South Africa’s mobile service provider Cell C has introduced international calling rates targeted at ensuring subscribers enjoy talking with their families, friends and business partners overseas, at reduced rates.
Cell C said it has done a great deal of negotiating with the international operators for better termination rates.
The rates for local and international calls charged by other operators on their networks are high, posing a challenge when coming up with a decision, the company said.
The savings negotiation will be passed on to consumers via reduced international call tariffs, which will be more transparent when making those calls.
The countries that would benefit from the project have been grouped into five broad zones including:
*Zone a, 50 countries at a call rate of 99c per minute to Angola, Nigeria Australia, Brazil, Germany, New Zealand, France, India, Pakistan, United States of America(USA) and United Kingdom (UK).
*Zone b, 53 countries at R1.99 per minute includes Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana, Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, United Arab Emirates and Taiwan
*Zone c, 66 countries at R2.99 per minute such as Lesotho, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lebanon, Mexico, Switzerland,Qatar and Denmark.
*Zone d retails at R3.99 per minute to Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe Albania, Bulgaria and Chile.
*Zone 5 costs R8.99 per minute calls to countries such as Djibouti, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tunisia and Cuba.
Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig said the company will continue to negotiate for better rates and make further amendments to make international calls cheaper and more affordable.
The prepaid and postpaid subscribers will enjoy the new international calling rates set to kick off from tomorrow.
Cell C is South Africa’s third cellular network provider after Vodacom, MTN and 8ta.It was established in 2011 and is owned by 3C Telecommunications. The company has more than 8 million customers and is hailed as the first mobile service provider to operate a dual band GSM 900/1800 MHz network.
