{"id":548445,"date":"2006-04-05T11:38:12","date_gmt":"2006-04-05T11:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/548445-sa-cell-users-cornered-virgin-mobile.html"},"modified":"2006-04-05T11:38:12","modified_gmt":"2006-04-05T11:38:12","slug":"sa-cell-users-cornered-virgin-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/548445-sa-cell-users-cornered-virgin-mobile.html","title":{"rendered":"SA cell users cornered: Virgin Mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCustomers in this country feel cornered when it comes to value and services,\u201d he told Moneyweb on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cExisting incumbents have done a good job of bringing telephony services to the country, but they\u2019ve made a lot of money in the process. In a way, SA has the world of all worlds. Those who do not have money are not getting access as quickly as they could and those who can afford telecommunications are getting very little service. In between all this, there are organisations making money.\u201d<\/p>\n

With mobile number portability becoming a reality around the same time that Virgin Mobile launches, the company will be able to take advantage of customers looking for better services elsewhere while still retaining their existing numbers. Sacranie says Virgin\u2019s services will be easy to understand and of superior service. <\/p>\n

However, with Virgin\u2019s proposition to the South African consumer being value for money rather than lower telephony prices, some may be disappointed. Also, Virgin does not have immediate plans to get involved in the broadband space. Virgin Mobile has entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Cell C for its offerings, with Cell C providing the technology backbone, with Virgin obtaining wholesale-priced minutes from Cell C.<\/p>\n

As such, Virgin is dependent on Cell C\u2019s data technology; the company uses 2,5-generation Edge (enhanced data rates for global evolution) technology, which is slower than 3G technologies.<\/p>\n

Sacranie believes the current-two year contracts are marking prisoners out of customers, although he would not reveal plans regarding packages. <\/p>\n

Contrary reports that Virgin Mobile would be launching as a mobile virtual network operator (where companies lease infrastructure from other mobile operators and then put their own software and billing systems on that) in South Africa, Virgin will be a pure service provider a la Altech\u2019s Autopage Cellular and Reunert\u2019s Nashua Mobile. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between Virgin and the other service providers is that we will be a dedicated service provider in that we will only offer Virgin-branded products.\u201d Autopage and Nashua Mobile sell the offerings of other mobile operators. <\/p>\n

Sacranie says Virgin hopes to win 10% of the South African market \u201cwithin three to five years\u201d. <\/p>\n

Virgin will use the Virgin Active gym chain and open shops in there. Also, it will have \u2018shops in shops\u2019 and it is talking to a number of retailers, although Sacranie would not reveal which: \u201cWe\u2019ll be in 90% of South Africa\u2019s shopping malls on launch,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

While it is small steps for Virgin for now, the company said it would be happy to partner with other companies to offer quadruple play (broadband, television, fixed and mobile telephony) in South Africa, as it has with British company NTL (announced yesterday, making it the first company on the globe to offer quad play). \u201cIf Telkom is interested in rebranding itself as Virgin we\u2019d be happy to get involved,\u201d he says. <\/font><\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/font><\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0 <\/font>http:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za<\/font> <\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Virgin Mobile opens up for business in South Africa in the middle of this year, its biggest proposition will be to offer more value for what cellphone users are currently paying, says Sajeed Sacranie, the acting CEO of Virgin Mobile SA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"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":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548445"}],"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=548445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}