ASA: Vodacom versus Cell C

shame, poor vodacom, getting hot under the collar whenever somebody undercuts their tariffs...

cellc will probably redesign that advertisment :D
 
It was my impression that according to ASA rulings in iBurst versus Neotel, colour was not a distinctive enough attribute to identify a company. If this is the case then blue or yellow aren't enough to identify a company and there is nothing wrong with cell c's advert.
 
“The ASA has a long standing principle which holds that where an advertiser provides an unequivocal undertaking to withdraw or amend its advertising in a manner that addresses the concerns raised, the undertaking is accepted without considering the merits of the matter,” the ASA said in a statement.
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Unfortunately that statement nullifies the use of the ASA enormously. It means that anybody can say anything and as long as they promise not to use it again they can get away with it. Meanwhile the damage has already been done. That and the fact that the ASASA take months to investigate any complaints and during that time thousands of people are mislead.
 
Moving onto the REAL issue of who has the cheapest prepaid tarrif, it is neither the blue, nor the red, but in fact the yellow.

MTN charge R1.83 per minite, with true per second billing, from the first second. The rate applies to all networks, at all times (no peak / off peak rates). It is even cheaper than contract rates! Don't believe me? visit http://www.hellkom.co.za/ and scroll halfway down the page.

Read more here - http://www.mtn.co.za/FindaPlan/Pages/MTNOneRate.aspx
 
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ToxicWazte said:
Moving onto the REAL issue of who has the cheapest prepaid tarrif, it is neither the blue, nor the red, but in fact the yellow.

MTN charge R1.83 per minite, with true per second billing, from the first second. The rate applies to all networks, at all times (no peak / off peak rates). It is even cheaper than contract rates! Don't believe me? visit http://www.hellkom.co.za/ and scroll halfway down the page.

Read more here - http://www.mtn.co.za/FindaPlan/Pages/MTNOneRate.aspx
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When did prepaid become cheaper than contract rates?
 
lol. this kind of confusion is typical. but i see ZA isn't the only place with the issues.
ever seen this classic ad campaign for net 10?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hwUBBE0x48&feature=related[/ame]
 
Borrels said:
When did prepaid become cheaper than contract rates?
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MTN launched it in the beginning of December. I am referring to call rates being cheaper. With contract you obviuosly get a bundled "free" phone, which factors into the price / value for money.

But so far nobody has been able to beat MTN One rate's peak, true-per-second billing rate. It is even cheaper than an MTN Anytime 500 contract.
 
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ToxicWazte said:
MTN launched it in the beginning of December. I am referring to call rates being cheaper. With contract you obviuosly get a bundled "free" phone, which factors into the price / value for money.

But so far nobody has been able to beat MTN One rate's peak, true-per-second billing rate. It is even cheaper than an MTN Anytime 500 contract.
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Actually, on a Virgin airtime only R500, you pay maximum R1.75 per minute, per second billing and it drops to 99c/min on net and R1.55 off net.(after the 1st 5 min). Either way, it's still cheaper (even at the R1.75)
 
ocleroux said:
Vodacom similar product:

http://www.vodacom.co.za/services/allday/cost.jsp

To other mobile networks it is R 1.99 per minute though.
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Is this with true per second billing, or per minute billing? The website doesn't specify at all, so there's a 95% chance that it isn't. If it was true per second billing, they would have made a big noise about it on the above link. Very strange how they mention nothing about it.

UPDATE: OK turns out that this package has per second billing. Stupid that they didn't mention it on the What is the cost? page.

K3NS31 said:
Actually, on a Virgin airtime only R500, you pay maximum R1.75 per minute, per second billing and it drops to 99c/min on net and R1.55 off net.(after the 1st 5 min). Either way, it's still cheaper (even at the R1.75)
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If you have to commit to a minium of R500 per month, it's not prepaid. With MTN One Rate, you get the same rate whether you spend R5 or R500 for the month. But its a good deal nevertheless - beats MTN and Vodacom contract prices. In any case, I couldn't live without 3G/HSDPA - Virgin/Cell C Edge/GPRS just doesn't cut it - even at 60c per mb, but especially in 2010.

Jozi101 said:
What's the meaning of "On net" and "Off net"?:confused:
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On net refers to calls made to a number on the same network. E.g. Vodacom to Vodacom, Virgin to Virgin, MTN to MTN. Off net refers to calls made to a number on a different network. E.g. Vodacom to MTN, Cell C to Vodacom, MTN to Virgin.
 
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But Cell C is cheaper than vodacom then, because they are comparing to any network.
 
phoneJunky said:
But Cell C is cheaper than vodacom then, because they are comparing to any network.
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It is debatable - Cell C has only per minute billing on that R1.50 deal. So you are always losing out because of ending a call before your minute is out. If you mostly make long calls in peak time, i.e. several minutes at a time, I would think Cell C is cheaper.
 
I think it's the pricing is completely irrelevant at the end of the day, even if Vodacom is double the price of Cell C, it doesn't matter because the service at Cell C is so bad!
 
midkemia said:
Pity they dont support android...
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FNB might be charging 99c per minute, but you still get charged for data usage. So the actual cost is a bit higher than 99c, and the quality of the call will depend on the qualiuty of your data connection.

Would be nice if FNB had their own APNs on Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom Mobile, which would be free for FNB Connect subscribers. Something like LLU, but for wireless. Would be even nicer if you could then program this APN into the mobile app. FNB could incorporate this into the call costs, if you choose to use it...
 
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