Cell C steps up mobile price war

The mobile operator has launched a new product called Supacharge that gives customers unlimited calls to other Cell C subscribers when they top up with R500 or more of airtime.

Added by Craig Wilson on 30 January 2013.
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Alan Knott-Craig

Alan Knott-Craig

Mobile operator Cell C will from next month give prepaid and top-up consumers, who recharge with R500 or higher, free, unlimited calls to other Cell C subscribers for 30 days from the date of recharge. The new product, called Supacharge, comes into effect on 4 February.

Telkom’s mobile arm 8ta introduced its own unlimited calling package in October. That package provides a 24-month contract at R1 199/month that allows for unlimited calls to all of South Africa’s fixed and mobile networks.

Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig says the operator’s new offering will be part of its standard product offering rather than simply being a promotional offer. “We know customers are always delighted when we launch special offers, but we also know sometimes they want some continuity. This one will be around for a while,” he says.

In addition to the unlimited calls, Cell C customers that recharge with R500 or more will receive a thousand SMS messages for use to other Cell C customers and 1GB of data. These will also be valid for 30 days.

Cell C's Supacharge add-ons

Recharge amountCell C to Cell C minutesCell C to Cell C SMSesData (MB)Validity
R55552 days
R101010102 days
R252525252 days
R353535353 days
R505050505 days
R707070707 days
R1001501501507 days
R15040040040015 days
R20060060060015 days
R30090090090030 days
≥ R500Unlimited1 0001 00030 days

At the same time, all prepaid airtime vouchers, starting from R5 through to R500 and over, will now include additional Cell C to Cell C minutes and Cell C to Cell C SMS messages along with additional data. The bonuses are calculated in accordance with the value of the voucher.

For example, R5 will get customers five on-net minutes, five SMSes and 5MB of data, valid for two days. Meanwhile, R150 will mean 400 on-net minutes, 400 SMSes and 400MB of data, valid for 15 days.

“Having voice, SMS and data standard on a single prepaid voucher is a Cell C innovation and has proved to be a popular offering among our prepaid base. We are pleased to be able to make the concept more widely available on all our prepaid vouchers,” says Knott-Craig.  — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media

Share this article

  • Gerrit Kellerman

    So do I still get the R500 worth of voice calls to other networks?

  • http://www.techcentral.co.za/ Duncan McLeod

    I have queried this with Cell C. The answer is yes.

  • http://twitter.com/Corvn Corvn Kobayashi

    This is an excellent weapon in the war. It will definitely encourage close friends and family who are contract averse to get together and port their number over to CellC. Especially one’s who have been hearing about their growing network and who are fed up with their own.

    R200 – R300 looks like a great deal (and not too far from CellC’s own R399 iphone5 contract). I am really on the edge of converting. My Word!

  • Gerrit Kellerman

    Thanks Duncan. I can’t wait till my current MTN contract expires in September!!!

  • kevrob

    Hi Duncan, So that means that if I recharge with R300 I get R300 airtime to spend as I wish and I get 900 CellC minutes, 900 CellC SMSs and 900MB?

  • Marcel Upfold

    Nice, but the 99c/min is still in operation no?

  • Josh

    @Marcel- the 99c/min is still on

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1386692265 Amos Moledi

    But who will you call?

  • http://www.facebook.com/kconradie Kobus Conradie

    Now what about us with post-paid contracts, are we sucking on the hind-tit again??

  • Muzi Khathide

    A R300 recharge looks like it will do me well. Need to get more of my friends on Cell C though.

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