{"id":100980,"date":"2014-04-22T12:57:07","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T10:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=100980"},"modified":"2014-04-29T11:48:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T09:48:02","slug":"will-cell-cs-oob-data-price-hike-help-save-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/100980-will-cell-cs-oob-data-price-hike-help-save-it.html","title":{"rendered":"Will Cell C\u2019s OOB data price hike help save it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent increase in out-of-bundle (OOB) data rates at Cell C<\/a> \u201ccomes as a shock\u201d, according to Arthur Goldstuck<\/a>, MD of\u00a0 tech-focused research firm, World Wide Worx<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to MyBroadband, Goldstuck said the move was surprising because \u201cit suggests that Cell C has given up the fight for the economically disadvantaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where the wealthy are able to get mobile data for as little as 2c per Megabyte (MB) on large bundles, the poor must pay between R1 and R2 per MB due to not being able to afford upfront bundles, Goldstuck said.<\/p>\n

Cell C was a “shining exception” with its 15c\/MB OOB rate, the analyst said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it has made a complete U-turn, abandoning the poor for whom it had claimed to be fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA 99c\/MB rate is indefensible in this country – and that applies to MTN<\/a> as well as to Vodacom<\/a>, with their R2\/MB out-of-bundle rates,\u201d Goldstuck said.<\/p>\n

Plugging holes?<\/h3>\n

Speculation is rife that the move from Cell C may have something to do with the billions of Rands of debt<\/a> the operator finds itself in; however, investor and CEO at Vestact<\/a>, Paul Theron<\/a>, says that it is difficult to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cCell C is not listed, so its hard to know what\u2019s going on there,\u201d Theron said, adding that pressure from its key shareholder (Oger Telecom) could be a possible reason for the changes.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Cell C received an injection of R5.7 billion from Oger Telecom<\/a> – the Lebanese-controlled firm which indirectly holds 75% of the SA operator.<\/p>\n

Oger later invested a further $350-million (around R3.5 billion) into Cell C, along with key lenders – including Nedbank<\/a> and the Development Bank of South Africa<\/a> – which provided R2.2 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The shareholders] must surely want to see some consistent profits from the business?\u201d Theron said.<\/p>\n

Goldstuck said further that the OOB rate change doesn\u2019t say anything about the kind of trouble Cell C may be in, but rather suggests that the company is fighting fires.<\/p>\n

Would an OOB rate increase help get Cell C out of possible financial trouble?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increase will only help get it out of trouble if Cell C\u2019s accountants believe it will do better with fewer customers,\u201d Goldstuck said.<\/p>\n

More on Cell C<\/h3>\n

MTN strikes at the heart of Cell C<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C hikes OOB data prices by 560%<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Is Cell C making money?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C fighting for its life: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analysts speculate on what motivated the hike in Cell C\u2019s out-of-bundle data rates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":96285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3006,355,35,21037,21039,2024],"class_list":["post-100980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-arthur-goldstuck","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-paul-theron","tag-vestact","tag-world-wide-worx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100980"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101408,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100980\/revisions\/101408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}