Cell C has declared war on Vodacom and MTN, taking direct aim at its bigger rivals with an offer to buy out their post-paid subscribers from their contracts up to the value of R10 000.

The operator said on Wednesday that it will give customers up to R10 000 to help them buy themselves out of their contract, provided they move to a post-paid contract on Cell C’s network.

“We gave MTN a good run on prepaid. We are now going to give Vodacom a good smack,” Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos told journalists.

The new strategy to grow Cell C’s post-paid base is called Contract Buy-Out.

Post-paid and top-up customers can qualify for an amount of between R1 000 and R10 000, plus a new handset, if they sign up for one of seven new Epic plans.

“So many South Africans are feeling trapped in long-term contracts by their providers that ask for extortionary cancellation fees for early termination,” Dos Santos said. “Cell C’s Contract Buy-Out proposition releases customers from those fees by offering to help buy themselves out of their existing contracts.”

He said those that switch across are guaranteed not to have any price increases imposed on them for the full term of their contracts.

Cell C Epic Sim-oly packages and contract buy-out values. Those signing up early get 7GB of additional data for four months. Image supplied by Cell C

The offer will cost Cell C “a couple of hundred million” rand, Dos Santos said.

The new Epic contract plans start at R69/month, to an unlimited package costing R999/month. Customers can decide whether to spend their contract value on voice, data or SMS.

In a statement, Dos Santos accused his rivals of charging “ludicrous” early termination fees for contract customers.

“We understand that carriers must recoup costs for the handset when customers leave before a contract comes to an end, but charging any percentage of the remaining contract subscription as a termination fee is ludicrous,” he said. “Some of our competitors are charging exorbitant amounts disguised as ‘reasonable early termination fees’ to customers who wish to end their contracts before the contract term.”