Cell C reveals pricing

Johannesburg, 15 Nov 2001

Cell C today announced that its prepaid customers will be able to switch over from MTN and Vodacom from as little as R20 as it scrambles to gain market share.

Jose dos Santos, MD of Cell C`s service provider company, says more than 2 000 distribution points will offer starter packs from R20 on Saturday, with SIM card and airtime.

"For an unbelievable R20 you can take the incumbents` SIM-card and ... you know what you can do with it," he said.

Handsets will be subsidised, and are to range from just under R500.

While a range of prepaid services, branded under the "Easy Chat" brand, will be available from Saturday, contract options will only be available towards the end of the month.

Cell C says it will launch with a number of unique innovations, but it is not yet offering all the new services it is expected to offer.

Among the innovations are the ability for prepaid users to switch between two tariff plans from their handset, as well as a 10% discount for calls to two specified numbers under a "friends and family" option. These two numbers can also be changed from the handset.

Other differentiators from MTN and Vodacom include long airtime windows, per-second billing at no extra charge and a six-month grace period in which incoming calls can be received after the airtime window has closed.

Customer care is crucial

The company is stressing its customer care, and says its four-language call centre is a South African first.

On activation of their SIM cards, users` language preference will be registered, and in all further interaction with the call centre will be able to deal in English, Afrikaans, Zulu or Sotho.

With the introduction of contracts, the company plans to port the numbers of MTN and Vodacom subscribers to the 084 prefix, leaving the other seven digits unchanged.

The Cell C distribution network includes the likes of Woolworths, Checkers and Jet stores, along with a small number of franchise operations. These are the points the company is counting on to bring in new customers.

"That distribution channel covers everything from down to your LSM [living standard measurement] three and four right up to your LSM six and seven," says Dos Santos.

CEO Talaat Laham says the company plans to have around 800 000 users by the end of its first year of operation, and hopes for a 20% share of the total market within five to six years. It will spend around $600 million to reach that, but expects to be profitable within four years.

More to come

The company has promised a host of other new services with the launch of its contract services and after that.

Absent to date is the unified messaging system it is expected to launch and the geographically differentiated pricing branded as "Homezone".

"We are not yet introducing all the elements we publicised in the past," says company director Zwelakhe Mankazana. "But we always keep our promises."