{"id":12857,"date":"2012-05-18T10:08:27","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T08:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=12857"},"modified":"2012-05-18T13:30:41","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T11:30:41","slug":"buckle-up-for-mobile-price-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/12857\/buckle-up-for-mobile-price-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Buckle up for mobile price war"},"content":{"rendered":"

AppChat<\/a> founder, John Holdsworth<\/a> advises people to buckle up, \u201cbecause, between Cell C<\/a> and AppChat, consumers are in for a heck of a ride in the next couple of years\u201d.<\/p>\n

This came after Cell C and Vodacom<\/a> slashed their prepaid call rates to 99 cents a minute on Wednesday 16 May.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers trust incumbent mobile operators less than estate agents these days. You just have to observe MTN<\/a> and Vodacom’s response to Cell C’s announcement to understand why. Consumers know when they are being ripped off and are not fooled by mobile operator spin doctors,\u201d said Holdsworth.<\/p>\n

\u201cCell C’s 99 cents per minute, charged per second from the first second, is the first meaningful reduction in a mobile voice tariff for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holdsworth said that special offers and calling schemes that require consumers to jump through hoops to qualify does not match up to Cell C\u2019s \u2018real\u2019 prepaid price cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an excellent first step by Cell C in restoring consumer confidence in mobile networks and I have no doubt that it is the first of many surprises that Cell C has in store consumers,\u201d the AppChat founder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCell C is now setting the pace in the mobile market and I hope consumers reward their vision and courage by switching to Cell C. I have already ported my number today.\u201d<\/p>\n

AppChat to shake up the market further<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holdsworth explained that the court case which he is currently involved in restricts him from revealing his plans, but said that he will be making an announcement on the AppChat offer in mid June.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot say much more at this stage, other than make sure you put your safety belt on because, between Cell C and AppChat, consumers are in for a heck of a ride in the next couple of years,\u201d said Holdsworth.<\/p>\n

Cut mobile termination rates further<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holdsworth joined Cell C CEO, Alan Knott-Craig<\/a> in calling for further mobile termination rate (MTR) reductions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think MTR’s should come down to R0.25 or even less. In the UK, Offcom, with the support of the competition authorities, has just reduced MTR’s to R0.05. With competition in place there is no doubt that those reductions will eventually get passed onto consumers,\u201d said Holdsworth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will personally be campaigning for cost-based interconnect, and also for Cell C to be given digital dividend spectrum by ICASA<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holdsworth argues that operators that are driving change in the market ought to be rewarded. \u201cCell C initiated the recent cuts in mobile broadband and has now done the same with mobile voice, previously considered untouchable,\u201d said Holdsworth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s about time that we saw some real change in the market and not just the usual smoke and mirrors special offers,\u201d Holdsworth concluded.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

MTN laughs off Vodacom, Cell C prepaid price cuts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C slashes prepaid voice and data prices<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom cuts prepaid call rates<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C looking for 3G roaming partner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Holdsworth warns that people should \u201cput their safety belt on\u201d in what is to come in the local mobile market<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1878,42,26,27],"class_list":["post-12857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-appchat","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12857"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12877,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12857\/revisions\/12877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}