Cell C is planning to move its complete network to MTN and essentially become a high-level mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) as part of its turnaround strategy.<\/p>\n
This is the word from Cell C CEO Douglas Craigie Stevenson, who was discussing the company\u2019s plans with the Financial Mail.<\/p>\n
Cell C is facing a challenging financial future after it recorded an after-tax net loss of R8.03 billion for the year ended 31 May 2019.<\/p>\n
Blue Label Telecoms co-CEO Brett Levy said they drew a line in the sand by writing off their entire investment in Cell C to zero.<\/p>\n
Despite this write-down, Levy remains upbeat about the mobile operator\u2019s prospects, especially with the planned recapitalisation of Cell C through an equity partner.<\/p>\n
He said that the recapitalisation will address Cell C\u2019s debt problem and help the company to become profitable.<\/p>\n
In his interview with Financial Mail<\/strong><\/a>, Craigie Stevenson said Cell C is negotiating a new roaming deal with MTN which will see it carry all of Cell C\u2019s traffic.<\/p>\n This new roaming agreement will also see Cell C hand all of its towers over to MTN, which means it will no longer run its own network.<\/p>\n This radical move means that Cell C will essentially become a high-level MVNO without its own network infrastructure.<\/p>\n This will remove the need for Cell C to invest billions in its network and allow it to use this money for operational expenses.<\/p>\n Cell C\u2019s plan to move its network requirements to MTN and become a large MVNO has been confirmed by an executive close to the negotiations who asked not to be named.<\/p>\n He said such a deal would make financial sense for MTN and Cell C and allow the smaller operator to become more sustainable.<\/p>\n Craigie Stevenson said Cell C cannot carry on with its \u201ccapital-intensive model\u201d, and that this deal with MTN would entail substituting capital expenditure for operational expenditure.<\/p>\n Since Cell C will use MTN\u2019s network to serve its customers, it would allow the company to compete \u201con the basis of having the same geographical footprint and quality of service\u201d.<\/p>\n Craigie Stevenson told the Financial Mail that the deal with MTN is expected to be finalised by the end of October.<\/p>\n Craigie Stevenson remains upbeat<\/strong><\/a> about Cell C\u2019s future considering the value of the company\u2019s assets.<\/p>\n He said that Cell C had valuable spectrum, a large customer base of 16 million active users, a wide distribution network, and a valuable brand \u2013 all of which it could leverage to improve its position.<\/p>\n The Cell C CEO said they are getting rid of costs, getting more efficient, and \u201cunderstanding what a performance culture is all about\u201d.<\/p>\n He said they are well aware that Cell C needs to be more efficient than Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom to recover and improve its position going forward.<\/p>\n Cell C is planning to move its complete network to MTN and essentially become a high-level MVNO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":262663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,46291,35,42],"class_list":["post-323364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-douglas-craigie-stevenson","tag-headline","tag-mtn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323364"}],"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=323364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323424,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323364\/revisions\/323424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cell C has a bright future – Craigie Stevenson<\/h3>\n
Now read: Cell C seeks more network access from MTN<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"