{"id":109926,"date":"2014-09-16T15:26:02","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T13:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=109926"},"modified":"2014-09-16T15:27:30","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T13:27:30","slug":"cell-c-hikes-contract-setup-fees-by-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/109926-cell-c-hikes-contract-setup-fees-by-71.html","title":{"rendered":"Cell C hikes contract setup fees by 71%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cell C quietly increased its SIM &amp; connection fee by 71% from R114 to R195 between July and August 2014, but still remains cheaper than Vodacom and Telkom Mobile.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSIM &amp; connection\u201d is charged to contract customers as a once-off setup fee by most mobile network operators, though many offer promotions that waive the fee (especially for new contract customers).<\/p>\n<p>At R195, Cell C is significantly more expensive than it was before, but still comes in under Telkom, which charges R200, and the R202 levied by Vodacom.<\/p>\n<p>MTN is currently offering free SIM &amp; connection on all its contracts, and its terms &amp; conditions do not appear to list any exceptions to this.<\/p>\n<p>The table below summarises how various mobile network operators, virtual operators, and resellers compare when it comes to once-off setup charges.<\/p>\n<div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\" style=\"background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%;\" border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #002440; font-weight: bold; color: #fff;\">\n<td>Operator<\/td>\n<td>SIM &amp; connection fee<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cell C<\/td>\n<td>R195<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>MTN<\/td>\n<td>R0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Vodacom<\/td>\n<td>R202<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Telkom<\/td>\n<td>R200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #002440; font-weight: bold; color: #fff;\">\n<td>Virtual operators \/ resellers<\/td>\n<td>SIM &amp; connection fee<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Virgin Mobile<\/td>\n<td>R0 \/ R121<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Afrihost<\/td>\n<td>R0 \/ R149<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mweb<\/td>\n<td>R0 \/ R120<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<p>Virgin Mobile doesn\u2019t charge a SIM &amp; connection fee on contracts that exclude a device, but asks R121 on deals with a phone.<\/p>\n<p>Afrihost\u2019s once-off charge is not a SIM &amp; connection fee, but rather a \u201cdelivery and RICA\u201d charge. This charge is waived for packages greater than 500MB.<\/p>\n<p>Like Afrihost, Mweb doesn\u2019t charge a SIM &amp; connection fee, but asks a R120 delivery fee. It currently has a promotion offering free delivery on its 2GB contract.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"related\">More on mobile prices in South Africa<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/109916-biggest-social-networks-in-sa.html\"><strong>Biggest social networks in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/109838-big-threat-to-vodacom-mtn-cell-c-here-soon.html\"><strong>Big threat to Vodacom, MTN, Cell C here soon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/109478-cheapest-mobile-data-deals-in-south-africa.html\"><strong>Cheapest mobile data deals in South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/109032-free-mtn-data-promotion-extended.html\"><strong>Free MTN data promotion extended<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/108598-axxess-mobile-launches-with-special-data-promotions.html\"><strong>Axxess Mobile launches with special data promotions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cell C has increased its SIM &#038; connection fee for contract customers by 71%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":74539,"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":[1669,355,35,42,213,109,1119,41],"class_list":["post-109926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-afrihost","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-mweb","tag-telkom","tag-virgin-mobile","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109926"}],"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=109926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109930,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109926\/revisions\/109930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}