Cell C SMS change opens a can of worms

Good... it can only be good that an operator like Cell C is flying in the face of the scummy chummies like MTN and Voda
 
They should introduce SMS interconnect fees, and they should be asymmetric, favouring smaller operators. 2c for incumbents, 3c for smaller players.
 
So am understanding this correctly: It will be cheaper for businesses to legitimately communicate with me e.g. FNB sending OTP, thus (in theory reducing fee growth) BUT will also make it cheaper to for spamsters to up the volume of crap they send?
 
Saajid said:
They should introduce SMS interconnect fees, and they should be asymmetric, favouring smaller operators. 2c for incumbents, 3c for smaller players.
Click to expand...

Rubbish, you've been conned by the likes of Vodacon into thinking SMS is an expensive service. That stuff should be free! If Virgin Mobile can give it's users 1000 SMS's for free (and they can't afford to waste any money), then it can't be costing Voda, MTN etc. more than a pittance per sms. (We're talking a coupla dozen BYTES of data per message here - charging for that is a total ripoff. Maybe R1 / 100 SMS's would be fairer)
 
K3NS31 said:
Rubbish, you've been conned by the likes of Vodacon into thinking SMS is an expensive service. That stuff should be free! If Virgin Mobile can give it's users 1000 SMS's for free (and they can't afford to waste any money), then it can't be costing Voda, MTN etc. more than a pittance per sms. (We're talking a coupla dozen BYTES of data per message here - charging for that is a total ripoff. Maybe R1 / 100 SMS's would be fairer)
Click to expand...


Nobody Is Denying that SMS costs to Networks are Cheap
Why would a network give away a huge revenue stream just to make people happy, it just doesnt make business sense.
Virgin Mobile gave this away but yet they still stay the smallest player in the market.
 
Saajid said:
They should introduce SMS interconnect fees, and they should be asymmetric, favouring smaller operators. 2c for incumbents, 3c for smaller players.
Click to expand...

I look forward to the day.

Also - only licensed players should be able to send messages in the first place.
 
Currently, Only licensed players are allowed to send
They need to use a WASP who has direct connections with the MNO

In the past they used to use routes that originate outside SA, but these are getting blocked daily
 
Vodacom didnt cry for small hosting companies when they offered free hosting together with Google.

Anyway, competition is a great way of bringing prices down for consumers. Looking forward to it
 
ant_man said:
Nobody Is Denying that SMS costs to Networks are Cheap
Why would a network give away a huge revenue stream just to make people happy, it just doesnt make business sense.
Virgin Mobile gave this away but yet they still stay the smallest player in the market.
Click to expand...
True, though it is surprising that the bigger networks have never even tried to compete on lower SMS costs. The fact is that SMSes are essentially pure profit to the networks (the costs involved are fractions of a cent). So you'd think there would be some room for manoeuvre in terms of price competition...
 
nut123 said:
True, though it is surprising that the bigger networks have never even tried to compete on lower SMS costs. The fact is that SMSes are essentially pure profit to the networks (the costs involved are fractions of a cent). So you'd think there would be some room for manoeuvre in terms of price competition...
Click to expand...

The networks dont need to Compete, they have a product that everybody needs and uses.
Supply and Demand

There is already huge movement in the market in regards to the Aggregators getting the costs down
They are currently testing NI USSD
It is basically the same as a sms but it will be using the USSD channel which works off the voice part of the network
The costs they are talking about are in the range of .10c per message.
This will only be for the bulk SMS market.
 
ant_man said:
The networks dont need to Compete, they have a product that everybody needs and uses.
Supply and Demand
Click to expand...
Many neither need nor use sms anymore. Most of the people I know use whatsapp or bbm. Personally I tend to exhaust all other possible methods of communication before resorting to an sms.

Just can't bring myself to use the most ridiculously expensive form of communication possible.
 
nut123 said:
Many neither need nor use sms anymore. Most of the people I know use whatsapp or bbm. Personally I tend to exhaust all other possible methods of communication before resorting to an sms.

Just can't bring myself to use the most ridiculously expensive form of communication possible.
Click to expand...

I agree 100% with you, as most of the people I know use BBM or whatsapp, but that leaves the other 90% of the population who still use "dumb" phones.
They cant get whatsapp or BBM

The other problem is that you cant Bulk Message BBM or whatsapp, so SMS will always be the winner
And in saying this the MNO's will still reap the most profit.
 
ant_man said:
They are currently testing NI USSD
It is basically the same as a sms but it will be using the USSD channel which works off the voice part of the network
The costs they are talking about are in the range of .10c per message.
Click to expand...
Now you're talking BS in terms of the costs.

Seeing that it uses the voice channels like you said, the costs would be proportional to voice costs, which is currently 20c/20seconds.

USSD has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. Advantage in my opinion is that it won't clog up your smartphone's inbox, because it never gets saves somewhere on the phone. The big advantage is that it is instantaneous and the initiating side will know that you received the message there and then!
Disadvantage are that you need to be connected at that time and you need resources on the cellphone tower & operator network, and of course you won't have any log/history that you did receive the message.
 
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