Telecel urging old subscribers to recharge their SIMs and get freebies

Telecel announced a new promotion via their social media pages that will reward subscribers who buy airtime more frequently.

The digital flyer alerting subscribers of this new promotion promises the following;

• 10 free telecel to telecel voice minutes;
• 10 free SMSs;
• 30MB free data.

Telecel’s subscribers will get these free benefits if they recharge their SIM card with ZW$20 within a week. Interestingly, Telecel said the promotion will last until 30 September.

So why is Telecel doing this?

From the wording of Telecel’s promotional text one thing is clear. The promotion is targeted at making old customers who have stopped using the network reactivate their SIM card;

Reactivate your old Telecel Go prepaid line and recharge it with a minimum of $20 per week to receive 10 Telecel to Telecel voice minutes, 10 SMSs and 30MB data for FREE. #tellsomeone pic.twitter.com/6uTla5nHuW

— Telecel Zimbabwe (@Telecel_Zim) July 29, 2020

When you consider that Telecel’s subscriber base has been plummeting, it’s not surprising that they would attempt to encourage users who were falling off to start using the service again.

Outside of the loss of subscribers – Telecel’s revenue’s are lagging far behind those of their direct competitors so they are also trying to incentivise subscribers to spend more every week in exchange for some freebies. Given that tariffs have increased significantly this week I wonder if the new ZW$20 weekly limit might not end up resulting in every customer benefiting without making a concerted effort to spend more.