MTN and Cell C have adopted a pricing approach across Africa, which has seen the introduction of blended prepaid bundles that are beyond the means of many South Africans - despite the drive to bring down the country's historically high cost to communicate.
This is according to Research ICT Africa's mobile pricing transparency index for the first quarter. It points out that operators are increasingly bundling voice, SMS and data services in an effort to retain subscribers, while capitalising on increased data use.
According to the research, operators are trying to retain users who might decide to migrate to cheaper operators offering the services they want in a competitive market. In SA, says the firm, MTN and Cell C have introduced blended prepaid bundles. "Discounts and bundles often require upfront payments or volume purchases that are beyond the means of many South Africans.
"These new pricing strategies include dynamic tariffs, one-to-one pricing, private pricing, time-based pricing and bundles of voice, SMS and data services," notes Research ICT Africa.
Bundled tariffs are meant to counter the erosion of voice and SMS revenues by voice over IP, as well as instant messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp, BBM and social media, according to the research.
Price war
South Africans still pay more to make cellphone calls compared to other African countries - the research notes - with the cheapest local operator's basket price at R52, which is 4.4 times more expensive than the cheapest product on the rest of the continent.
In a move that could start a new price war, MTN recently cemented its 79c all-net prepaid promotion as a permanent prepaid tariff in a direct challenge to Cell C's call rate of 99c, which was punted as the cheapest on the market upon introduction in 2012.
Telkom's SIM-Sonke product offers off-net prices of 75c per minute, but the operator - which held 2.2% of the market in September - does not have as extensive a footprint as its larger counterparts.
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