onsdm~~s'win as1(•• hlofaAjam. Noo"'Jehan Yo~ Badatlid Lumka Oliphant ".

,:¥ '. .(~11I11l111110rs, celebrate asyourare going to be11111wtnnors in the 10omin.!?;\cellphonE!w~rIth~~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.beIIl1tlCllllo(1 with reduced prices, special

III IIII'M ,,11(1 promotions as'l!he cellphone.net-WIII'I\II vlo I'M: your business. 't

'I'h" t hroo main ceUphone,operatorsWPllllIIIllIlAlt Ivo yesterday about the imple-111111111111011 of mobile number portability(MNI') 1111(\ 111'0 confident that they will1111'/1,,1 IIHOl'H Irom oth~t petvyorks.. ,. ,

I

f ,

"MT~ iiiconfldent that customers wish- consumers for granted .but now they'relitH to join our growing network can do so going to have to work a lot harder to retainrumfortably 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 theIlllllthat, 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 theruoothlyon.the Vodacom network. , .. Ii South African economywith thelmpendfngAdvertising' 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, includingIllmndseats" 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 cellphonesubscrlcan now change service providers orworks without changing their mobile pnumber. The process has been posthr~e times because of technical and 1tical problems.. '. ,,'Jeffrey Hedberg, the9E0 of Cell C,thatthe operator was ,expeeti}1gmantdiners to port. , 1, ,"

, . ,,'Wehave seen some ~orfing act1v1morning, but unfortunately it is stllltoo early to tell," he said,,MTN's Bernice Samuels said th

implernentation had run smoothlyShe said the operator supported thdent COmmunications Au1p0rity'to provide more choice forrconsum

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first time in decades, thethem." . .,

The Saturday Star c.for their opinion on M]I;fD Ian Maclean, sales COliopportunity .to changework, provided that theiwith our' i}u~bers wheiing, But it might make]ice providers] to track tfD Tsholofelo Mokgaillgood idea, especially fOJthey change their pricethen if those prices go 1• Thembeka Khumalo,idea. But it depends on.me it doesn't make' a diJ