{"id":69750,"date":"2013-02-04T12:04:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T10:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=69750"},"modified":"2013-02-04T12:05:29","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T10:05:29","slug":"mtn-vs-cell-cs-free-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/69750-mtn-vs-cell-cs-free-battle.html","title":{"rendered":"MTN vs Cell C\u2019s free battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (<a title=\"ASA\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/306365-ASA-Advertising-Standards-Authority\">ASA<\/a>) has ruled that <a title=\"MTN\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/226943-MTN\">MTN<\/a>\u2019s advertising claiming to be the only provider to offer free minutes on contract is misleading.<\/p>\n<p>An MTN print advertisement that appeared in the Sunday Times on 11 November 2012 stated \u201cMTN TopUp, the only contract that gives you Mahala.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Cell C\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/213919-Cell-C\">Cell C<\/a> took exception to this claim, and lodged a complaint at the ASA. Cell C argued that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>MTN\u2019s \u201cMahala\u201d offer is subject to several limitations;<\/li>\n<li>MTN Top Up is not the only contract that gives certain \u201cfree\u201d calls or offers. (\u201cMahala\u201d is an ordinary word meaning \u201cfree\u201d, which is commonly used in South African slang).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cell C provided the ASA with advertisements which showed that <a title=\"Vodacom\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/227063-Vodacom\">Vodacom<\/a> and <a title=\"8ta\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/vb\/showthread.php\/276092-8ta\">8ta<\/a> also offer free minutes on some of their contract products \u2013 substantiating their argument.<\/p>\n<p>Webber Wentzel Attorneys, on behalf of MTN, hit back at Cell C\u2019s ASA complaint, arguing that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The ASA should not give any credence to Cell C\u2019s submission that there are countless other examples of cell phone packages and contracts with free aspects, as none of these examples were attached to the complaint;<\/li>\n<li>MTN has not received a complaint from either 8ta or Vodacom, whose advertisements were attached to the complaint. It therefore appears that Cell C is deliberately targeting MTN and its advertisements and that the complaint was brought in bad faith;<\/li>\n<li>The word \u201cMahala\u201d in the advertisement is used as a reference to MTN\u2019s \u201cMahala\u201d offerings and not in the ordinary sense [hence free].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_69754\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/69750-mtn-vs-cell-cs-free-battle.html\/attachment\/mtn-mahala-ad\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-69754\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-69754\" class=\"size-full wp-image-69754\" title=\"MTN Mahala ad\" src=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/MTN-Mahala-ad.jpg\" alt=\"MTN Mahala ad\" width=\"600\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/MTN-Mahala-ad.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/MTN-Mahala-ad-100x40.jpg 100w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/MTN-Mahala-ad-185x74.jpg 185w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/MTN-Mahala-ad-250x101.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-69754\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">More recent MTN Mahala ad<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The ASA was not convinced by MTN\u2019s argument. The advertising authority said that it is just as likely that consumers would understand the word \u201cMahala\u201d to have its ordinary meaning, which is \u201cfree\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The ASA found that the advertising line \u201cMTN TopUp, the only contract that gives you Mahala\u201d is misleading by ambiguity.<\/p>\n<p>MTN was ordered to withdraw the claim, and it may not be used again in its current format in future.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More MTN and Cell C articles<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"The true cost of an off-net mobile call\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/69234-the-true-cost-of-an-off-net-mobile-call.html\"><strong>The true cost of an off-net mobile call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Report damns mobile operators\u2019 price hike claims\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/65932-report-damns-mobile-operators-price-hike-claims.html\"><strong>Report damns mobile operators\u2019 price hike claims<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Cheaper voice rates ripe for the picking in SA\" href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/64034-cheaper-voice-rates-ripe-for-the-picking-in-sa.html\"><strong>Cheaper voice rates ripe for the picking in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/63078-unlimited-voice-calls-at-a-flat-rate-from-8ta.html\"><strong>Unlimited voice calls at a flat rate from 8ta<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/telecoms\/49361-cell-c-lcr-product-a-game-changer.html\"><strong>Cell C LCR product a \u2018game changer\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MTN\u2019s claims of being the only contract provider to provide Mahala calls lands them in trouble with the ASA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":54765,"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":[473,355,35,42,41],"class_list":["post-69750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-8ta","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69750"}],"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=69750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69806,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69750\/revisions\/69806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}