Comments on: C what can be done

By: Lars P Reichelt

Lars P Reichelt — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:00:09 +0000

@Axis, we are on it as fast as we possibly can… but it ain’t easy. Still on target for a year-end population coverage of 34% – as promised.

By: Axis

Axis — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 06:48:39 +0000

I too an waiting impatiently for the launch in Gauteng!!

Come on Cell C…Hurry up already!!

By: Greg Gordon

Greg Gordon — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:53:58 +0000

Great job Duncan – as usual. Nice to see Lars here too – other CEOs could learn a thing or two from him about making their presence felt where it matters. After 16 years with Vodacom, I’m going to vote with my feet and give Cell C a try.
@ Lars – tell me how to port while keeping my sanity.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:14:16 +0000

Lars, it seems as if you are the real Cell C CEO, and when I say CEO, I mean Customer Experience Office.

Does that mean Trevor is the Chief Executive Officer? Worrying

Great Stuff.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:44:09 +0000

Wow. A comments section where the signal to noise ratio is inverted. Great stuff Duncan (and the readers of course).

Very impressed by the frank and insightful feedback from Lars. The value of engaging directly with your (potential) customers is invaluable.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:49:33 +0000

What would make these data products perfect, would be the addition of a soft-cap option, like iBurst does. So you pay a small fee (R50/month?) and when you hit your monthly cap you get limited to 64kbit or 128kbit.

My mother can’t get ADSL coverage, and I chose iBurst for this reason; she has a 5gig + soft-cap. She almost always hits her cap, but I never get called about it because she can still get her banking and online stuff done – she just knows that at the end of the month “the internet gets a bit slow” and she musn’t bother trying to skype my brother in Aus.

By: Kerrin Black

Kerrin Black — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:26:44 +0000

I think this is fantastic Vodacom and MTN need a run for there money they have been robbing the South African public for far to long and there arrogance or there lack of caring for want of a better word towards both individuals clients small business and big business is pure daylight robbery and may CELL C have every success in taking on these larger companies Awesome article

By: Arno van der Walt

Arno van der Walt — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:57:54 +0000

WOW, what a brilliant article and discussion, Techcentral is on FIRE!

It’s impressive that the new base stations can improve speed with a mere software upgrade. Surely it must be possible to do the same with the modems. This way a client could simply pay for the upgrade as the telcos do.

By: justinspratt

justinspratt — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:51:07 +0000

great article Duncan. great comments. great engagement by Lars. TechCentral rocks.

By: Snake Dr.

Snake Dr. — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:34:19 +0000

@Lars: Hats off to you for being in touch with the reality i,e, the customers. I for one will pay R1.5 cash just for a start to get that 24 Gig of data when the services come to GP. Much respect.

By: Lars P Reichelt

Lars P Reichelt — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:41:32 +0000

@impatiently waiting: we’ll see what we can do, how to contact you?
@ Steve: data will grow faster than anything else and we are happy to play in that field, wrt to the “debate” there are some who want to misunderstand and I agree it’s silly. The facts are clear, Cell C has a couple of advantages (HSPA+ all the way, use of 900 MHz and 2100 Mhz, all-IP, R7… see above) and it is only fair to let customers know about those advantages, wrt to customers and our current offers, customers in PE seem to be quite happy with the four packages out there, wrt to dual-band GSM phones, we have sufficient bandwidth for GSM in the 900 band and per GSM Arena there are over 3300 phone types that support dual-band GSM, so it should not be an issue. BTW over 400 devices today support UMTS/HSPA 900 as per the GSM Suppliers Association.

We have been hard at work since July 2009 and hopefully you and others can give us a little time and show a little patience… and when we are in your neck of the woods give us a try!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:49:44 +0000

@Lars: Thanks for the feedback. I do hope your venture will provide the return on investment you’re aiming for. It’s a huge challenge to be the late entrant and it’s going to be an uphill battle for you guys.

I do believe you stand a good change though, but must at all times remember the consumer base is watching you – “like a hawk!” and you should not engage in any activities that could make you lose the high ground you gained via the price drops. For example this whole silly 4G / 4Gs debate which we all know is an (extremely) thinly veiled attempt to put one up on MTN and Vodacom!

I, for one, don’t believe you need to do this. Rather let the pricing and speeds speak for themselves. If indeed, you are aiming for the target market that can pay thousands in cash upfront for a service, they’re are a pretty well-read bunch.

On the 900/1800 issue; While it’s true that you launched on 1800, the vast majority of handsets out there are still 900, especially in your traditional voice market.

Reducing your 2G-900 coverage, in the bottom of the pyramid, in lieu of potential data uptake, at the top, is quite a leap of faith!

As a ‘data guy’, I like it!

By: Rendani

Rendani — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:46:12 +0000

I am very proud of the effort Cell C has taken make its customers happy, i take my hat off for Mr. Lars Reichelt , he is really turning Cell C into a competitive network, I foresee a great future for Cell C if they continue to put the power in their customers..

By: Impatiently Waiting!

Impatiently Waiting! — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:09:58 +0000

I for one am impatiently awaiting arrival of the service in JNB.

I’ve sourced my Internet from wireless operators ever since I arrived in ZA nearly 5 years ago:

1. Iburst 1 year
2. Vodacom 2 years
3. Neotel 13 months
Next….
4. Cell C

Mr Richelt, if you are reading this, I would love to be one of your friendly testers in JNB (Linden, Randburg)

By: macboer

macboer — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:04:51 +0000

Thanks Reichelt. I am definitely holding thumbs and am sure (from what i’ve read) i’m not alone. I hope you customer service gets better as well. CAN’T WAIT FOR CAPE TOWN!!