I attended a presentation in Cape Town this weekend, hosted by Nexus Business, where a team of sales personnel from Neotel were showcasing their companies products and offerings to the South Africa market. I must say I was highly impressed with what Neotel have to offer the market and what stood out the most was the price of the products and services Neotel has to offer. Telkom and the other mobile phone operators are in for a tough time. Gone are the days we are going to be paying a fortune for telecom costs in South Africa. Read the rest of this entry »

The battle between the cellular giants in South Africa continues. This past weekend, Vodacom launched YEBO4LESS which seems to rival MTN’s Zone offering but as with an competition, Vodacom have gone a step further than MTN. What YEBO4LESS and MTN Zone virtually do is; callers get discounted call rates depending on where they are making their call from with regards to the amount of ‘traffic’ in use on the network based on their location. So lets say I am in an area with very little network traffic, my phone call will cost a lot cheaper than if I were in an area such as the CBD where there is a lot of ‘traffic’ on the network. Read the rest of this entry »

According to a recent eMarketer forecast, mobile marketing will reach more than $19 billion globally by 2012. With that said, I think it is clear for all to see the effect mobile marketing is going to play over the next couple of years and it is time for South Africa to start to make a significant contribution into this lucrative and emerging market. Read the rest of this entry »

A report in the Business Day, today said that, the price of international bandwidth in South Africa would plummet 80% when the Seacom undersea cable goes live on June 17 next year. This is great news for all in South Africa as internet costs are currently very high and hindering businesses from expanding and reaping the full benefits online media can offer to businesses today. It is reported that, the Seacom cable will cost as little as R267 a month per 1MB, compared to between R3500 and R11000 to use Telkom’s bandwidth on the existing Sat-3 cable, or a punishing R231000 for satellite connectivity. That is one big difference in prices! Read the rest of this entry »

MTN are at it again and this time they have launched a new product which is very creative. The MTN Zone product is different in the sense that MTN subscribers get a discounted call rate depending on the volume of traffic currently on the MTN network they are using. So for example, if I was using MTN and the area I am located in has low levels of traffic i.e. fewer subscribers making fewer calls, I would then be given a discount for using my MTN line in a low traffic area.

When I first read about this MTN Zone product I thought to myself, “Wow, what a great deal!” Especially since it was mentioned that one could get a discount of up to 95% per call. But then upon further investigation I found that this MTN Zone and discounted rates only apply for calls made from MTN to MTN subscribers. Read the rest of this entry »

After the Standard bank deal yesterday with the ICBC, it now looks like Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest mobile phone operator, MTN, could be a potential takeover target for China Mobile.

Shares in MTN jumped over 6% today due to the speculation of this potential takeover from Mobile China which is the worlds top cellular carrier by subscribers.

We will continue to keep an eye on this for the next couple of days and see where it leads to. The market was correct about speculating on Standard Bank, so we are guessing that something is definitely being lined up with regards to MTN. Maybe it is advisable to hurry and go buy some MTN shares now.

Five months ago, Cell C launch a campaign whereby their subscribers could call for free from Cell C to Cell C on weekends. The marketing for this promotion was intense and many people went out to buy Cell C sim cards and start talking for ‘free’ on the weekends. But is the hype behind this campaign starting to wear thin? Read the rest of this entry »