Cell operators engage in festive competition

Cell C's offering to its prepaid customers in the name of festive spirit is the launch of Woza Double.

The promotion offers double the free minutes a person would normally get when they recharge.

This offering is substantially similar to MTN's recent festive season offering.

SA's third operator says its promotion is an enhancement of its Woza Wheneva offering. It adds that the offering excludes least cost routing and community service telephone lines.

"For every rand you use to recharge, you receive the airtime paid for and double the number of free Woza minutes, which you can use any time during the week,” says executive head of marketing Simon Camerer.

This promotion applies to all recharge denominations of R10 or more, with customers able to get up to 100 free Woza minutes per week, according to Cell C.

“More good news is that the customer will also benefit from cumulative recharges. That is, if a customer recharges with R5 on Monday and then another R5 on Tuesday in the same week, he will get the 20 extra free minutes after he recharges with the second R5, as the total is now R10, which is the minimum requirement.”

The promotion began on 1 December and will run until 15 January.

Also taking advantage of the festive season for releasing promotions, MTN recently introduced a similar talk-time deal.

The prepaid offering gives its subscribers 60 minutes of free airtime for every R30 airtime voucher purchased.

As from 28 November, any MTN PayAsYouGo customer on the Call per Second plan, who buys a single recharge voucher to the value of R30 or more, will benefit by “earning” an hour's worth of airtime for free.

The 60 minutes of free voice airtime can be used at anytime over a two-day period, for MTN-to-MTN calls. The offer will run until 22 December and is valid for MTN PayAsYouGo customers on the Call per Second plan only.

Local mobile operators saw an overall increase in voice calls during the last festive season. Cell C saw its voice traffic double on Christmas Day, to reach 40 million calls.

This is a substantial increase from the 24 million calls that went out on 25 December 2008.

The operator saw lower SMS volumes than voice calls on Christmas Day. SMSes reached 28 million on the day.

Cellular giants Vodacom and MTN also noted an increase in network traffic during the festive season.

Bridget Bhengu, senior manager, PR and communication for MTN SA, said: “The volume of voice calls increased by approximately 70%, and the volume of SMSes increased by approximately 50%.”

Dennis Abella, Cell C's executive head of operations, said the telco was well prepared and had installed the necessary capacity before the festive season.

Both JSE-listed MTN and Vodacom said they had no problems with their cellular networks due to increased network traffic over the Christmas and New Year periods.