After apologising for poor service earlier this year, SA's third mobile operator, Cell C, has again published full-page advertorials in leading Sunday newspapers to apologise to its customers.
This time the apologies relate to confusion surrounding the terminology of its new “4Gs network, as well as its decision to deploy a city-by-city network roll out, instead of a once-off country-wide rollout.
“I have been quoted in several media earlier this year as saying that Cell C is rolling out a '4G' network. I have used the term '4G' as a marketing term, bearing in mind that mobile operators in the US (eg, Clearwire and T-Mobile) and Europe (eg, Telenor and TeliaSonera) are running networks with actual speeds of between 3-10Mbps and have called their offerings '4G',” states Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt's apology.
“The intent was to convey the fact that SA, with Cell C's new network, will be on par with world-class standards. Technically, Cell C is rolling out an all IP, HSPA+ 900/2100 network, with theoretical speeds of 21Mbps and recorded speeds of between 5-8Mbps. I apologise for the confusion this may have caused,” he continues.
The apology follows hot in the heels of a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority, which found Cell C's “4G's” logo to be “unqualified and ambiguous.”
As a result, the authority has ruled that the term “4Gs”, must be removed from all of Cell C's advertising immediately and may not be used again in its current format.
But Reichelt argues in the advertorial that, from the start of the new campaign, Cell C has made it clear it was not only promoting a new network but a new value proposition based on the cornerstones of “4 Great Speed and 4 Great Service”.
