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Question of the Day: What is the ultimate French toast topping?
Record subscriber number increase for Cell C
- Thread starter jes
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- cell c jose dos santos
MickeyD
RIP
Cell C needed to public allay fears of bankruptcy otherwise suppliers start calling in debt and customers stop signing up, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy
Mind you, those fears have been around for at least 10 years or so as vendor account managers well know.
Mind you, those fears have been around for at least 10 years or so as vendor account managers well know.
So you saying Cell C lost 600k customers to MTN?
I think you too excited about the latest news, ill rather comment tomorrow before the troll names start flowing...
Nope TMs subscriber numbers haven't been revealed as down at all. MTN is the big looser as shown in their financials.
Also Telkom group have managed to get the favourable arrangement for Telkom Mobile (that allows Telkom the space for convergence without the capital risks of network operations) ...
No I am saying more customers departed from MTN than from Vodacom, CellC, or TM and CellC gained the lions share of customers changing over
Therefore it is not churn: If CellC lost as many subscribers to the general pool as it gained you would have churn.
The fact that CellC is underperforming doesn't mean that they aren't giving the BAUTwo a whipping.
lol
Btw do you have any figures to put up in answer to Guilo's suggestion that TM has been the big looser
Ok, but 600 000 customers cancelled in one month, thats crazy!
I suspect Cell C was forced to drop rates due to churn(cancellations) Yes?
Nope if CellC was cancelling subscribers they can't record a record increase - 600 000 subscriptions going inactive means just that - it is almost certainly lower than the figure on the BAUT for the same period and MTN have admitted to a net loss of subscribers and off a base of 1.6 million is less than a third.
The real question you need to be asking - and I've already indicated this, in this thread - is whether CellCs new subscribers are going to increase the revenue of the company. Gaining a million R20 a month subscribers at the expense of 100 000 R350 a month subscribers is not progress.
Unfortunately the numbers aren't being revealed but I am strongly inclined to see the following dynamic currently playing out:
Vodacom is at the moment the dominant force in acquiring the top end of subscriptions with Telkom Mobile taking second place. A result of this is that there is a movement of subscribers from MTN to Vodacom on this front.
CellC is gaining traction in the high but tight purse string end of the market although this market is difficult to keep a hold on other than with term contracts so I don't think CellC really has a positive position here - the 15c OOB plan didn't accomplish what it needed
Lower end of the market is highly fluid with MTN and Vodacom being seen to have some brand premium so you actually find amongst sections of the population people "upgrading" from CellC to MTN/Vodacom
I expect that more than 2/3rds of any actual loss of subscribers (as opposed to SIM cards just remaining inactive) from CellC are to Vodacom in the savy low end of the market because of the power bundles that are so often ridiculed on this forum.
CellC wasn't forced to do anything - much to the BAUTwo's irritation evidently. MTN tried to lock down by purportedly "calling CellC's bluff" and instituting a 79c call cost. CellC had been very clear that with asymmetry of 20c for a full year it would be able bring pricing down to 79c and that on the original schedule it would have done so and brought out a big voice product at a very competitive price. After the court handed down a ruling that didn't suit anybody but the general public and the Rule of Law CellC had to regroup etc ... It has done so, it has acquired a growth in its subscriber number and it has forced MTN into making a fault (79c tariffs) which will cost MTN dearly before delivering a blow that will be able to extract maximum advertizing revenue and reinforce their branding strategy of being the consumer champion.
Bottom line MTN SA's CEO needs to start writing that resignation letter.
I doubt the 600 000 loss was due to inactivity but rather disgruntled users with poor data connectivity.
There might also be a loss in the past week to MTN and Vodacom but I suspect the users have more than one SP sim card.
Yes Cell C base has a low ARPU and thats their taregt market.
I do still think they were "forced to lower prices" If MTN and Voda didnt do so, they would have rode the wave till after the MTR case.
If MTN didn't call the 79c card CellC would have held off on announcing a 66c marker until it became pertinent to do so but I am damn sure that before making the statement in court CellC had various contingencies on MTN or Vodacom playing that hand and the end result was that they tailored there conduct to derive maximum marketing power and to convince funders to support the "war effort".
From sheer volume MTN's move is costing MTN more than matching it would cost CellC in lost revenue - on top of which it is costing MTN more than the "lost revenue" from not contesting the CTRs set for this year in court. As soon as you understand that there are options open for MTN to plug any revenue loss concerns off CTRs the inevitable conclusion is that they ****ed up by going to court and then ****ed up doubly by assuming that they could bully CellC by lowering pricing. Firstly MTNs approach (followed by Vodacom as well) lends itself to CellC being able to draw in war chest funding and secondly it drives far to much focus onto an area of diminishing revenue.
The figures are for March so the effect - if any - of the 79c card wont be shown at all. Vodacom's power bundles go back further than that and were aggressively marketed in January and February.
From sheer volume MTN's move is costing MTN more than matching it would cost CellC in lost revenue - on top of which it is costing MTN more than the "lost revenue" from not contesting the CTRs set for this year in court. As soon as you understand that there are options open for MTN to plug any revenue loss concerns off CTRs the inevitable conclusion is that they ****ed up by going to court and then ****ed up doubly by assuming that they could bully CellC by lowering pricing. Firstly MTNs approach (followed by Vodacom as well) lends itself to CellC being able to draw in war chest funding and secondly it drives far to much focus onto an area of diminishing revenue.
The figures are for March so the effect - if any - of the 79c card wont be shown at all. Vodacom's power bundles go back further than that and were aggressively marketed in January and February.
This cell c growth will just continue to cannibalise MTN prepaid, Vodacom has largely managed to maintain its prepaid subscribers with its various promotions like power hour while MTN still maintains that the decade old mtnzone is still the best tariff , even better than any upcoming competitor promotion