JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—South Africa’s third mobile cellular operator Cell C has reported that it has broken through the 500,000 subscriber mark and is on track to meet its revised target of more than 1 million subscribers by the end of 2002.
“Originally we had based our business plan on achieving just over 800,000 subscribers in year one, but the uptake has been so positive that we have revised our target for the year to more than 1 million subscribers, which bodes well for our aim of achieving 20-percent market share by 2007,” said Talaat Laham, Cell C chairman and chief executive officer (CEO).
He said the company’s achievements to date were primarily due to successful branding and positioning, coupled with an innovative distribution strategy.
“Our branding and positioning has been spot on. When Cell C launched in November, our target market was the middle to high end of the prepaid market and the middle to low end of the contract market. The Chat packs were designed around the specific needs of this market segment, and our advertising campaigns focused on the benefits of switching to Cell C,” he added.
At the same time, the operator has reportedly doubled its distribution footprint from 2,000 outlets in November to more than 4,000 and launched a direct sales channel for contract subscribers.
Laham also emphasized the role the shareholders had played in the success of the company to date, saying that Cell C enjoyed “full commitment” from both Saudi Oger and CellSAf.
Cell C aims to complete the first 1,500 base stations of its network rollout by March 2003—only three months later than originally planned. Laham said that the delay in getting the base stations connected is due to the difficulties of acquiring suitable sites, as well as changes to the approval process.
