Mobile Operators Selling US$30 handsets and considering low price tariffs to search out new markets

Cell C, MTN and Vodacom have begun importing “a significant number” of cellphones costing less than R300 to make mobile telephony affordable to
poorer citizens.The next batch of cheap handsets should arrive in January in an initiative by the GSM Association to connect the unconnected. The scheme began when the association awarded Motorola a contract to produce 6-million handsets at under $40 each earlier this year. Last month Motorola won a second contract for another 6-million phones — this time with a maximum price of $30.