Cell C, what have you done?
Cell C recently performed well in MyBroadband’s 2016 war drive, with test results showing that the network has improved its coverage and performance over the past year.
It also achieved the highest average download speed in our drive test, and offered impressive LTE coverage.
However, cellphone bill optimisation service Tariffic recently told MyBroadband that it has noticed a big change in Cell C’s contract options over the past year.
Where the network’s contract packages used to be easy to understand, Cell C’s new Epic post-paid offering is difficult by comparison.
As the tables below show, you pay one amount, get a different amount of airtime, and then get Cell C’s most expensive contract tariffs.
You also can’t use the airtime to buy data or SMS bundles.
Cell C Epic contract packages
| Post-paid and hybrid package | Fee | Included airtime |
|---|---|---|
| Epic 100 | R69 | R100 |
| Epic 150 | R99 | R150 |
| Epic 200 | R129 | R200 |
| Epic 350 | R229 | R350 |
| Epic 500 | R339 | R500 |
| Epic 650 | R449 | R650 |
| Epic 1000 | R699 | R1,000 |
Cell C Epic and Pinnacle post-paid tariffs
The table below compares the tariffs of Cell C’s newest post-paid price plans: Epic and Pinnacle.
While Pinnacle contracts offer better value than Epic, they are aimed at high-end users – with the first Pinnacle tier offering 600 minutes and 1GB of data per month.
| OOB rates | Epic | Pinnacle |
|---|---|---|
| Data | 99c/MB | 15c/MB |
| Voice | R1.89/min | R1.50/min |
| SMS | R0.50/msg | R0.15/msg |
Controlling behaviour with cellphone deals
In addition to introducing contract packages that are difficult to understand, Cell C also structured its offerings in a way that drive subscribers towards Epic contracts.
First, Cell C introduced its Epic contracts along with the Contract Buyout offer. Initially, subscribers who wanted to make use of Contract Buyout had to switch to an Epic contract.
The network has also dramatically reduced the number of devices offered on its older contract packages, including dropping its higher-end phones from Straight Up and SmartChat.
A summary of the number of device deals available through Cell C’s website is given in the table below.
| Number of smartphone deals on Cell C contracts | |
| Epic | 40 |
| Epic Topup | 16 |
| Pinnacle | 15 |
| SmartChat | 2 |
| SmartChat TopUp | 0 |
| Straight Up | 5 |
| Straight Up Topup | 5 |
| Infinity Select | 68 |
| Chatmore | 0 |
| Hi 5 | 0 |
Cell C was asked to comment on whether it is grandfathering its old contracts, and why it has moved away from easy-to-understand packages like Straight Up, but the company did not respond by the time of publication.
Update: Cell C has provided the following statement.
Our suite of products are built around consumer needs and lifestyle as well as market research that is conducted from time to time.
As the market has become more data centric, we introduced different plans to suit various needs – voice plans for the voice centric customers; data plans for the data centric customers; value plans for those who prefer to control their spend on voice, data or SMS as well as unlimited plans.
Customers prefer choice and flexibility, and we have provided them with the best variety of affordable products offering great value for money. All our deals are designed based on customer demand and based on Cell C’s growth over the last few years, customer clearly like our offers.
It is also important to note that both Tariffic and Research ICT Africa’s latest research reports confirm that Cell C still offers some of the best contract deals available in the market.
More on Cell C
Redesigned Cell C website launched
MyBroadband War Drive: Vodacom vs MTN vs Cell C vs Telkom – the winner is clear
Cell C drops call termination review against Icasa
Cell C CEO celebrates Vodacom’s High Court loss
Cell C’s new C-Fibre: coverage and network details
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