Cell C will introduce new broadband products in the next few weeks and bring its long-running special offers, introduced a year ago, to an end.

The company, which has rolled out 1 900 third-generation mobile broadband towers covering 63% of the country’s population, says it has sold 120 000 broadband USB modems since it launched its new network in the third quarter of 2010. When it introduced the special offers — offering mobile broadband as low as 3,3c/MB — it shook the competitive landscape, with rivals MTN and Vodacom responding with products of their own in the 2GB/month sweet spot. Since then, Telkom’s new mobile arm, 8ta, has responded with even more aggressive pricing as part of a time-limited special offer.

“We will be introducing new packages in a couple of weeks that will give an indication of how our suite of products will unfold,” says Cell C executive head of marketing Simon Camerer, without providing additional detail of how the new products will be priced.

Cell C on Thursday published its 2010 financial results for the 12 months to 31 December. It reported a 5% increase in sales to R10,2bn and flat earnings (before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of R1,4bn as a result of capital expenditure and rebranding and marketing costs. Subscribers — measured as active at least once on the network in a four-month period — climbed by 12% to 8,2m.

Camerer says the new network and repositioned brand is helping Cell C attract subscribers in higher LSM (living standards measures) segments. “Our quest is to go after higher value customers,” he says. Part of this strategy was introducing BlackBerry handsets as part of its device line-up, he adds.

“Today we have about 100 000 BlackBerry customers,” Camerer says. About half of those are on contract, with the rest using prepaid services. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral