A price war has broken out in SA’s mobile industry. Within minutes of each other on Wednesday, Cell C and Vodacom both announced they were slashing the cost of prepaid call tariffs to 99c/minute.
The timing of the announcements suggests at least one of the parties was aware of the other’s plans.
However, there are important differences between the two offerings. Cell C’s new prepaid package offers per-second billing from the first second whereas Vodacom’s offer is billed per minute for the first minute and in 30-second increments thereafter.
Vodacom is also offering customers who recharge with R12 or more an extra 60 minutes of talk-time between midnight and 5am.
Vodacom’s new 99c/minute plan is called Freedom 99 and Cell C’s is called “99 Cents For Real”. Both plans offer calls to all SA networks, irrespective of the time of day, at the same per-minute rate. Both packages will be launched officially to consumers on Sunday. — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media
See also: Knott-Craig drops price bomb on rivals