Cell C reduces free call minutes

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 23 Oct 2007

High traffic volumes have prompted Cell C to scale down its Woza Weekend product, which offers 120 minutes of free on-network calls on weekends.

The third mobile operator says the number of weekend on-net calls skyrocketed to 16 million, a 4 000% growth since the re-launch of the Woza Weekend offering in June. The reduced offering goes into effect on Saturday, 27 October, at 12.01am.

"More than 80% of all Woza Weekend users use far less than the 120 minutes allocated. In fact, they use less than 60 minutes. So we are amending the offer, as we believe that by reducing the free minutes of use to 60 minutes, we will be able to provide an even better user experience to the vast majority of our customers who use the offer," says Cell C executive head of corporate communications Shenanda Janse van Rensburg.

Cell C says it also increased its network capacity by 30% in all affected areas and re-engineered its network to eliminate congestion. The intervention has already improved Cell C`s weekend call success rate, it notes.

This is the second time Cell C is adjusting its Woza Weekend free calls offering. When the offering was first relaunched, consumers could recharge using its R5 Half Tiger voucher. However, Cell C revised the offering by increasing the minimum recharge amount to R10 at the end of July.

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck previously noted that, while Cell C`s Woza Weekend will boost its prepaid subscriber base, there was a question of whether the offering could be sustainable in the longer term. Cell C says it gained over a million new subscribers since the relaunch of the Woza Weekend offering.

Voucher wars

Meanwhile, MTN has joined Cell C in lowering airtime recharge barriers by launching a R5 recharge voucher.

Called Botsotso, MTN`s new R5 voucher is only available from wholesale or informal market channels, the mobile operator says. The voucher is valid for 20 days after loading.

MTN SA consumer segment marketing GM Donovan Smith says: "A large segment of MTN pay-as-you-go users prefer to recharge more frequently, in smaller denominations, as a means to top up to meet their ongoing needs for communicating with friends and family."

Botsotso also becomes an entry level for a market that previously did not have access to mobile telephony, Smith says. It further gives life to MTN`s objectives to connect the unconnected, he adds.

Cell C says the R5 recharge voucher is the fastest-growing recharge voucher it has launched.

Cell C`s R5 voucher has sold 161 293 382 million units since its introduction in 2004, the third mobile operator says in a media statement. "In August and September [of 2007] alone, 8.8 million and 9.2 million recharge vouchers were sold, respectively."

Cell C executive head of marketing Simon Camerer says when the company launched the Half Tiger in 2004, it was aimed at the lower end of the cellular market. "Since then, its take-off has been phenomenal, and growing month-on-month figures validate its ongoing popularity."

Cell C also notes that pan-African mobile giant MTN is imitating its innovation in product offerings. "They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. In that case, the recent introduction of a R5 recharge voucher by one of the leading cellular network service providers contains an element of 'me too`."