Are Vodacom and MTN too greedy?

Cell C is starting to sound like Virgin Mobile sounded in the UK. They were very successful. Great advert. I wonder how much brand damage will be done in the end.

The amazing thing is that throughout the retail rate cuts over the last year, MTN seemed to communicate that it truly was not worried.

(I wonder who those protesters are in the background of the video - putting their placards up from time to time)
 
Short answer to question posed in thread title
YES, hell yes!

Unfortunately in terms of network performance, Cell C is far worse than any of the others, so not really an option, when people say your phone is on voicemail when it is next to you with 5 bars signal.
 
Its not the "greed" that is the problem it is the stupidity

I'd look for more at a lack of temperance than at greed, especially because the operators are alright with being charitable, so gluttony: they want wastefully high termination rates are interested in short term profits
 
Koosi said:
Short answer to question posed in thread title
YES, hell yes!

Unfortunately in terms of network performance, Cell C is far worse than any of the others, so not really an option, when people say your phone is on voicemail when it is next to you with 5 bars signal.
Click to expand...

+1 I love the campaign, it's just a pity Cell C's network is so unreliable. One would think they would at least be better than Telkom Mobile, but sadly no.

I'm using Cell C 3G at the moment because my ADSL line has been down for 3 days. Right now it's working great, but last night I couldn't even get a single page to load properly.

EDIT: It's worth noting that no network in SA could possibly be worse than Virgin Mobile. ;)
 
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Vodacom and MTN is definitely greedy, but I don't see Cell C as an option, Heard way to many horror stories of their service.
 
jannievanzyl said:
Jan, how does Cell C reconcile these ads with their own public statements that they will not drop pricing on the back of the new MTRs? Basically Cell C is saying that they will keep the money they're going to get from the asymmetrical MTR for themselves (shareholders, I guess?) and not pass it on to consumers.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/95796-new-termination-rates-will-you-see-lower-prices.html
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I am not seeing anything that needs to be reconciled. CellC is claiming that without CTR changes they cannot sustain their current pricing (some of which is promotional in nature). If MTR rates decrease without a high degree of asymmetry then their current pricing becomes sustainable but they will be unable to reinvest in their network. So with the regulations as kicking in on the 1st of April there is more room for competition in the market and Vodacom and MTN's retail operations start to feel a bleed on their profits in favour of ALL smaller operators.
Of course as long as the roaming agreements are at the right pricing - and I do believe that CellC have been more than a little devious with their public comments on the issue of calls dropping, and my approach on the subject is well recorded on this forum - then Vodacom and MTNs are well able to keep their assets delivering returns. Put in some agreements with prospective MVNOs and Vodacom's underlying investments are more than adequately protected.

What is revealed by CellC though is that they need to invest more in infrastructure and I don't see why the BBAUT (big bad and ugly two) can't push for undertakings in this respect. There is at least one solution to the whole fracas that is fair to all concerned but probably won't make anybody exceptionally happy.
 
jannievanzyl said:
Jan, how does Cell C reconcile these ads with their own public statements that they will not drop pricing on the back of the new MTRs? Basically Cell C is saying that they will keep the money they're going to get from the asymmetrical MTR for themselves (shareholders, I guess?) and not pass it on to consumers.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/95796-new-termination-rates-will-you-see-lower-prices.html
Click to expand...

I see what you did there, Cell C never said they are going to keep the money for themselves, they said don't expect drastic price reductions. End of the day, i see this as a chance for them to break even, be it by building better infrastructure or keeping shareholders happy.

No company is your saviour, they all out there to make profit
 
Yes its expensive. That I can almost deal with....me paying MTN a pile of money whilst their piece of sht network is not capable of carrying a simple MTN to MTN call p!sses me off more though.
 
Necro_guy said:
I see what you did there, Cell C never said they are going to keep the money for themselves, they said don't expect drastic price reductions. End of the day, i see this as a chance for them to break even, be it by building better infrastructure or keeping shareholders happy.

No company is your saviour, they all out there to make profit
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So, you're agreeing with my original post then.
 
Vodacom is terrible at my house near Cape Town. No signal in my study.

Edit: my housemate has excellent Cell C voice coverage. I've used our office Cell C data sim at my house when ADSL was down and it is excellent. Will probably dump VC end of this contract end of this year.
 
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jannievanzyl said:
Jan, how does Cell C reconcile these ads with their own public statements that they will not drop pricing on the back of the new MTRs? Basically Cell C is saying that they will keep the money they're going to get from the asymmetrical MTR for themselves (shareholders, I guess?) and not pass it on to consumers.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/telecoms/95796-new-termination-rates-will-you-see-lower-prices.html
Click to expand...

IF Cell-C and Telkom Mobile donot reduce call rates to 60c per minute then ICASA's Asymmetry rates will be in VAIN.
The idea behind offering Asymmetry for 3 years is to offset the lower call rates that are projected thus returning almost 500% to the smaller operators. Eg at 60c per minute outgoing and 20c Interconnect Rate then 40c would be profit.
When this subscriber receives a call Cell-C will receive almost 40c due to the current market share there will be lots of 40c coming in. This will afford Cell-C and Telkom-Mobile an opportunity to be net receivers of the Interconnect game.

HOPE Cell-c & Telkom Mobile dont throw this golden opportunity down the drain as there is only 3 years to Capitalise on this opportunity.

We need and even spread of the Mobile Subscribers

VodaCom - 20 Million
MTN - 18 Million
Cell-C - 17 Million
T-Mobile - 10 Million

ONLY 3 Years to achieve this.
 
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