A price war in South Africa’s mobile market has just got hotter, as Cell C has announced that it is to extend its 99c per minute tariff to an extra 27 countries on 1 July.
The 99c per minute on per second billing offer - which includes calls to Angola, Kenya and Nigeria from South Africa - is set to extend to a total of 34 countries.
“Whether it is prepaid, postpaid or international call rates, our overall pricing strategy is to simplify tariffs and offer very affordable rates,” said Cell C chief executive Alan Knott-Craig in a statement.
“We will continue to negotiate with our international partners to ensure we are able to offer the best possible rates to our customers.” added Knott-Craig, who was Vodacom’s chief executive prior to taking Cell C’s top job.
Cell C, South Africa’s third largest mobile operator, sparked off a price war with Vodacom and MTN late last month when it announced its 99c per minute tariff.
The operator’s reduction in tariffs also came at a time after a survey had been released that suggested South Africa has among the most expensive call rates on the continent.
According to Research ICT Africa, South Africa ranked 30 out of 46 African countries surveyed, in terms of mobile pricing overall. Furthermore, the country placed 32nd when it came to prepaid calls.
South African telecoms analyst, Richard Hurst, says the price war could intensify further.
“I still foresee that in this price-war, there’s a lot more blood to be spilt,” says Hurst.
“Even on broadband and data, we’re still way above other emerging markets,” he adds.
Hurst also says that the change in leadership at Cell C, with Knott-Craig taking the reins, has boosted the company’s efforts to compete in a highly contested market, which has mobile penetration rate of over 100%.
“You can see that since the change in leadership, CellC is becoming even more aggressive in winning not only market share, but ‘mind-share’ from consumers,” says Hurst
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