group are then able to make free, unlimited voice calls to all the users in the CUG - even during peak times. The service also offers free calls to one landline number on contracts, which enables employees to make mobile calls to the office landline free of charge. The CUG service can be offered to between five users and up to 20 000 users within the group.
Telkom says, in the space of a year, its business unit has observed “significant uptake” of the CUG add-on, from small business to large multinational customers.
Deon Liebenberg, head of mobile at Telkom Business, says the CUG service is ideal for companies with high internal communication expenditure. “It is most efficient for staff that need to be in contact with colleagues at all times, such as sales representatives and drivers on the road. This lends itself to enhanced business efficiency and cost control.”
New entrant
Earlier this month, third mobile operator Cell C introduced a new product suite for small and large businesses - Cell C Pro - offering reduced rates for CUGs and a subscription service that allows free calls to other users.
Cell C Pro, says the operator, is designed to help customers optimise their mobile communications spend. “[It] includes products targeted mainly at businesses, but in some cases consumers can benefit as well.”
Cell C Pro entered the market around mid-October with two CUG products. The first, for smaller businesses, has no setup fee or monthly subscriptions, and offers calls between group members charged at 75c per minute on per second billing. The second product is targeted at bigger businesses and includes a monthly subscription fee of R99, which gives customers up to 850 minutes free CUG calls, after which calls are charged at 75c per minute on per second billing.
Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig says Cell C - known primarily for consumer products - has seen some traction among government and corporate entities in recent months.
He says, while the corporate market is “saturated” in terms of mobile products, the SME market has been somewhat neglected. “Products have not really ever been built for businesses of [for example] 10 to 20 people and yet these businesses have certain practical challenges that need to be seen to.”
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