{"id":32036,"date":"2013-02-20T14:57:41","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T12:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=32036"},"modified":"2013-02-21T08:58:14","modified_gmt":"2013-02-21T06:58:14","slug":"rivals-nowhere-near-cell-c-on-prices-blue-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/32036\/rivals-nowhere-near-cell-c-on-prices-blue-label\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivals “nowhere near” Cell C on prices: Blue Label"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joint CEO at Blue Label Telecoms<\/a>, Brett Levy<\/a> believes that Cell C<\/a> is set to claim significant market share in the mobile space, currently dominated by Vodacom<\/a> and MTN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Levy told a media gathering in Sandton on Wednesday (20 February) that mobile operators MTN and Vodacom are \u201cnowhere near\u201d Cell C\u2019s new pricing – and it is only a matter of time before the consumer realises how much cheaper South Africa\u2019s third operator is.<\/p>\n

Currently, Blue Labels\u2019 airtime distribution chart in revenue terms is dominated by Vodacom, at 51%, followed by MTN at 37%. Cell C constitutes 10% of the group\u2019s distribution revenue, with Telkom at 2%.<\/p>\n

The group puts its new connections for prepaid airtime and mobile starter packs at 450,000 per month.<\/p>\n

Levy said that the \u201creal impact\u201d of Cell C\u2019s re-emergence into the mobile sector under the leadership of Alan Knott-Craig<\/a> will be seen within three to five years. The chief executive has said in the past that Cell C can achieve a market share of between 20-25%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (Cell C) can definitely get to 20-25%…it\u2019s not going to be easy\u2026it\u2019s going to be a bun fight. We do believe they will give this market a real run for its money,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n

The joint company lead said that South African consumers were lethargic, and didn\u2019t change their operators despite better pricing models offered by competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Cell C, MTN and Vodacom are nowhere near Cell C’s new pricing\u2026it\u2019s only a matter of time before the consumer realises how much cheaper Cell C is,\u201d Levy said, pointing to cases where the operator was 150% cheaper than its competitors.<\/p>\n

He continued that if Cell C perfected its marketing strategy, \u201cthe perception of the market will change. I don\u2019t think that Vodacom and MTN can follow them on that basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited, they (Cell C) are at the bottom, there is only up for them. We are going to enjoy the ride. We think they have a good chance of achieving what we think they are going to achieve,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n

Blue Label didn\u2019t rule out Vodacom\u2019s ability to react to market pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not just sitting back\u2026Vodacom is starting to fight. What Vodacom is doing is very clever. They have a good perception of the market, something that Cell C still needed to get a handle on,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis market is becoming exciting, we are in the slip stream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He noted that consumers would also benefit. \u201cThe more they fight, they more the consumer wins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More on Blue Label Telecoms<\/h3>\n

Blue Label reports profit slide<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Label Telecoms acquires local SMS firm<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Label forks out $6.1m for Mexican subsidiary<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Label ups profit, lifts dividend<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Blue Label ups profit, lifts dividend<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C drops bomb in mobile pricing war<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joint CEO at Blue Label Telecoms, Brett Levy believes that Cell C is set to claim significant market share in the mobile space, currently dominated by Vodacom and MTN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":23596,"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":[21],"tags":[1382,1654,42,26,28,27],"class_list":["post-32036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-blue-label-telecoms","tag-brett-levy","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32036","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32036"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32043,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32036\/revisions\/32043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}