Following the announcement that Cell C had drastically dropped their prepaid cell rates, Alan Knott-Craig Senior has seemingly checkmated the competition yet again. Cell C announced today that they would also be reducing their contract rates with the launch of six “Straight Up” packages for postpaid and Top-Up customers on 22 June 2012. This is big.

Since joining Cell C, Alan Knott-Craig Senior has agreed with us that we do overpay for our cellular phone use in South Africa.

The formidable tariff-slashing leader has once again allowed for yet another revolution in cellular pricing in South Africa:

For the first time customers can see exactly what they are paying for and select the package that suits them best. For instance when you buy a Straight Up 100 package, you get 100 minutes, 100 SMS’s or MMS’s, and 100 MB of data anywhere, anytime for R100. The same applies for all Straight Up packages. Customers also no longer have to worry about high out-of-bundle rates. They will pay 99 cents per minute, with per second billing anywhere, anytime out of the bundle for every bundle. And customers get to choose the duration of their contract. If no cellphone is required, then one month is the shortest contract.

Look at these numbers, gang:

Stats don’t lie..

Knott-Craig continues:

Our packages are simple, transparent and superb value. Only per second billing is used on voice minutes. Customers simply estimate how many minutes, SMS’s and MB of data they want per month and choose a package based on estimated usage. If you don’t use your allocation, we simply roll it over for you. If customers want to use their existing handset they can choose the SIM-only option. If a customer wants a top-of-the-range smartphone but only requires a small bundle of voice minutes that is also okay. With our new packages you can mix and match as you please.

And we have still not finished giving consumers what they want. Not perfect yet I know, but a helluva lot better in terms of simplicity, choice and price than they can get today anywhere. Once Government and ICASA start actively pumping for a more competitive market, we will make it even better for the consumer. We are still a relatively small player, and we can’t do this alone.

Choice: it’s a wonderful thing. Vodacom, MTN, and 8ta – your move.

[Source: Cell C]

[Image: Via @AkiAnastasiou]