Telecel’s 15% data bundle discount promotion: the stats say this won’t work

Valentine Muhamba Avatar

Valentine Muhamba

Telecash agent billboard,Telecel 15% airtime discount

Zimbabwe’s smallest mobile network operator (MNO) Telecel has announced that customers will now be getting a 15% discount if they buy bundles through its mobile money arm Telecash.

“Enjoy a 15% discount everytime you get data bundles using Telecash! Hurry up and juice-up today. T&C’s apply.”

This is straight-up copy and paste what NetOne has been doing for some time with its 20% that became 10% airtime discount bought from OneMoney but for data bundles. Now this isn’t a knock on Telecel, at this point, it has to try something because from the end of December 2020 to March 2021 Telecel lost 20% of its subscribers approximately 142,990. For over a hundred thousand people to decide to jump ship in the space of about three months suggests there are some serious problems.

Problems that I don’t think will be solved by giving out discounts through a mobile money service that lost 72.8% of its users in Q4, 2020 when POTRAZ last reported mobile money figures.

Q3 2020Q4 2020Difference
EcoCash5 425 1485 553 9811.9%
OneMoney854 320936 4769.6%
Telecash19 1985 222-72.8%
Total6 325 6666 495 6822.7%
POTRAZ Q4 2020 Report

To make matters worse Telecel has the lowest market share for all mobile internet infrastructure:

  • 2G base stations – 13.4%
  • 3G base stations – 14.8%
  • LTE base stations – 1.5%

The cynic in me is screaming “who is this promotion supposed to win over exactly?!“. Again, I get that Telecel has to get some traction from somewhere, but what good is a bundle discount if Telecel is at the bottom of the barrel in all respects.

The question now is “what can Telecel do?” and luckily my colleague Garikai Dzoma wrote a prescription of sorts which you can find in the link below:

Cell C is shutting down, perhaps Telecel should be taking notes

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18 comments

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  1. TJ

    No word on econet new tariffs from u, you’re now captured

    Reply
    1. TkAyZ

      I think techzim is also tired like some of us

      Its now a normal thing we used to panic everytime but now its a monthly thing

      So its like stale info

      Econet increased tariffs this and that

      Reply
      1. Kombo

        Only stale when it comes to Econet??

        Reply
  2. Hailey

    Stale info when its econet but for telecel and netone he is always hammering them.

    Reply
  3. Zimbo

    Some say” it wont work but it will work”
    Lol.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    It will work, who doesn’t want 15% off Discount when data prices are so high,aslong as Telecel is working well in your area like mine, i love it

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      I use Yomix and i get 50% discount. The network is so fast. Econet forever

      Reply
      1. Anonymous

        That won’t last for long. You will wnd up with 10% discount.

        Reply
  5. Imi Vanhu Musadaro

    Where are the stats that indicate that it might not work? On the contrary, if Netone did the same promo and their subscriber numbers improved, then stats show that it might work.

    Reply
  6. Scorched earth

    Which stats bro?
    I missed the stats which prove they will fail. I better this article for the third time.
    When writing your articles, present your topic as a question and let the readers think if it will work or not. Nothing is written on a piece of granite or quartz. Its poor journalism or blogging. We don’t declare, i repeat, we don’t declare. Present a topic as a question, analyse it and leave it for the readers cause it ain’t factual

    Reply
  7. Scorched earth

    Telecel’s so and so promotion, will it work?
    That’s how u write a headline

    Reply
  8. E. D

    I think most commenters here are from masvingo. You just love to critic. Write some articles yourselves nxaaa

    Reply
    1. Scorched earth

      U have, truly, no idea about journalism or writting, Mr Ed. We appreciate Techzim when they write good stories too. It’s not like they are the New York Times but i just want them to do better for a site read that is read by people beyond our borders.

      Ps: Im a writer myself

      Reply
    2. JT Humbe

      Siyana ne Masvingo

      Reply
  9. Scorched earth

    U have, truly, no idea about journalism or writting, Mr Ed. We appreciate Techzim when they write good stories too. It’s not like they are the New York Times but i just want them to do better for a site read that is read by people beyond our borders.

    Ps: Im a writer myself

    Reply
  10. EBK

    I am not so sure if the author of the article has done a review of Telecel’s finances and made and educated analysis on the impact of the promotion. To be honest I think this is an opinion piece that is not well researched. Mr Author, please give a review on how such a promotion will improve on Telecel’s bottom line and not on “who copied who”. For all you know the bandwidth provided in the discount was subsidised

    Reply
    1. Obey Mthunzie

      Yah yah lets hope that will help

      Reply
  11. Obey Mthunzie

    Yah yah lets hope that will help

    Reply

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