1. onsdm~~s'win as
1(•• hlofaAjam. Noo"'Jehan Yo~ Badat
lid Lumka Oliphant ".
,:¥ '. .
(~11I11l111110rs, celebrate asyourare going to be
11111 wtnnors in the 10omin.!?;cellphonE!w~r
Ith~~IU'(l(l by the advent of njimberportabil-
IV,wh lull kicked off last"D:±ght.,/ ,/:" ;,;.1"'~JI.' ~'r F
IIIIIWI'0l1110W and Christmas expect tP.be
IIl1tlCllllo(1 with reduced prices, special
III IIII'M ,,11(1 promotions as'l!he cellphone.net-
WIII'III vlo I'M: your business. 't
'I'h" t hroo main ceUphone,operators
WPllllIIIllIlAlt Ivo yesterday about the imple-
111111111111011 of mobile number portability
(MNI') 1111( 111'0 confident that they will
1111'/1,,1 IIHOl'H Irom oth~t petvyorks.. ,. ,
I
f
,
"MT~ iiiconfldent that customers wish- consumers for granted .but now they're
litH to join our growing network can do so going to have to work a lot harder to retain
rumfortably without any glitches. We be- customers, because people atlast have free-
IIlIve we-Will gain customers in big num-, dom of choice," ,
lilli'S,"Samuels says../ ". Meldrum said the advent of number
Vodac9m.said yesterday they ,~~r~ satis-»' portability was a "turning point" for the
Illlllthat, th,e first q.ay of, MNP y.as going " cell business, but ~twas '~0419icative of a .
wnll and tp.at.imp~em.(;m4ttionwas runnirrg ',; new wave of competitiveness swee~ip.g the
ruoothlyon.the Vodacom network. , .. Ii South African economywith thelmpendfng
Advertising' expert and marketing launch of a second landline operator iri
trategist Grant Meldrum, the MD of ad opposition to Telkom and the arrival of
"flOncySaatchi and Saatchi Johannesburg, Mango, the new low-cost airline.
Hid that "the consumer (would) be in the "Other sectors of the. economy, including
Illmndseats" because of the change and that banking and insurance, are going to have to
!'lllLphoneusers could expect some highly . change." ",.,
rnmpetitive otfers from qll cell networks. , ; Meldrum added: ."The real willn~rs all
"Cell: compari~es.;have' tended to take-,ro1JRd will be consumers because for the, .I·'·~
Ml':Wmeans that cellphonesubscrl
can now change service providers or
works without changing their mobile p
number. The process has been pos
thr~e times because of technical and 1
tical problems.. '
.,,'Jeffrey Hedberg, the9E0 of Cell C,
thatthe operator was ,expeeti}1gman
tdiners to port. , 1, ,"
, . ,,'Wehave seen some ~orfing act1v1
morning, but unfortunately it is stlll
too early to tell," he said,
, MTN's Bernice Samuels said th
implernentation had run smoothly
She said the operator supported th
dent COmmunications Au1p0rity'
to provide more choice forrconsum
''''l
9
first time in decades, the
them." . .,
The Saturday Star c.
for their opinion on M]I
fD Ian Maclean, sales CO
opportunity .to change
work, provided that thei
with our' i}u~bers whei
ing, But it might make]
ice providers] to track t
fD Tsholofelo Mokgaill
good idea, especially fOJ
they change their price
then if those prices go 1
• Thembeka Khumalo,
idea. But it depends on.
me it doesn't make' a diJ