Not quite a mobile price war

What about us poor suckers who went the contract route? We used to be the darlings of the networks, now we are treated with disdain and slapped with higher tariffs that never discount during the day but stay high all the time.
 
I am on Virgin Mobile I send about 300 sms messages a month.

Currently getting R99 airtime with a voice tariff of R1.99 per minute for the first 5 minutes of the day thereafter R0.99 per minute. With the R99 option there is also free 500 sms messages thrown into this.

I would love however to have a network with 3G capabilities. I am trying to choose which network I can move to in order to get decent call rates with sms option. Telkom 8ta may make sense if they keep the 5 day sms thing? but ur still spending a lot of money in the end. 300 sms messages on 8ta spread over 30 days = 10 sms messaged per day which basically means I hit the threshold of 5 a day i.e R75 for the month.

If I stick to my current R99 it leaves another R25 for airtime. hmm. bleh. Where on Virgin I had that entire R99 for airtime. Probably best option in the end.
 
well of course you are unlikely to get a price war as you still have an oligopoly. but what is happening is that prices are being driven lower as competitors are added. i stated in one of the earlier 8ta threads that their presence is a good thing in that it at least forces the incumbents to drop prices.

my hope is that given 8ta is backed by Telkom, in their quest to drive subscriber numbers; they may well continue to look at ways to marginally drive prices lower bit by bit. The path may be slow, but better slow than stagnant.
 
Hilton: your table is not complete. To make comparison easier, you should have made the table consistent where possible. I notice that you did not include calls to Telkom on all examples. Take MTN:

MTN (One Rate)

1. Flat rate: R1.75 per minute - calls billed per second from the first second
2. SMS: 50c

Although it may appear obvious, bullet 2 should have been calls to Telkom R.175 per minute (thereby highlighting how expensive MTN is to call Telkom compared to 8ta)
 
MrG said:
....I would love however to have a network with 3G capabilities.....
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I presume you, as a Virgin Mobile user, are able to make use of the Cell C 3G network, if you are within the coverage area, or am I mistaken?
 
if you were to go onto the vodacom top up 275 (iphone 4), which gives you R275 airtime, would you pay R1.40 per min or does it have different call charges bacuase it's a contract?
 
Any competition in this market is good.

Pure voice calls are on the way out - will be replaced by VoIP - unless the cost of Voice Calls is dropped drastically.

Voice rates are short term competitive indicators

Datarates are medium term indicators of the cost of mobile telecoms.
 
milomak said:
well of course you are unlikely to get a price war as you still have an oligopoly........
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Oligopoly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists). The word is derived, by analogy with "monopoly", from the Greek ὀλίγοι (oligoi) "few" + πωλειν (polein) "to sell". Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. The decisions of one firm influence, and are influenced by, the decisions of other firms. Strategic planning by oligopolists needs to take into account the likely responses of the other market participants.
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Thanks I learnt something:)
 
Isn't 8ta just the stupidest name for a service? I can't help but to skip reading it every time I encounter it in a sentence.
 
Viva said:
Isn't 8ta just the stupidest name for a service? I can't help but to skip reading it every time I encounter it in a sentence.
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Pretty weird post in the context of the thread... why not post that in the correct thread?

All competition is good for us consumers, regardless of the name of service provider.
 
MickeyD said:
Pretty weird post in the context of the thread... why not post that in the correct thread?

All competition is good for us consumers, regardless of the name of service provider.
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It just bugs me every time I read about 8ta. No need to start a thread about it. And I'm of course not complaining about the service or the competition that comes with it, just the name ;)
 
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MTN One rate is still the best and cheapest package of them all. Per minute billing is a complete rip off, and is so last century. Well done to MTN for the cheapest true per second billing prepaid rate on the market, and keeping it simple: one rate to any network, at anytime, no peak or off peak, and no hoops to jump through or complicated billing schemes.

The best prepaid package on the market.
 
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I've changed from Vodacom prepaid to 8ta since i phone landlines few times and vodacoms expensive to them :P
 
PPJ said:
Thanks I learnt something:)
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the worst thing about oligopolies is that it is difficult to get them on anti-competitive charges. the reason being that because there are so few of them, they react to price changes. which is why you need a strong regulator

Viva said:
Isn't 8ta just the stupidest name for a service? I can't help but to skip reading it every time I encounter it in a sentence.
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it actually is pretty clever. the majority of South Africans will see it as Eight-ta. if you are a black South African it makes perfect sense - a colloquial way of saying hello. which is very relevant for a communications company. and now that i think about it, i answer many of my personal calls saying 8ta.

edit - actually now i think of it, it may need to be explained one time at least to those that do not speak english. however still a lot more creative than the incumbents. after all - vodacom and mtn as names are no more relevant to the industry.
 
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milomak said:
it actually is pretty clever. the majority of South Africans will see it as Eight-ta. if you are a black South African it makes perfect sense - a colloquial way of saying hello. which is very relevant for a communications company. and now that i think about it, i answer many of my personal calls saying 8ta.

edit - actually now i think of it, it may need to be explained one time at least to those that do not speak english. however still a lot more creative than the incumbents. after all - vodacom and mtn as names are no more relevant to the industry.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight!
 
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