Cell-by date…

CHRIS BENNETT has been wondering about the cellphone industry.

A WEEK of cellphone frenzy has been my lot.

Some weeks ago I came out of my favourite bookshop in the Southcoast Mall and my eye was drawn to a large advert in the window of the

Telkom shop opposite. I went over to examine it.

Now I have had a love-hate relationship with Telkom since the days when it was actually illegal to own a telephone that was not supplied by what was then the Post Office. The perceived attitude to its customers on the part of this benighted institution was little short of one of tyranny.

Since those far-off days things have changed, and vastly for the better.

My curiosity was aroused when Telkom, the Post Office’s successor, shed its shareholding in one of the main players in the cellphone industry sometime last year.

So when I read this advert, the design of which made it a bit difficult to comprehend, I was not all that surprised that Telkom had started its own cellphone service, called 8-ta. It uses the existing tower network.

I have two cellphones, for the simple reason that one was inherited; it lies in a drawer awaiting the day when I might need it, where it is kept charged and raring to go.

A lot of people have two cellphones; one of my friends has four.

She is, by her own account, a blonde.

When we are out shopping, usually at Port Edward or at

Shelly Beach, her phone will ring. We then sit down while she spends what seems like half-an-hour scrabbling around in her capacious bag to find the right phone.

On one occasion the phone stopped before she could find it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, the found phone was found and my friend looked at the screen and said, “Oh well. Never mind. I’ve got a missed call here anyway.”

But back to the phone shop…

I made enquiries and met a delightful young woman called Vuyo, who spoke beautiful English, was totally involved in her work and full of enthusiasm. I wish there were a lot more like her in the course of my daily occasions.

She explained the system to me and I decided there and then to transfer one of my phones to 8-ta. Its rates are remarkably good and its data, of which I use a lot on my smart phone, was cheaper.

The “porting” of my number was free, and I didn’t need proof of residence because I have an account with Telkom.

On my second visit, to make the actual changes, I was helped by Amanda, an equally bright and delightful young woman.

However, I couldn’t help wondering, “If 8-ta can charge these low prices for calls, why have I been charged, in the fifteen or so years that I have had a cellphone, at such a preposterous rate?” Within 48 hours I had not so much an answer to my unspoken question, as a reinforcement of my darkest suspicions.

How it got there I don’t know, but I noticed a new icon on my desktop with a cellphone provider logo on it. I opened the document. Guess what?

This provider had lowered its prepaid prices to below the excellent 8-ta level, and was now advertising itself, quite rightly, as the cheapest provider. But would it have been doing this without 8-ta?

My cellphone has now become a pleasure to use.

CB

4/2/11