{"id":102523,"date":"2014-05-20T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=102523"},"modified":"2014-05-20T12:01:54","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T10:01:54","slug":"how-vodacom-is-fighting-whatsapp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/102523-how-vodacom-is-fighting-whatsapp.html","title":{"rendered":"How Vodacom is fighting WhatsApp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"WhatsApp\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/501086-WhatsApp\">WhatsApp<\/a> is set to launch free voice calls in the coming months, which poses a significant threat to the mobile operators\u2019 main revenue stream &#8211; voice. <a title=\"Vodacom\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/227063-Vodacom\">Vodacom<\/a> is fighting through cheaper calls and bundles services.<\/p>\n<p>With millions of WhatsApp and Facebook users in South Africa, the mobile operators took note when WhatsApp announced its voice calling plans.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"MTN\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/226943-MTN\">MTN<\/a> CEO <a title=\"Sifiso Dabengwa\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/288039-Sifiso-Dabengwa\">Sifiso Dabengwa<\/a> said free WhatsApp voice calls can be a game changer, but added that the success will depend on the quality and availability of the service.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Vodacom\u2019s protection against WhatsApp voice calls<\/h3>\n<p>Speaking on CNBC, Vodacom CEO <a title=\"Shameel Joosub\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/210076-Shameel-Joosub\">Shameel Joosub<\/a> said that their pricing transformation provides protection against WhatsApp\u2019s planned voice calls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you drive your prices down low enough, there is no need for WhatsApp,\u201d said Joosub.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday we have our new power bundles where you pay R4 for an hour of talktime, which translates into 7c a minute,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you pay 7c per minute the WhatsApp option does not become that credible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joosub said that you have to drive down pricing and make sure you have migrated customers to integrated bundles with voice, SMS and data to fight disruptive services like WhatsApp.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on WhatsApp<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Free WhatsApp voice service a game changer: MTN CEO\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/98138-free-whatsapp-voice-service-a-game-changer-mtn-ceo.html\"><strong>Free WhatsApp voice service a game changer: MTN CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #263034;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cb;\" title=\"Lethal threat which could crush Vodacom, MTN profits\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/97905-lethal-threat-which-could-crush-vodacom-mtn-profits.html\"><strong>Lethal threat which could crush Vodacom, MTN profits<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #263034;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cb;\" title=\"Time for telecoms CEOs to worry: Michael Jordaan\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/97653-time-for-telecoms-ceos-to-worry-michael-jordaan.html\"><strong>Time for telecoms CEOs to worry: Michael Jordaan<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #263034;\"><a style=\"color: #0066cb;\" title=\"WhatsApp to add voice calls\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/97423-whatsapp-to-add-voice-calls.html\"><strong>WhatsApp to add voice calls<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp is set to launch voice services soon, threatening the core revenue stream of mobile operators. Here is how Vodacom will fight back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":75147,"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":[35,42,1958,1427,41,2594],"class_list":["post-102523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-shameel-joosub","tag-sifiso-dabengwa","tag-vodacom","tag-whatsapp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102523"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102527,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102523\/revisions\/102527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}