Goodbye CellC, hello 8ta

MervynB

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When I moved house about 5 years ago Telkom was VERY unhelpful about moving my ADSL connection so I opted to go the 3G route. I have a cellphone contract with Vodacom so I added a data contract. Connection speed was about 2Mbps even though I was just outside the published coverage footprint so I was more than happy.

Over the years the connection speed got slower and slower as more an more users came on line but with no upgrade to the infrastructure. It got so bad that it was virtually unusable. A year ago I canceled the Vodacom contract when it came up for renewal and changed to CellC. The 5GB X 12 deal with the modem thrown in at R2999 was a steal. Added to that, the Woosh really worked and life was good. (The Woosh disappeared a couple of times but Armando soon got that sorted out.)

When the 5GB X 12 promo came to an end CellC set the tariff at R4450 for 12 months. This is good value for money and I was ready to sign up when my initial deal came to an end at the end of this month. But no, since August the price has gone up to R9240. CellC is quite happy to have the use of my money for a year but offers nothing, except perhaps that I don't have to go to the trouble of buying data every month, in return. Admittedly, the 15c per MB is less than the charges made by Vodacom and MTN but it shows that CellC has upped its data charges to what the market will bear rather than setting a fair price. After all, one must assume that at R4450 CellC was still making a profit.

The 8ta download speed certainly doesn't have Woosh but it is adequate and at 3c per MB on the 60+60 promotion it is virtually for nothing.

At R4450 (or even up to R6000) for 5GB X 12 I would still be a CellC customer. At R9240 it's gooodbye.
 

ginggs

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At R4450 (or even up to R6000) for 5GB X 12 I would still be a CellC customer. At R9240 it's gooodbye.
R9240 for 60GB? :eek:

Are you sure that's the correct price? They sell the 24GB (2GB x 12) SIM for R1299, why would they make it cheaper to buy three 24GB SIMs than one 60GB SIM?
 

Christiaan

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Same here. Currently on 5GB pm contract with stick for R299. Expiring later this month and moving to 8ta. It is silly that they moved all their products to R150+- per GB pricing across the board, except the 2GB pm package which is R50 per GB, however I need more than 2GB pm... 5GB was ideal for me.

Bye bye Cell C, hello 8ta. :D
 

greg0205

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Been using an 8ta sim in my iPad for yonks now... their 2GB+1GB for R149,00 is perfect for it. That said, given that you boys are paying R299,00 per month for 5GB or even R9240,00 for 5GB x 12 it really, really... really is hard to argue against that R1800,00 for 60GB + 60GB 8ta deal. Eish! R9240,00!??!!
 

MervynB

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R9240 for 60GB? :eek:

Are you sure that's the correct price? They sell the 24GB (2GB x 12) SIM for R1299, why would they make it cheaper to buy three 24GB SIMs than one 60GB SIM?

Those are two good questions but I've just checked again and the price is correct. Why the discrepancy in pricing? I don't know but perhaps their marketing guy failed Marketing 101. :) It does show that CellC can afford to sell data at less than 6.5c per MB so their charge of 15c per MB, especially for larger packages, is exploitation. On the other hand R15 for 100MB leaves 8ta's offering of R40 for 100MB in the dust. Perhaps their marketing strategy is to sign up plenty of small users and to heck with the people who use larger amounts of data.

Three 2GB X 12 SIMs for R3897 or one 5GB X12 SIM for R9240. On the face of it, a no-brainer although having three SIMs brings with it the nuisance value of having to change SIMs regularly. This is offset to some extent by the extra 1GB of data available each month. (I'm not quite sure how well the contacts in the modem would like having the SIM changed so regularly.) On the other hand I don't need the extra data as I have regularly left 300 - 400MB of the 5GB on the table at the end of each month so far.

If CellC offered a 5GB X 12 SIM for R3897 (or even R4450 which was the price pre-August 2012) I probably wouldn't even be considering 8ta as I value convenience and performance above cost. I also believe in brand loyalty to a large extent. As it is, CellC expects me to jump through hoops to save money and I resent this. 8ta offers the convenience of one SIM and a saving of over R2000 to boot. I'm afraid brand loyalty loses out and it's "Hello 8ta".
 

ginggs

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Those are two good questions but I've just checked again and the price is correct.
How did you check; did you speak to someone or are you just going by what is on their website?
 

sajunky

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Perhaps their marketing strategy is to sign up plenty of small users and to heck with the people who use larger amounts of data.
Very good strategy. More users and avoiding filling up network capacity. For typical Smartphone user 500MBp/m is more than enough. And these users not only use data, means more balanced revenue. I wrote about it would be Cel C strategy.
 

