Telkom is catching Cell C

[Jamie McKane]

Telkom is catching Cell C

Cell C is the latest South African mobile operator to reflect a decline in its active mobile subscriber base.

Both Vodacom and MTN's mobile subscriber counts fell earlier this year, discounting telemetry and enterprise subscribers.

 

[Polymathic]

Do FLLA subs count as mobile subscribers?

 

[Thor]

Well, Telkom needs to dramatically drop data prices (change the model) if they want any chance to compete with MTN and Vodacom.

Do away with charging per MB, data is a utility stop pricing it like a commodity.

 

[quovadis]

Well, Telkom needs to dramatically drop data prices (change the model) if they want any chance to compete with MTN and Vodacom.

They're already cheaper than both MTN and Vodacom for pre and postpaid.

 

[We Love Bass]

Well, Telkom needs to dramatically drop data prices (change the model) if they want any chance to compete with MTN and Vodacom.

Do away with charging per MB, data is a utility stop pricing it like a commodity.

To how much,R10 a gig?

 

[Gudnews]

Well, Telkom needs to dramatically drop data prices (change the model) if they want any chance to compete with MTN and Vodacom.

Do away with charging per MB, data is a utility stop pricing it like a commodity.

Great for us consumers, but they don't need to match the big boys to make a living.

 

[Thor]

To how much,R10 a gig?

Should not be per GB.

The world consumes data.

Should be unlimited and then priced per speed or access.

 

[asshat99]

Do away with charging per MB, data is a utility stop pricing it like a commodity.

yes, because water as a utility is not charged per litre and electricity as a utility is not charged per kWh.

 

[We Love Bass]

Should not be per GB.

The world consumes data.

Should be unlimited and then priced per speed or access.

Your point is valid but my guess is they probably thought of that years ago and realised it wouldn't make business sense or generate good revenue that way.

 

[DXL]

My 2c for Sipho Maseko

1. Offer great customer service.
2. Take advantage of the Mobile Interconnection rates and offer 1c per second across all voice packages across all networks.
3. Drop the SMS Tariffs to 10c to any network anytime ( Sms is dead anyway )
4. Make the Prepaid data on Mo-Nice
Permanent and offer more bundles to everyone.
From
1Gig = R10
3 Gig = R25
5 Gig = R35
10 Gig = R60
20 Gig = R110
30 Gig = R150
50 Gig = R220

5. Put up more towers in residential areas and townships.

 

[Swa]

They're already cheaper than both MTN and Vodacom for pre and postpaid.

To how much,R10 a gig?

Cell C is R10/GB valid for a year. Until Telkom has something that can compete with that I won't use them.

yes, because water as a utility is not charged per litre and electricity as a utility is not charged per kWh.

False equivalence as those have fixed per unit costs associated with them. Charging for data per GB is actually an oddity globally. It's also not the only service charging for access rather than for use.

 

[quovadis]

Cell C is R10/GB valid for a year. Until Telkom has something that can compete with that I won't use them.


False equivalence as those have fixed per unit costs associated with them. Charging for data per GB is actually an oddity globally. It's also not the only service charging for access rather than for use.

Cell C at R10 per GB is turning out to be struggling financially and for decent signal.

Charging per GB is pretty much all over the world. Most which offer “uncapped” go from LTE to slow 3G after using 10GB or some FUP and they limit tethering to 3G speeds etc.

 

[supersunbird]

Should not be per GB.

The world consumes data.

Should be unlimited and then priced per speed or access.

Priced per speed using a very variable speed tech? Yeah right.

 

[Gudnews]

4. Make the Prepaid data on Mo-Nice
Permanent and offer more bundles to everyone.
From
1Gig = R10
3 Gig = R25
5 Gig = R35
10 Gig = R60
20 Gig = R110
30 Gig = R150
50 Gig = R220

5. Put up more towers in residential areas and townships.

They would need to do a whole lot of 5 before offering 4. And speaking of 4, I know the networks are greedy but those prices seem too extreme the other way round and maybe I've just been brainwashed to believe that. I see the price war as a negotiation and there's no way they'd take that offer.

 

[johnjm]

yes, because water as a utility is not charged per litre and electricity as a utility is not charged per kWh.

Is data a basic human right and in the Constitution similar to water and electricity?

 

[Thor]

yes, because water as a utility is not charged per litre and electricity as a utility is not charged per kWh.

Data does not cost anything, unlike a liter of water and a kWh of electricity.

 

[richjdavies]

Data does not cost anything, unlike a liter of water and a kWh of electricity.

Water falls from the sky. It does not cost anything.
Getting it to you at a quality that means you won't die, that's what costs!

Same with data :?

 

[quovadis]

Data does not cost anything, unlike a liter of water and a kWh of electricity.

Lol of course there’s a cost for data. It’s not magic. Sheesh.

 

[Swa]

Cell C at R10 per GB is turning out to be struggling financially and for decent signal.

Charging per GB is pretty much all over the world. Most which offer “uncapped” go from LTE to slow 3G after using 10GB or some FUP and they limit tethering to 3G speeds etc.

Cell C is struggling for other reasons. They didn't do enough wrt price. The whole reason call termination rates were lowered like they were was to offer an advantage to the smaller players like Cell C and Telkom so they could undercut MTN and Vodacom to the point where they can't compete and so gain customers. Never happened with the people in change at the time.

Uncapped has been a norm for like 10 years now. Sure it's intended for mobile use but I would actually not mind an option with 3G speeds and no payu.

Water falls from the sky. It does not cost anything.
Getting it to you at a quality that means you won't die, that's what costs!

Same with data :?

No the majority of the cost is treatment related. With data it costs only a few cents per GB to do the actual providing. By charging what they do the networks have made data costs artificially expensive.

 

[quovadis]

Cell C is struggling for other reasons. They didn't do enough wrt price. The whole reason call termination rates were lowered like they were was to offer an advantage to the smaller players like Cell C and Telkom so they could undercut MTN and Vodacom to the point where they can't compete and so gain customers. Never happened with the people in change at the time.
Uncapped has been a norm for like 10 years now. Sure it's intended for mobile use but I would actually not mind an option with 3G speeds and no payu.
No the majority of the cost is treatment related. With data it costs only a few cents per GB to do the actual providing. By charging what they do the networks have made data costs artificially expensive.

Once again and as in general I agree to disagree. Telkom Mobile is doing just fine and growing by the day even charging at higher than R10/GB. Please don't conflate voice revenue with data revenue. Uncapped data on mobile is definitely not the norm - it's marketed as such but as almost always it is severely constrained especially off-device (ie. mobile hotspot/tethering etc). The drop of speed to 3G is usually around 64-128kbps as a fallback and even when you are within FUP they'll drop your video to 1-1.5mbps for streaming. I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers from but you seem to love to oversimplify the cost. But please, as I've asked before, point me to an uncapped offering without the fine print and FUP for a mobile offering from a regular mobile operator with 10 million subscribers or more that costs less than R1000 even at our crappy exchange rate?