MTN not ‘trailing’ Vodacom
Many people expected MTN to hit back immediately after the Vodacom announcements, but the cellular giant said that they will not make decisions in direct response to Vodacom’s announcement and that they are independently looking at ‘innovative and interesting’ ways to add value to their customers.
MTN made it clear that they are not interested in getting into a price war with Vodacom, and that they feel that there are more innovative ways to make services affordable to customers and add value to end users.
They added that a price war may not be in the best interest of consumers as it may be accompanied by degradation in the quality of service.
For many consumers who are eagerly awaiting MTN’s HSDPA cards the wait is nearly over. MTN said that their new MTN HSDPA data cards are in the process of being shipped out and that users can expect their new HSDPA cards to be available in outlets in major centers in South Africa in the next few days.
The cellular giant further pointed out that they expect a very high demand for HSDPA cards in the next few weeks, and that they have taken precautions to not run out.
It is interesting to note that consumers are confident that MTN will not fall behind in the mobile broadband race. In a recent poll 70% of voters said that they see Vodacom as the leader in the mobile broadband environment, but despite Vodacom’s lead most consumers felt that MTN will be able to keep up with their cellular rival.
MTN’s HSDPA service is currently available in Gauteng, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Bloemfontein. This rollout constitutes the first phase of MTN’s HSDPA rollout plans where all high-traffic 3G sites are upgraded to HSDPA.
The second phase will involve upgrading all the remaining 3G sites to HSDPA. There will also be an expansion of the current 3G network as well as the upgrade of a thousand more sites to EDGE over the rest of the year.
While MTN many not want to directly respond to Vodacom’s recent moves, the value of competition is very visible in the wireless broadband arena. Users will most likely see innovative offerings from MTN which will compete favourably with Vodacom new pricing.
It is also no coincidence that South African consumers were of the first in the world to experience HSDPA. If we compare the mobile environment with the fixed line arena it becomes blatantly clear what this rivalry can mean for the local telecoms industry. Simply put competition results in improved service delivery at reduced prices.
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