Vodacom has become the latest operator to debut a low-cost, own-branded smartphone aimed at getting more South Africans connected to the Internet. Following the launch early this year by MTN of the Steppa smartphone, which costs R499 – read TechCentral’s review of it – Vodacom has announced it will also begin selling a
Browsing: MTN
Cameroon has offered mobile operator Viettel a year’s monopoly on the operation of the country’s first 3G network. But Viettel is no ordinary operator. It’s owned by the Vietnamese government and operated by its ministry of defence. Readers will recall I wrote about the wholesale network and landing station monopoly enjoyed
Radio personality Gareth Cliff, who recently quit his job at national radio station 5FM to launch Cliff Central, an online radio start-up, has reportedly reached an agreement with MTN to offer his online broadcasts on an unlimited basis for a low fixed monthly fee. According to a report on business website BDlive, Cliff and MTN are set
South Africa’s mobile price war appears to be intensifying, with Vodacom announcing on Friday that it would cut its effective prepaid rate, on a promotional basis, to 50c/minute for customers who buy its new “Chat for 20” product. The new “promotional bundle” offers 20 voice minutes for R10 to call any network
Vodacom has quietly cut its prepaid call rate to 79c/minute on per-second billing, just weeks after MTN did the same. However, the new Vodacom rate is promotional, and expires on 14 July. If Vodacom makes the new 79c rate permanent – by filing the tariff with communications regulator
Independent mobile infrastructure provider IHS has completed its acquisition of more than 1 200 network towers from MTN. It has bought all of the mobile group’s towers in Zambia and Rwanda. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed. IHS subsidiaries in Zambia and Rwanda acquired ownership and
A fortnight after rival MTN announced it was cutting its prepaid rates to 79c/minute, Cell C has introduced four new prepaid vouchers – on a promotional basis – to its product line-up. To be launched on 1 May and available until 31 July, the new Supacharge vouchers give consumers “free” rand value and flexibility
Should we be worried about Cell C? Despite a recent high court ruling that was at least partly in the mobile operator’s favour, noises coming out of the company aren’t exactly painting a rosy picture. There are several reasons for concern, chief among them the ability of the company to engage in a protracted price war while ensuring it
MTN has moved to make permanent its 79c/minute prepaid call tariff, greasing the wheels toward a possible price war in South Africa’s mobile industry and piling the pressure on debt-laden Cell C. “MTN South Africa has lodged the required paperwork with [communications regulator] Icasa to permanise [sic] its
If there were any doubts that MTN South Africa is under severe pressure, the latest quarterly numbers from the mobile group will put them to rest. The South African business shed 825 000 customers between the end of December and the end of March, while average revenue per user slumped by 11,4% over the same three-month