As the festive season fast approaches, Cell C is looking to capitalise on consumers’ cellular spending plans by offering them cash – up to R10 000 – to switch to the company’s high-end contract packages.

The mobile operator, South Africa’s third largest by customer numbers, on Wednesday announced the addition of several new contract packages in the Pinnacle suite of plans mean to “cater for the broader market with various levels of affordability”.

These 24-month plans range from Pinnacle 50 through to Pinnacle 400 to supplement the three Pinnacle packages already in the market, it said.

The three existing packages will be renamed Pinnacle 600, Pinnacle 1000 and Pinnacle Unlimited with top-up packages now also available.

Those signing up for Pinnacle 100 and above between 1 October 2016 and 31 January 2017 will receive triple the normal inclusive voice minutes and SMSes, as well as an additional thousand minutes to call any network using Cell C’s Wi-Fi calling service.

Customers will receive the added value for the duration of their contract terms, it said.

Cell C will also give those signing-up for the Pinnacle 250 and above a cash-back bonus upfront.

It said that those signing up for the Pinnacle 250 at R299/month, for example, will get 250 minutes, 250 SMSes and 250MB of data. And, as part of the promotion, they will get an additional 500 minutes, 500 SMSes and a thousand Wi-Fi calling minutes per month for the duration of their contract term. They will also receive a R3 000 cash-back bonus.

At the top end, R999/month Pinnacle Unlimited customers will receive unlimited calls, unlimited SMSes and 3GB of data with an added promotional 7GB of data for the duration of the contract term for a total of 10GB/month. They will get the same thousand Wi-Fi calling minutes plus R10 000 in cash.