Get up, stand up … now mobilise for your rights
SOUTH African mobile contract customers have had a raw deal lately. Vodacom, MTN and Cell C unexpectedly and in quick succession hiked their rates, a move the National Consumer Commission and the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) are now investigating.
Frustrations with poor service, network issues and contract lock-in are mounting and analysts believe that post-paid contract holders will increasingly seek to migrate to more flexible and controllable payment options or voice and data bundles, in line with global trends.
That’s a market challenge — and opportunity — we recognised when we spent time last year studying the market with the aim of developing a business plan for a new mobile virtual network operator that would offer solutions to these problems.
Our team included experts from the MVN-X Group, which provides the technical backbone to niche mobile offerings such as Mr Price’s MPR Mobile and has experience in developing mobile solutions for businesses including infrastructure, operating systems and processes.
We found that most consumers are frustrated with being tied into 24-month contracts and want more flexible and convenient ways to take control of their mobile voice and data services.
A web-based solution that offers all the benefits and none of the limitations of the traditional contract model and its poor cousin, the prepaid model, was the obvious route.
It offers consumers convenience and huge cost savings.
We had to reinvent the customer service model and voice and data pricing models. But being a nimble, low-cost, new operator in the market, with innovative ideas
The big operators who can’t afford to sustain their price wars indefinitely are hamstrung by bloated business models with high operating costs. The mobile virtual network operators don’t have this problem — they are lean, nimble and efficient.
The mobile virtual network operators are also able to respond to market demands very quickly and to give consumers exactly what they want.
They can do this without trapping their customers in the confusing spiral of choice.
According to expert mobile industry analysts such as ResearchICTAfrica, Tariffic and BMI-TechKnowledge, there are literally tens of thousands of different packages available on the market — prepaid and post-paid, in and out of bundle — all with a myriad tariff structures.
No wonder consumers are begging for simplicity.
So far, perhaps quite surprisingly, me&you mobile seems to be the only mobile option on the market to offer the rare combination of prepaid flexibility along with the practical convenience of a post-paid contract and the simplicity of e-commerce.
This is made possible by leaving the mobile phone out of the contract equation.
It’s easy and affordable enough to buy a cellphone separately through an independent handset reseller, a bank or from the second-hand market.
With an idea so simple and that is way overdue, we expect others to follow suit in the near future.
The entire business culture in the mobile industry needs to adapt to the changing times, as we’ve seen other industries do. If we don’t do that, we stagnate.
Howell is CEO of me&you mobile.
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