Based on demand from its corporate client base, Orion Cellular has entered the mobile handset business with a flat 20% discount on all airtime and subscription rates on any of the MTN packages. Most organisations will pay full rates for their contracts and airtime, with only the largest corporates negotiating discounts, sometimes up to 12%.
The service, known as "Corporate Card", is available to Orion`s cellular client base, which reads as a "who`s who" in South African business and is a loyalty programme which puts money back in the pockets of both company and its employees.
According to Don Tredoux, MD of Orion Cellular: "Corporate Card gives our clients the biggest discount in the industry, while forfeiting none of the benefits. This new service effectively lowers total telecommunications costs for both big and small companies.
"We are able to offer this exceptional package, not as a once-off special, but as an ongoing 20% discount to our cellular clients and their employees, either in the company`s capacity or the individual`s.
"Instead of providing a handset with every new SIM, we credit the client`s account with an equivalent Corporate Card Rebate to offset the monthly subscription fee, which, depending on the airtime package, could effectively give the user up to 16 months `free` subscription," explained Tredoux.
Orion provides 32k SIMs as standard and as an introductory offer, is waiving the standard SIM card fee of R100 and the connection fee of R83.50 for contracts signed before the end of March 2002.
Orion Cellular has opted for a differentiation strategy, effectively distancing itself from other service providers through an intensive research and development programme which is now turning in results in the marketplace in the form of new products and technologies for business. Last week, Orion announced the release of "08:4free" - a toll-free cellular service for all GSM networks based on its proprietary "Uniswitch" cellular switching platform and announcements on other new services are to follow shortly.
According to Tredoux: "The death knell for any service provider is having to compete in a commodity market. We have differentiated ourselves through our development programme so we don`t have to keep looking over our shoulders and can now concentrate on releasing a range of value-adding wireless services for business that simply were not possible up to now. Our technology platforms are intelligent, programmable and network independent which is what today`s tech-savvy organisation are looking for."
Orion will release information on a new business SMS solution later this week.
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