SA's largest cellular operator, Vodacom, is set to launch international tariffs that will beat Cell C's current offerings, ITWeb has reliably learned.
Within the next month, a source close to the company says, the group is set to offer calls at 89c a minute, to 52 destinations. The move follows Cell C's recent market shake-up, when it trimmed call costs to more than 200 countries.
The well-placed source indicates that the destinations include international Vodafone partners such as Spain and Portugal, and a number of African countries. However, Vodacom's offer differs from Cell C's in that it is expected to be offered on a per-minute basis, as opposed to Cell C's per-second charge.
It seems that a once-off subscription fee of R5 will be payable to activate the service, but customers should also be able to activate the service via USSD at no charge.
Although Vodacom has no official comment on the move, CEO Shameel Aziz-Joosub, in a recent YouTube video, said lower international prices could be on the cards soon.
First mover
At the end of August, Cell C cut call rates to 177 countries - in addition to the 50 countries already on its 99c per-minute call rate. The move followed "extensive" negotiations for better termination rates with the operator's international partners.
Cell C said countries have been grouped into five different zones, according to the new call rates, which will be available to prepaid, hybrid and postpaid customers as default rates from the beginning of September. Calls will be billed on a per-second basis and the new rates will be applicable to fixed-line and mobile numbers in the respective countries.
The operator, SA's third-largest, has been cutting the cost of calls since May and also offers local calls at 99c a minute, on a per-second rate, which has led to about 700 000 gross connections being added to its base monthly.
Former Vodacom head Alan Knott-Craig, who took up his position as Cell C CEO about six months ago, has set himself a target of gaining 25% of the market, from the current 13%.
Vodacom, which has 31 million local subscribers, has around 50% market share.
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