Vodacom and Cell C have been at each other’s throats again in front of the Advertising Standards Authority, this time over a claim by Cell C that it was the first to introduce commercial Wi-Fi calling in South Africa.
In this instance, the authority has handed victory to Cell C and dismissed Vodacom’s complaint.
Vodacom took issue with Cell C’s claim to have been the first to debut Wi-Fi calling, and said that it was in fact it the first to launch, back in June 2015 (albeit that the service was and still is limited to Samsung Galaxy S6 handsets).
“These handsets make up approximately 1% of Vodacom’s subscriber base, and as such Vodacom did not believe it to be in consumers’ interest to promote a service that is only available to a very small portion of Vodacom’s subscriber base,” Vodacom said in its complaint.
It said it is now working to ensure that modern Android phones and iPhones support Wi-Fi calling.
“This does not detract from the fact that Vodacom has launched Wi-Fi calling some time prior to the Cell C launch.”
Vodacom said it estimates that fewer than 1% of Cell C’s subscribers have handsets that can take advantage of Wi-Fi calling.
In response, Cell C said that although Vodacom’s network may have been capable of supporting Wi-Fi calling in June 2015, the company’s presentation of the facts was “somewhat disingenuous”.
“While Vodacom may have been capable of offering the service to consumers since June 2015 on compliant handsets, it has not, in fact, done so. Cell C is the first, and currently only, provider to offer the Wi-Fi calling service to consumers.”
Cell C submitted an opinion from former Independent Communications Authority of South Africa councillor William Stucke to the effect that Cell C was the first to test Wi-Fi calling successfully in South Africa and was the first to announce it will offer such a service.
Furthermore, Stucke said Cell C was the first to offer a fully available and developed “above the line” commercial Wi-Fi calling service in South Africa and the first to advertise Wi-Fi calling as being available to consumers.
In its ruling, the Advertising Standards Authority found that Cell C was, indeed, the first mobile operator in South Africa to offer Wi-Fi calling to its customers. Furthermore, it said that Wi-Fi calling is still not available to Vodacom customers.
Cell C’s claim that Wi-Fi calling is “new”, “exclusive to Cell C” and a “first from Cell C” had been substantiated and were not misleading, the authority said in dismissing Vodacom’s complaint. — © 2016 NewsCentral Media
