{"id":14869,"date":"2010-09-01T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T18:34:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-09-01T20:34:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-01T18:34:00","slug":"cell-c-faces-off-with-vodacom-mtn-over-4g-network-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/14869-cell-c-faces-off-with-vodacom-mtn-over-4g-network-claims.html","title":{"rendered":"Cell C faces off with Vodacom, MTN over 4G network claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cell C has recently unveiled its new logo and corporate branding, a move which Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt<\/a> said was needed to revitalize the brand and illustrate the operator’s strategy to put the consumer at the centre of everything the company does.<\/p>\n

As part of Cell C’s branding campaign the company is calling its new HSPA+ network a 4Gs network – which Reichelt explains stands for ‘4 Great Speed’ and ‘4 Great Service’<\/a>.  The use of the term 4G to describe the Cell C HSPA+ network is however nothing new.<\/p>\n

In January this year Reichelt announced<\/a> that Cell C was “on track to deliver a 4G network that will offer the kind of connectivity that South Africans have been craving”.<\/p>\n

Reichelt’s claim that Cell C is rolling out a 4G network drew sharp criticism from tech-savvy consumers and industry players alike, and the Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys even poked fun at Reichelt’s claims calling his 4G network an urban legend.<\/p>\n

At the time Reichelt and Cell C refused to discuss why it called its network a 4G network, but at a recent media event the Cell C CEO conceded that it is simply not possible to currently build a 4G network as the 4G standard has not been finalized yet.<\/p>\n

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the main requirements for 4G are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Peak data rate of 100Mbps for high mobility applications such as mobile access<\/li>\n
  2. Approx. 1Gbps for low mobility applications such as nomadic\/local wireless access<\/li>\n
  3. An all-IP based solution<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Vodacom and MTN unimpressed by 4Gs<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Cell C’s turnaround to have a ‘4Gs’ network as opposed to the company’s previous claim of a 4G network didn’t fool anyone, least of all Vodacom and MTN.<\/p>\n

    The two cellular operators lodged two separate complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) alleging that Cell C is misleading consumers with their claims of having built a 4G network.<\/p>\n

    It is understood that there is also unhappiness about the fact that Cell C is advertising its network before it is available, and that the company has made the ‘s’ in its ‘4Gs’ image extremely small.<\/p>\n

    MTN and Vodacom confirmed their ASA complaints against Cell C’s 4G network advertising campaign, but would not elaborate on the issue.<\/p>\n

    Silent treatment<\/strong><\/p>\n

    MTN would not give the details on its complaint about Cell C’s 4Gs network advertising. The company merely said that it “has lodged a complaint with Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and is reserving comment on this issue pending adjudication”.<\/p>\n

    Vodacom would also not comment on the case, saying that their submission is private and that they would not like to discuss the matter at this time. <\/p>\n

    Cell C was asked to explain their position and why they had decided to use the term ‘4G’ to describe their 3.75G HSPA+ network, but the company declined to comment on the matter. <\/p>\n

    Cell C faces off with Vodacom, MTN over 4G network claims<\/strong><\/a> << Comments and views<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Vodacom and MTN lay complaints with ASA over Cell C\u2019s use of the term 4Gs to describe its network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[],"class_list":["post-14869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cellular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14869"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}