Cell C and Vodacom both slashed their prepaid rates on Wednesday, but MTN appears unwilling to be drawn into the unfolding price war, saying its rates are already the most affordable in the market, even compared to the latest cuts from its competitors.
Vodacom is offering calls at 99c/minute all day billed per minute for the first minute and in 30-second increments thereafter; Cell C is offering the same tariff, but at an effectively lower price because... Read more
A price war has broken out in SAs mobile industry. Within minutes of each other on Wednesday, Cell C and Vodacom both announced they were slashing the cost of prepaid call tariffs to 99c/minute.
The timing of the announcements suggests at least one of the parties was aware of the otherҒs plans.
However, there are important differences between the two offerings. Cell Cs new prepaid package offers per-second billing from the first second whereas ... Read more
Vodacom and Cell C have cut their mobile call rates within minutes of each other.
Vodacom's new promotion, called Freedom 99, lets users call to any network for 99c a minute.
"Customers have been looking for simplicity and for value, and Freedom 99 delivers exactly that. Calls to anyone, anytime, on any network in South Africa are now just 99 cents per minute withFreedom 99. It really is that simple," said Vodacom marketing head Enzo Scarcella in a... Read more
Telkom says that the West Africa Cable System (WACS) meets its capacity requirements for at least the next decade.
Telkom is part of a consortium of 14 telecoms operators including South Africa֒s largest rivals Neotel, Broadband Infraco, MTN and Vodacom who own and operate the $650 million WACS system which launched commercially on Friday (11 May).
WACS spans the west coast of Africa, starting at Yzerfontein near Cape Town, South Africa, and ... Read more
Cell C, now headed by former Vodacom Group CEO Alan Knott-Craig, is hiring a number of past and present Vodacom executives to flesh out its management team. Three of Cell Cs top positions are to be filled in coming months.
Cell C has lured Vodacom Mozambique CEO Jose dos Santos to join it. Dos Santos has been with Vodacom since 2005 and resigned at the end of March.
Vodacom has confirmed that Dos Santos has resigned, but wonҒt comment on a rumo... Read more
Cell C has introduced new mobile broadband promotions, effectively cutting the cost of some of its products in half.
The new promotions, which will be available until the end of July, cut the prices of two post-paid data options and one prepaid data package.
For prepaid customers, Cell C is offering its 24GB Sim-only package (2GB/month for 12 months) for R1 299 once-off, down from R1 999. A version with a 21,6Mbit/s USB modem now costs R1 999, from R... Read more
Telkoms mobile arm, 8ta, hit the ground running in the months after its launch in 2010, offering compelling products and spending a small fortune plastering its brand across billboards and newspapers.
But industry insiders say the mobile operator hasnҒt managed to capitalise on its early momentum. Perhaps its the impediment of a bureaucratic parent company or perhaps the operator needs to look more closely at its position in the market and shape i... Read more
Alan Knott-Craig has played his first card since being appointed as CEO of Cell C on 1 April. The operator has released a new least-cost routing (LCR) product, called LCRAnyNet, that Knott-Craig says will "reduce the cost of telecommunications for business and will bring down the barrier for small businesses hoping to take advantage of LCR".
"Small businesses have previously been excluded from the benefits of LCR due to the high monthly subscription rat... Read more
The National Association of School Governing Bodies wants a ban on children using cellphones at SAs schools, Beeld newspaper reported on Friday. According to the association, this was crucial to allow pupils to focus on their work, and to ғprotect them against irregularities on social networks.
Association secretary Matakanye Matakanye told Beeld cellphones were a distraction that resulted in the disintegration of the teaching environment.
... Read more
Are recent cuts in wholesale termination rates leading to lower calls prices? Cell C has effectively cut prepaid voice tariffs by launching its Supa-WozaӔ promotion to customers on all-dayӔ, per-secondӔ and standard prepaid tariff plans which offers 50% bonus airtime if they recharge with R10 or more. However, the operator says it is a promotion only and will end of 31 July.
The move comes just over a month after termination rates the... Read more
Most of us know that this wonderful little big country of ours doesn't have the nimblest (or cheapest!) of ADSL services in the world, what with the UK and Germany having had 24Mbps+ ADSL since the early 2000's, but with a newish technology called ADSL Bonding us broadband paupers in SA can have a taste of what the overseas folks have been having for the better part of a decade.
Constantly-innovating ISP Openweb has added a bonded ADSL solution to their lineup of ADSL products, allowing speeds of up to 16Mbps using four 4Mbps ADSL lines. In addition to the spiffy 16Mbps downlink speed, your uplink will come in at around 2Mbps, which is pretty sweet by most people's standards. These bonded ADSL packages are some of the cheapest currently available - from R1499/mo - and you can choose if you'd like to use 2, 3 or 4 ADSL lines to satisfy your need for speed.
If you reckon this could be just what you need, take a trot over to the Openweb Bonded ADSL page and poke around a bit.
New uncapped ADSL and web hosting kid on the block
ZA Serve is a new kid on the block in the ever competitive hosting and ADSL market, and have come in at very resonable prices. With 384Kbps uncapped ADSL R195 on a month to month basis, their prices are amongst the cheapest currently available, and with that you get relaxed shaping after hours as well as 24/7 support. If you have a site or host one or more you can also get unlimited hosting for only R99/mo, VPS packages from R499/mo and server hosting from R999/mo.
Over and above the prices ZAServe has a rebate system whereby they accumulate points for you on a monthly basis based on the services you have with them, and then convert the points into a Rand discount that you can use against any current invoices you have with them - and between toll road threats and the petrol price a saving is always welcome.
If you're hunting for an uncapped ADSL account or some hosting, have a look at ZAServe.com - it can't hurt, and of course neither can the saving you'd accumulate by signing up for a few services!