Russell S

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I was in the same position. Was waiting for a replacement for the 5GB per month prepaid option, got tired of waiting, and went to 8ta. The sad thing is that I would be happy to pay a bit of a premium to have a Cell C connection as their connection speeds and coverage are pretty good where I am. I hoped that after the 2GB per month deal was announced, that there would be a new 5GB per month in the wings.

But it just never happened so in the end I just moved over.
 

AlmightyBender

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Yeah the website confims the above. Truly bizarre. Also the 2GB is significantly cheaper than the 1GB. I understand that it is a promotion but that seems silly.
 

Stochos

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I was prepared to go with Cell-C at their rate of R1999 pre paid for 5GB/per month 12month for the third time.

The prices are now ridiculous. Moving to 8ta soon.

What happened Cell-C?
 

Blaze5

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same here ...was really happy with CellC ..speeds were great and i waited almost 3 months after the 12 months for a promo...but ya couldn't wait anymore so moved to 8ta...one other thing is that 8ta gives u all the data upfront.....but im still keeping the CellC sim....the smaller bundles are too good to leave...got a S2 ..data hungry
 

CraigAnanzi

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Sep 19, 2012
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My 5GB monthly Whoosh contract of R299 recently expired and CellC happily went ahead and doubled this monthly tariff.

I've now moved to Telkom for 10GB a month for R199.

CellC you are BLOWING IT BIG TIME !!
 
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MervynB

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Oct 27, 2008
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HI

We have launched our new product Giga 200 pre-paid and the Giga 20 post-paid,
Really great value for money.

Regards
±AM±

I agree, great value for money although it is a bit disingenuous for CellC to talk about "less than R9 per Gb" as this would only be true if one were to use every single byte of the 200Gb. I have no interest in the 150Gb available from midnight to 06:00 - I need my beauty sleep! I would, however, use the full 50Gb of daytime data as this is valid for 365 days (and not at 5Gb/month as with the previous offering which meant that quite a bit of data was "lost") which works out at R35.98/Gb. As the guy in the CTM TV ad says, "Now we're talking". :)

It's a pity there wasn't a hint 6 weeks ago that this sort of deal was in the offing. I would have stuck with CellC by buying vouchers at 15c/Mb until next week when the deals come into force. As it is I have been with 8ta for a month and I'm reluctant to write off 11 months worth of data to return to CellC given that the 8ta connection performs adequately.

Mind you, if I write off 11 months of 8ta data it's going to mean the CellC 50Gb for the next 12 months will have effectively cost me about R3450. This works out at less than R70/Gb which I would have been happy enough to pay to CellC in the first place. Perhaps Father Christmas can find space in his bag for a Giga 200 SIM. :)
 

Stochos

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CELL C the unbrave!

CELL C should be brave and go head to head with 8ta.

Why 50GB for daytime usage?

This is disingenuous!

Why not at least 60GB? It would make it more compelling. As previous posters have suggested that the 'peak' data is what is actually important.

Making a bundle of say 70GB available for peak usage would have made this deal a no-brainer. Instead this caveat has still left the door ajar for 8ta for the many people who are currently happy with Cell-C, coming to the end of their pre-paid terms, but see this new package as missing the mark.

They will have to modify their browsing behaviour with the 50GB bundle, as they will be cautious during the day; which is silly. It all points to taking the 60GB+60GB from 8ta.

And making 50GB available is trying to create confusion and make it difficult for like-for-like comparisons; perfected by none other than cell phone companies.
 

SAdata

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And making 50GB available is trying to create confusion and make it difficult for like-for-like comparisons; perfected by none other than cell phone companies.

I smell a faint whiff of *collusion* gasp :p
 

SAdata

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And making 50GB available is trying to create confusion and make it difficult for like-for-like comparisons; perfected by none other than cell phone companies.

I smell a faint whiff of *collusion* gasp :p
 
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