Industry observers say 2013 will see the mobile price war that started around the second quarter of last year not only continue, but actually heat up. With the 1 March drop in mobile termination rates (MTR or interconnect), mobile operators have more margin to work with and analysts say this, together with the ever-changing mobile landscape in SA, makes for a "lovely war".
Here is a list of some of the price salvoes that have been fired by SA's mobile operators this year so far:
- Cell C kicked off the campaign for its new Supacharge product during January. The product became available as of 4 February and gives Cell C prepaid and contract TopUp subscribers unlimited Cell C to Cell C anytime voice calls, valid for 30 days from the date of recharge, when recharging with R500 or more.
- On 11 February, Vodacom introduced a new product suite for its vast prepaid base, Free4Sho. This offers customers a rate of R1.20 per minute (on a per-minute basis) to all networks - while calls made to Vodacom customers are charged at the same rate for the first three minutes, after which the rest of the hour is free.
- On 20 February, MTN joined the prepaid fray with the introduction of a new prepaid product giving customers free airtime, Internet bundles and SMSes for the first six months of use - the MTN Mahala starter pack.
- On 28 February, MTN stepped up its game by slashing data and prepaid prices and extending its Zone offerings. As part of the attack, the operator dropped its One Rate prepaid plan tariff to R1.20 per minute - or 2c per second - to all networks and at all times, on per-second billing. Its 2GB data packages took a dive from R389 to R119 per month.
- On 1 March -the day the MTRs fell to an all-time low - Vodacom went Red with limitless contract options, when the operator launched its smart plans dubbed Red, which it says are based on a "holistic" model. The smart plans include unlimited voice calls, unlimited SMSes, more data and a range of new value-added services.
- Also on 1 March, Telkom's mobile arm 8ta made what it said were "big changes" to its More prepaid calling product, allowing subscribers to effectively pay 95c a minute if they recharge for R5 or more. The offer did away with the sliding scale of free airtime awards previously in place, simplifying the sliding scale.
The last couple of weeks have been quiet on the warfront, as predicted by IDC telecoms analyst Spiwe Chireka, who said major ructions may not take place immediately after the drop in MTRs, due to operators having taken pre-emptive steps in lowering their tariffs. But analysts say this does not mark the end of the war - not by a long shot.
As World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says: "We are going to see some lovely price wars across the board this year."
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